Welcome to Part 2 of our visit to the Mountain Zebra Park (MZP) near the town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape.
We knew there were plenty of animals to see at MZP and we did not necessarily expect to see any of the big cats. Social media reviews made it clear that although some visitors are fortunate, such sightings are unusual.
Unusual, but not impossible as we found out on our second day at the park. We were slowly driving along a rough track that led to one of the two picnic areas when we saw a vehicle ahead of us that had pulled off to the side.
Reading the body language of other cars is valuable on self-drive safaris. Usually, if many vehicles have stopped at a particular place it is reasonable to expect that they are all looking at something unusual. That rule of the thumb holds true in most game reserves, but we were in a lesser known reserve, the MZP, where traffic is light even in the busiest of times.
In this case, there was only one other vehicle, but the bumpy track was off the main route. On the other hand, the bakkie (pick-up truck) had parked (illegally) completely off the road onto a big slab of rock. Needless to say, we were more than a little curious.
An older couple (about our age) in the bakkie were visibly excited in a muted sort of way. They were juggling their binoculars and cameras while pointing in the same direction, into the bush about 50 metres from where they had stopped.
What were they looking at? There was nothing of obvious interest, but I dare not ignore all the signs of a promising sighting.
I swung our Renault off the road into the veld and reminded myself how wise we had been to get a car with high ground clearance.
Big cats chilling
There in the distance, lying in the tall grass were three lionesses. The spine-tingling thrill of seeing wild lions in the bush is a unique form of exhilarating. I have difficulty keeping my camera steady and I might sometimes giggle under my breath.
It was hard enough focussing on the three cats as the lens autofocus couldn’t decide on which blade of grass or bush deserved its attention. This was a time for manual focus even at a fair distance. It was not easy.
The lionesses were relaxed, gently lolling around and showing feline affection by resting their heads on each other. Occasionally a languid yawn showed off their pearly canines while I wrestled my camera lens to squeeze out a sharper image.
The lions were aware of our presence. They stared at us once in a while, but did not seem to be the least perturbed.
It was the middle of the day, so we weren’t expecting any activity. At our usual haunts in the Addo Elephant, we are confident that lions sleep through most of the day. Often we joke about a sighting of ‘flat cats’.
Sometimes, one of the three would suddenly swing her head to look in a certain direction. Perhaps she heard a branch crack or a small animal rushing through the bushes. The rapid interruptions did not last long and lazy felines soon drifted back into midday lethargy.
Another vehicle came down the track and pulled off the road to give its occupants a view of our sighting. Then there were three vehicles (illegally) parked staring at three lionesses having a siesta in long grass.
Not much was happening and appearances suggested that not much was going to happen within the next five or six hours. The third vehicle left the sighting after about twenty minutes.
And we waited . . . and had snack . . . and waited some more. I took more photos of the tawny smudges in the dried out grass. And waited. They weren’t going anywhere.
Then one of the three lionesses seemed to be interested in something off to the side. She held her gaze, concentrating on a clump of thick bushes not far from her. She sat up and stared ahead while the other two carried on doing what lions do best – resting in the grass.
After a few minutes, she stood up and then the other two took note of whatever it was that had caught her attention. She stealthily padded forward in the direction of the bushes to our right.
The hunt is on . . .
We trained our binoculars on the bushes looking for the slightest movement. We saw nothing unusual.
The other two lionesses slowly began following the lead hunter – all three transfixed on a point ahead of them. Still we could not work out what was keeping them so interested.
They stalked forward several paces and then froze. They repeated the sequence a few times until they were about twenty metres from the edge of the clump of thorn trees.
Suddenly the lead lioness charged forward and into the bushy undergrowth followed by the second and third a few metres behind her.
As they rushed in, kudus sprang out of the bushes in all directions. Now we knew what the focus was all about. We hadn’t seen the kudus and they had clearly not seen the lions.
We did not see an actual take-down, but the two lionesses following their sister into the bush and not running after any of the fleeing kudus strongly indicates that the first was successful.
We sat motionless in shocked awe to recover our breath and absorb the dramatic scene we had just witnessed. Only one other couple in the bakkie next to us had seen three lionesses hunt a kudu in the middle of the day.
Who said lions only hunt at night?
Double wow! It was beyond amazing.
Recalling Addo lions
I told a staff member back at the main camp about our incredible experience. She said that there are six lions in the MZP – four lionesses and two older males. It was odd that we had only seen three lionesses because the females usually stick together closely. Perhaps the fourth one was consorting with the two males.
We never got to see the male lions, but we have a bond with them because they were transferred from the Addo Elephant Park in 2018. Roy and Nomad are remembered with fondness by many of us Addo aficionados.
Both males had a relationship with Josie, the matriarch of Addo, and it is almost certain that one of them is the father of Dawn and Duffy - the two females that hunt for the pride.
The lion hunt was undoubtedly the highlight of our three day visit to the Mountain Zebra Park, but even if we had not been that fortunate, the trip would still have been more than worthwhile. It is a wonderful park. It is well maintained, clean and organised. It has a rich diversity of flora and fauna as well as spectacular scenery.
I strongly recommend the MZP, especially for South Africans. I say this not out of any subliminal xenophobia, but simply because foreign tourists often visit game reserves with the expectation of seeing the ‘Big Five’.
We did see a single buffalo and I believe that there are some rhinos at the park, but it is probably not a good place to go if you have people from overseas with bucket lists.
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So pleased that Real Safari is back! Please keep it up!
Beautiful story of your adventure! And I love the photos. Thanks Steven.