Mwayembe cubs 25/8/2011

Again lions early morning, this time we were still on the road that leads out of camp, two females and two yearlings.... one of the female was too far in the bush to be seen properly.... Tony told me she had a missing ear and that made me thinking of our beloved Evander, we did not see her yet this year and we are fearing the worst... Could this two females be Evander and Holly with what remains of their litter of the last year? I really hope so... I really hope to be able to see them again.We went toward the bridge and Grumpy emerged from the riverbed close to breakfast point, we drove ahead of him and waited him to come towards us in the stunning morning glow.... He came and when he was passing us he could not resist to growl to us a little bit. He will never change....The spotted big boy was waiting us on the same tree... the impala almost finished and the awesome leopard laying as a king on a big branch..... Happyness again. On the way back we got kipunji at the bridge... and they were full..... they killed probably  in the night and now the cubs have a chance... I felt relieved. The afternoon brought us to the giraffe kill in Mwayembe again... al the cats were at the carcass and we stayed with them loooong loooong time. Cubs were all over the dead giraffe nibbling bits of meat here and there... also one of the lioness was feeding with a much more effective rithm... A male and a female were laying not far, probably mating.As the ligth was getting warmer the sighting became better and better again. The cubs became more active and the females more restless.After some time one of the female stood up folllowed by other two and they started moving off, they called the cubs that dutyfully followed. My guess was that they were going to drink so I decided to drive to the spring and wait them there.... It was a good decision because they arrived and was fantastic.... the cubs went to drink together with the females and then started to play. They came also to the pond in front of us and one of them drunk there a little bit.When the females finished drinking the real chaos started, the cubs were chasing them and jumping on their backs, on their heads and everywhere else.....They were having the time of their life and so we were.