Four buffs

When you see loads of vultures you presume there has been a kill, when you see loads of vultures on trees you presume that the killers are still around, when you see loads of vultures just a couple of kilometers from where lions were eating buffalo the day before you presume that lions are the killers. What I couldn't imagine was to find lions feeding on 4 different buffaloes all within 20 meters one from the other.
More then 20 cats spread over four kills was really something, the feeding was quiet due to the quantity of food but nevertheless really impressive. Just an hour before in this place must have been hell on earth, I just can see all the lions causing havoc amongst the herd and then killing 4 cows with an unbelievable demonstration of power.
One after the other or all together we cannot know, what we do know is that 4 went down within few minutes, what we know is that the lion's hunting today reached pure awesomeness.
Lions went on feeding and moving from one carcass to the other, moving back an forth as they could not decide on which to feed. Covered in blood, the yellow eyes sparkling with confidence they were gloating in that abundance. Jackals and vultures could not do other then watching and waiting.
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Later on we also saw the 4 cheetahs, they were beautiful as always and one cub even climbed a small shepherd tree and we also got Evander and Holy with cubs as the sun was setting almost behind them, it was stunning but the highlight remained the buffs butchery.
Was unreal to see lions on a buff and behind lions on another buff and behind lions on another buff again. We felt as we were looking at a famous battlefield were something great had happened. Pure emotions.
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150 +

Some days are just brilliant.
We went out early morning, our aim is to find the lions we left yesterday. A w9 there a re buffalo tracks entering the block between breakfast point and r20, we saw the tracks yesterday evening and the lions went in the same directions. So we do. We drive the perimeter of the area to find if the buffs walked out, half of the way I spotted tracks. Stopped for a closer look, they are going out of the area but on top of their tracks there are tracks of lions going opposite. We switch the car of and get out to check better, we know the tracks are fresh. After few second we receive confirmation, lions are growling somewhere close by.... the kind of growling they use when the put up a fight over food. We know they are eating... we soon find them, 24 lions feeding on a fresh buffalo kill. The sound is astounding, the light superb. Blood is all over the cats, the buffalo almost disappears in the number of golden furs.
The male already had their share and move into shade but cubs, females and young males fight for every inch.
Hissing, growling, hitting each other, every lion was holding onto a bit of the buff.
It went like this for 2 hours, to hours of feeding frenzy, two hours of chaos, two hours of blood and dust.
The sound increased and decreased in waves, lions so close that I had to be careful.
One young male came and wanted to play with my leg, I had to shout him back and he dutifully did. Was great fun.
The party was not yet finished when we moved off.
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We had breakfast at the old airstrip, enjoyed the shadow that baobabs were casting against the granite boulders, moved off and found Ten, the pride that used to be of ten cats but now is of eleven, we found them the other side of the river, a bit far but now we could cross so we went amongst them and spent a good our looking at them from close quarter.
On the way back to camp we were call into a leopard sighting and was just unbelievable. A female in the fork of a baobab, completely relaxed with us. She was not sleeping but constantly checking something we could not see. After more then one hour we understood what it was... a male baboon came out running and the cat leaped out of the tree and disappeared in the bush.

Back to camp I opened the guest book to find this comment form the two guest that left this morning.. "What a privilege to have been guided by two of the most outstanding guides not just of Tanzania but of the whole of Africa. Thank you Pietro and Festo. We also love the camp, the food and the staff. We have been to 150+ national parks, reserves and conservancies in Africa and this is the best camp we have been to!"
Just watching at the colors of the combretum would have made me happy, a day like this is even too much, I cannot ask more.

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Walking with the pride

This was one of the dullest morning ever, we drove everywhere and everywhere was empty, in the end we saw lions three times but nothing else.
The afternoon was much much better, we drove very far because Naiti tipped us into a leopard sighting. We got a female leopard beautifully spread on a rain tree with an impala stashed in the fork.Her cub was in the bushes just 10 meters from the tree.
Both were quite relaxed so we could enjoy them a lot... a leopard is like a woman's beautiful decollete', you cannot take your eyes off it.
On the way back we went to the last lion's sighting of the morning and was super again, I had just finished to serve gin and tonic when the lions started moving, 16 of them on the road and we in the middle... I put low range and let the car going itself amongst the pride, the moon was full and we walked with them.

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