Arusha, Tanzania 1-2 June 08

The night passed without incident and we’ve no idea if anything came through the camp or not and the hyena may have sounded close but I now know that sounds travel a long way in the dark still of night.

Below is a plain old starling and the photo doesn’t really do it justice at all. They’re incredibly pretty birds with a brilliant midnight-blue sheen to their feathers, are pretty fearless and seem quite intelligent. I said to Euan that I reckon if you had one, you could teach it to talk. He didn’t agree but there was one in a tree and I stood about 1m from it and whistled the same notes. It seemed to be listening and after each time, he warbled back at me and sure enough, after about five minutes he was copying exactly what I was whistling.



We were in for another absolutely incredible day and I don’t think I’ve ever been so wow’d out in my life. With the sun still low, the animals were on the move and we came across two lioness’ and their cubs but they were a distance away and not close enough to get a decent view without binoculars and we busied ourselves by looking at tracks in the dust. A huge python had passed by overnight, leaving a track that was well over a foot wide. Another waterhole had three (that we could see) young lions lazing in the sun so we stopped to take a look. We’d been there for a few minutes when a herd of zebra we’d passed a while back came into view and we wondered if they were heading for a drink. Teh next five minutes were, I can quite honestly say, the most amazing and memorable five minutes of my life.

We just held our breath as the zebra wandered towards the water. The lions had seen the zebra and were already on the job


There was a lead zebra who seemed to be checking things out and stopped to suss things out before galloping down to the water



We thought the zebra would stop at the waters edge but they went right in up to their bellies and while they were there, one of the lions moved into position carefully but really quickly – you can see him in the top right of the picture heading towards a small cluimp of grass (I'd never believe that a lion could be so well disguised by a small clump of grass. I'll never ever look at grass here in Africa the same now)



See what I mean??? Once he was there, it was difficult to see him from a distance



All the front zebra have their ears pricked right forward and were clearly on alert and we’re not sure if they sensed the lions or not (but that lion is still damn hard to see behind that grass! By this stage, my heart rate had shot up as if I were running and the adrenaline had already started)


The lead zebra headed out of the water (you can see the foal behind her) and one of the lions was still hiding behind the wee clump of grass. The others hadn’t moved much from their original positions



The lion waited for ages before making a move but when he did, my God, it was fast and there was dust everywhere and we just didn’t know where to look



There was just one massive tangle of zebra, a lot of dust and one lion. The foal was going hell for leather with all legs off the ground and neck stuck right out (see middle right).



The lions were young and clearly didn’t fully know what to do. A zebra went down in the melee (to the left of the d*mn tree) but the lion went right past it chasing after another zebra

The fallen zebra got up, galloped the other direction and got nailed by the one of the other lions who was still back by the water hole. The young lion got on the zebras back but wasn’t heavy enough to bring it down. Meanwhile, his mate was still chasing but wasn’t smart enough to go after the foal (who still had all four legs off the ground going for gold).



The dust that was kicked up, the speed with which all this happened and the noise of zebras braying throughout is indescribable but it seriously got the adrenaline flowing watching it all and the buzz was felt for hours and hours afterwards.

It was all over in seconds but the adrenaline rush was incredible and I cant remember when I last felt that. Absolutely undescribable. I still cannot believe that we were there to witness that - seconds worth of pure excitement out of would normally be hours of driving through the Serengeti. So incredibly lucky.

We caught up with the lions a few minutes later and they were clearly SO pleased with themselves. They almost seemed to be congratulating themselves – rubbing heads together


having a group hug


They were all young males so you can see how much growing up they’ve yet to do and are probably only ½ the weight they will be once fully grown.

By contrast, we came across this guy a while later. He was battle-worn with ripped ears, scars on his face, blunted teeth, mangy mane and one very very full belly (he also had a tick below his left eye but I wasn’t about to tell him). He and a lioness had killed an eland which is a damn big animal and they had gorged themselves to the max. They’ll feed off this for a few days by which time you’ll be able to smell it miles away.



This was on our way out of the Serengeti and back to our camp at Arusha which was a good 5 hours drive away. I don’t think there is anything to compare to what we’ve seen and experienced in the last two days. All I can say is, if you love animals and open spaces and have a chance to go to either Ngorogoro or the Serengeti, don’t pass it up whatever you do. These have been two most memorable days of my entire life. I spent seven days game driving twice a day in Kruger and didn’t see nearly what I’ve seen here. A M A Z I N G - the only word for it.