Goosebumps

Well last November we had an unbelievable trip to KTP.
We stayed at Grootkolk Wilderness Camp for a couple of nights.
The day we arrived 5 lions were lying underneath the tree close to the waterhole.
I have to admit we never unpacked our car that quick before...
We stayed in the camp the afternoon, we had Lions right at the waterhole what else could we ask for ?!
And we got our reward one of the Lionesses left and returned a little while later with the most cutest cubs....




They played and stayed close to the waterhole the whole afternoon.
What a joy!
We checked the the waterhole from time to time and when night was falling the Lions were still there.
Later we went to bed.

Well at almost excatly 3 am we heard a kind of a metal clash.
At first I thought that Hyenas might have come up to the cabin and were now busy with the dustbin.
But then a noise started that we never ever heard before, but instantly we knew what was happening outside.

The Lions had made a kill.....
But they not only had made a kill they had done so right in front of our cabin.
The upper flap on the door was open and so I shone through the mesh to have a closer look what was happening outside.
5 Lions were lying on the other side of the little fence, close to our braai and devouring some kind of animal that was (when I first had a look at the scene) still kicking.
Adrenline levels inside the cabin were probably as high as outside....

As the Lions were lying really close to the fence it was hard to see without the fence reflecting the light of the torch.

So we tried to capture the whole scene with the camcorder.
It was plain unbelievable.

In the meantime we had discovered that it was an unfortunate Hartebeest that they had killed.
One of the females then grabbed the skull, still the spine was attached and carried it over to a small tree to the right of our cabin.
Now as she started to chew on the Hartebeest we had a really good view when kneeing on our beds.
Every now and then the others came to the front of the chalet where they had killed the animal to check for some bits and pieces that were still left.
So I was constant movement for us from the side where we could observe the Lioness to the side where we were able to see the other Lions...
A while after the Lioness started to chew she called the cubs.
We already heard them for quite a while, but were not able to see them in the darkness.
We could not believe our eyes. The cute little fluffy cubs we observed in the afternoon and which were still so small that we thought they only feed on mummy's milk, started chewing on the Hartebeest as well

Upon Dawn the Lions started to roar and a big male joined the show.
The appearance of the male caused some unrest in the rest of the pride.
Suddenly the Lions were everywhere.....
One of the Lionesses came to the site of the killing again, scratched for something on the ground and finally walked off with something that looked like a piece of leg....
And more roaring in the morning.....
Thank God there was everything in the cabin, toilet, fridge and we even had hot water for a coffee (we had prepared it the evening before as we planned to leave the camp early for a drive in the morning.....well little did we know...).

We loved to observe Mum, Auntie and the cubs.
The cabin was surrounded by Lions.
If you went to the toilet, looked out of the window, two amber coloured eyes looked up at you, washed you hands, looked out of the window, 4 amber coloured eyes looked up at you and if you had a shower you could clearly see the tree with the male Lion underneath.....

At one time during the night we wanted to rest a bit and sat on the beds. In that second a Lion ran past the cabin right behind our backs. It was amazing. You could really feel the power and weight of the body. The stamping of the feet went right down your spine into the stomach.....

I simply can not describe how I/we felt that night....
It was pure adrenaline.
We had goosebumps right from the beginning and very little sleep.

I can say we had the experience of a lifetime....

You need to turn up your volume while watching this video..
And it's bets to watch it in HD !