Having had a long game drive in the morning with our bush breakfast and fishing adventure included, we decided to give Mini an afternoon off from more game drives and brought back the babysitter. He had a busy afternoon ahead of play and going into the lodge kitchen to bake his own pizza dinner. The Land Rover free of small humans allowed us to venture to far North side of the reserve and seek out the rarer Black Rhino last seen out that way. [Ed. Note: As I said, we’ve been super lucky with rhinos on this trip. Most of them have been white rhino – rare and awesome, but not critically endangered. There are only ~6,000 black rhinos in the world.]

The terrain was rough and the drive was fast to cover the greater distance. We bumped up and down the river banks and cliffs, but didn’t spot much of what we were hoping for. Instead of heading back to the lodge disappointed, we were reveling in the quiet (three year olds talk a lot…) for an afternoon. As we made a turn around a bend, in the road ahead of us stood two Black Rhino, just waiting for us to arrive as sunset neared. We spent a few moments admiring the beast and then picked up speed again to have dinner with our kid.

Not two minutes down the road, we stumbled up on three lions resting in the grass. A young male and his sisters seemed to be lazily enjoying the sunset and beginning to nap. We pulled up close to them to admire their beauty and as we watched them pillow on top of each other getting comfortable. Suddenly, they smelled or saw something and all 3 heads perked up at attention.

We were about to witness a hunt. In the brush behind our car was a kudu that they pegged as dinner. The sisters took the lead, using us as cover. One crept left to around the front and one behind to begin slithering the 50 meters to the grazing antelope. The brother lion smartly stayed at attention but behind us, as his impatience would surely ruin things.

For ten minutes we sat in silence observing this dance. The lions are young and still learning, so in the end the kudu passed too far away and the opportunity was lost. [Ed. Note: it was funny to listen to our ranger and tracker talk about what the lions should be doing to ensure they get a kill – move a little closer there, creep over there, etc. If only the lions listened to the advice!] Thankfully, the lions did not turn their eyes onto us as plan B…but I kept a sharp eye on the brother one foot in front of our bumper to be sure until we escaped.