Yes - me and my wife had been to the Kgalagadi a second time this year.
One of my highlights of this visit was the experience of what I would like to call "My Lion."
The reason: For more than hour, I was privilaged to follow this male lion alone - thus my experience was unique and sure not to be repeated - I would think - and I managed to get some pictures of it:
It was the day before our departure from the Kgalagadi - we camped at the Rooiputs campsite. This time around we had a very still 4 days in terms of predators at this area of the Park - not something we were used to. After 14 days of "hard work" looking for something worthwhile photographing, my wife decided on this particular morning to stay at camp and lie in a bit late.
I thought, well, I do not want to miss out on a probable opportunity, even if we had no luck the previous 4 days, and departed as soon as the time for leaving camp was reached, wondering whether this new day would be the same as the previous four.
About one kilometer from camp, the sun just starting to rise, I suddenly stopped to try and capture a bird coming from the front - actually more of a silouette than anything else. My attempt failed - just to catch something coming from my immediate right out of the dark in my direction - a Lion!
Now, sitting behind the steering wheel, camera settings set up for a bird against the sky, and suddenly a lion on a quick pace coming out of the early morning, nearly gave me a heart attack! But I i tried my best!
This Lion looked determined, walking briskly over the "tweespoor" Botswana road to my left, and I decided that it is heading for the Rooiputs waterhole about a kilometer behind me, near the campsite.
Excited not to loose this lion, I made a u-turn as quickly as possible, heading back to Rooiputs. One Landy with three occupants coming from the front, squeezing passed them - stopped to tell them what I just saw, and that I am going back, - I raced back to Rooiputs as quickly as I could.
Parallel to this tweespoor road, there is a bigger gravel road - about 20 meters apart, one being on the South African side, whilst the other tweespoor I was on initially, belongs to the Botswana side of the park. The gravel road, being nearer to the waterhole, and in the same direction in which the lion headed, I rushed to the waterhole, and from there all along the gravel road back in the direction of the sighting, trying to spot the lion and not loosing it. Adrenalin pumping!
Fortunately I spotted it on a dune about two hundred meters from me, not running to the waterhole as I predicted, but attentively lying and looking around on this dune, the sun now just coming over the horizon.
The occupants of the Landrover followed suit and stopped behind me. The Lion was definitely up to something, but what? It was looking back from where it came from, and also stared intently in the direction of the waterhole of Rooiputs. My friends in the Landrover decided they have seen enough and drove off in the direction of the next waterhole, Kij-Kij - about 13 kilometers further.
Now, a Lion is capable of lying on a dune for a whole day! Not moving anywhere, and one can sit for a whole day waiting for it to start doing anything more than lying. Is that what my Landrover friends thought and decided to push on?
I decided to stay put. And suddenly after some minutes of looking around, this Lion got up and started walking in the direction of the Rooiputs waterhole, all along the road!
It got off the dune, walking up another dune, still very attentive, as if it was expecting to see something, as if it knew of something to the front, but what?
It slowly went up another dune, tentavely looking over it, as if not wanting to be seen, but also looking out for something on the other side or over the horizon.
Up another dune, and giving particular attention to a big bush as it was nearing it...
Sniffing, looking....inspecting,
And then marking the bush - clearly communicating a territorial message - "this area I declare mine."
In the mean time, I was driving alongside this lion, following it and also trying to drive a bit to the front and parking the car at an angle so that I could try to get a decent picture of it as it was making its way to the waterhole...now more or less 500 meters from the hole..
Suddenly, It just made a 180 degrees u-turn and started jogging in the direction it came from! That caught me by surprise! Now I suddenly had to reverse at speed to keep up with this running lion while trying to take pictures! All the time, nobody else in sight to witness this peculiar behaviour!
It ran and ran, testing my reversing skills, stopping and trying to keep my camera settings right, and taking pictures as it speeds along....!
It ran and ran.... a beautiful young male lion...
and ran...
....and ran....!
its open mouth indicating that he was not used at running such long distances as a rule. something peculiar must have motivated him to it this morning.
Seemingly getting tired, but still keeping on running - definitely with a goal or something in mind, but what?
After about three kilometers of him running, and me reversing, he walked a bit to catch his breath...
..and off it went again, purposefully running along the road in the direction of the Kij-Kij waterhole
kicking up dust as he was approaching, making the picture a bit more interesting....
...the wind from the front pushing against his manes
..running...
and running..... me reversing, and admiring this beautiful animal in an unusual action not everyday seen
...suddenly, after about 5 kilometers from where it started, the lion came across the road I was reversing on, back into the initial direction it came from about an hour earlier, right into the sun, and again surprising me, climbing and jumping over a steep rocky escarpement
The pictures are not the best quality, but the experience was interesting to watch - as agile as a cat - seemingly not tired of all the running, it jumped up this ridge without any effort...
..and came to a stop on the top of the ridge. Looking intently in the direction in front of him. He then took off again - I lost sight of him, and after a minute or two heard a sudden roaring noise and then silence....
All my efforts to get another sight of this lion was to no avail!
This whole story took about an hour - and except for the Landrover occupants who drove away- I was alone with this beauty! While still trying to pick up a sign of it, a car came from the Rooiputs direction - stopped - and heard my story. They told me, and showed me on their camera pictures of a big older lion they encountered at the Rooiputs waterhole - just after I had passed it looking for this lion particular lion i was following.
So what happened? Clearly "my younger Lion" was aware of this older guy. Clearly he had some lionesses with him over the ridge, and I suspected he wanted to keep them away from this male at Rooiputs. That made him going to inspect the Rooiputs area, marking, or challenging the older guy, also respecting it, and then made a run for it to lead his ladies away from a potential take over from the other male. Well, that is my interpretation!!
I enjoyed this sighting a lot. It was a unique experience, following a running lion, trying to photograph it mostly in reverse gear, and trying to understand its behaviour - all by my own! That is why I like to name this Blog "My Lion" for one hour in the Kgalagadi.
Back to Rooiputs camping site, my wife was up and awake, she could pick up some commotion near the Rooiputs waterhole from our campsite, where people saw the other male, but unfortunately she missed out on this lovely Kgalagadi experience.
You never know when something exciting would happen in the Kgalagadi - even after four or more days of struggling to see something interesting, something like this experience can make it your worth while!. And after long days of silence - the lions of Rooiputs were suddenly back!
