Today we set off determined to find the lion - for the last few days they had been seen in the area of the BBC campsite - so named as its where the BBC had their base for two years while filming in the park.
While driving along, and not far from the campsite, Doug found a really fresh lion track so we parked the jeep and he started following the tracks. It was interesting watching him find exactly where they went - he had a thin stick in his hand - which he used to circle tracks - this meant he had a point to come to if the tracks seemingly disappeared.....as he said sometimes lions fly as there can be large gaps with no tracks!
The plains were full of wildlife - particularly elephant, who had to be avoided, they were everywhere eating the Albida pods and made the route more of an obstacle course.
We followed the tracks across the floodplain to the river - we watched as a young elephant calf jousted playfully then ran to his mum - she saw us and made a beeline for us trumpeting and ear flapping - we either moved quickly along the bank or moved 6 inches to our left and joined the crocodiles and hippos in the Zambezi. We moved quickly hearts pumping and she backed off as we found a route away from the edge and onto a wider part of the floodplain. We found the lion tracks again and walked along the edge of chest high 'adrenaline grass' - so called because you cannot see what's in it. As we were reaching the end - we understood the name as a lion popped out and growled at us! As Doug said 'you rarely find lions they find you'.
Another fast walk beckoned to a safe distance by a termite mound - where I got a photograph of lions peering out.
There were initially two - but when we had walked to the jeep and returned to watch them from the vantage point of jeep and bank we could see 6 lionesses and 2 very large cubs.
They moved into the shade of a large tree several hundred yards from us - but actively looked around - we thought they were keen to hunt so wondered what would happen if the herd of buffalo - whose tracks we saw
earlier were to come by. We left the lions to see where the buffalo were - we found some of them drinking but they were heading towards the lions - we opted for abandoning lunch and seeing what evolved. Back at the lions we could see the buffalo coming our way - so were hopeful - but before they were in striking range they turned and headed back inland - darn!! Hot and dusty we headed back to camp for a very late lunch - the team had been a little concerned by our absence and were genuinely pleased to see us.
In the afternoon we had the choice to go back to the lions or walk along the Zambezi - to take in the fabulous views and whatever wildlife was on the flood plain. We opted for the latter and had a great final walk - topped off with a fabulous sunset - John and Doug wondered if the setting planets of Venus and Jupiter would eclipse or change places as each night they had seemingly got closer and closer - indeed they changed places with the larger Venus now above the smaller Jupiter - you always live and learn!