Chasing Lions

After spending a quick and exhausted night at the Garden Hotel at the Airport which is as big as Dulles (and as confusing) we hopped on a twin prop plane bound for the outer reaches of South Africa at Phalaborwa which sits on the western edge of the Krueger National Park (which is immense). One of the prettiest airports I ever have visited, the men's bathroom was open air and the sink consisted of a flat surface with 5 holes and what appeared to be several glass orbs grouped together and embedded in the surface near the holes. Next to that was a rock pedestal. After some careful investigation, I determined that if I were to turn the rock something would happen and it did as water bubbled out of the five holes and ran across the surface. This put me in mind of Stallone and the three shells from Demolition Man.
Then we met a driver who took us inland to the Karongwe Game Park and then to the Shiduli Game Lodge where we checked in. First class treatment replete with what probably was mimosas as the door. Needless to say, we collapsed and slept until 3ish and then ate a quick lunch before departing on our first safari. Imagine a land rover with 3 rows of seats in ascending order welded onto the frame of the chassis. Three seats wide and very comfortable unless you are 6 foot tall. (I am the only tall person here). So it was pretty tight fit especially after they loaded my mother in with me. She did get in herself with much help. So from 4pm to almost 8:30 pm we roved the bush in search of game. Cameras at the ready with a driver and a tracker sitting on a chair that is attached to the left front side of the land rover's hood. No guns. just the 10 of us and the Bush. My traveling companions are Moven the GameGuideDriver guy who says you pronounce his name like Marvin Gaye just not the Gaye part (insert off color joke which I won't repeat). Lewis (I think) our fearless tracker. 4 Italians who talk pretty much nonstop. a Brazilian couple of which only the husband speaks any English and Myself and my dear old mother.
In Africa you have many animals to locate and shoot....with cameras. Of these 5 stand out as the most desired, they are called the Big 5 because they are the most dangerous.
The Big 5:
1. The Lion (almost always the Lions)
2. The Leopard (loner)
3. The Elephant
4. The Rhino
and 5. The Cape Buffalo (not to be confused with the Water Buffalo)
So it went morning safari at 6:00 am until 9:00 am and evening safari from 4:00pm to 7ish. 3 hours at a time on average and we saw them all with the Italians save for the Cape Buffalo, Elephant (which they had already seen before we got there) and the leopard who escaped their notice. We caught up with the leopard Saturday night and Sunday Morning. We ran them all to ground. Some were harder than others but none of them was as involved as the part where we went chasing lions.
Imagine if you will, 4 or 5 of these Land Rovers with drivers & trackers & visitors in tow criss crossing the last reported lion sighting searching for these elusive animals. Sometimes we were on roads, sometimes not, in the end we were off road more than not as we joined the others in following the dominant (maned) male and his pride as they ambled through the bush looking mostly bored.
Meanwhile the driver and trackers are chattering in at least 3 languages other than English and laughing, while the tourists point and shoot...their cameras and iphones (yep iphones now rule the world).
This is high drama and I am really needing to piss (this is a rough quote from the First Rule books). The Dogman will get it.
So we saw them all.
We also saw the Not so Big 3
1. The Cheetah (or as I will now think of it as the outcast -lions and leopards hate them and try to kill them at any given chance and have killed several in this park)
2. the Hippo which is very dangerous when provoked but as our game guide pointed out usually flees before fighting.
3. The Jackal which look a lot like foxes
and then the rest of the not at all big animals
1. giraffes
2. birds
3. terrapins
4. Kudu
5. Nyala
6. Impala (which I find funny since they are so small whereas the car is so big)
7. Water buck
8. those other bucks which I cannot remember their individual names or recognize again but one is locally called toilet seat bucks.
9. bugs
10. dwarf mongoose
11. baboons (none were carrying a stick though)
didn't see any snakes (thank thor)
and that is safaris according to Mike.