Stuck

Even the most experienced guides make mistakes, and if you're lucky, they do it at the right place and time...

On our first day in Edeni game reserve, Limpopo, we heard on the radio that a couple of lions had been spotted with a kill. Of course we went in search of them and found them in the thickets, exhausted from their first sitting. As we approached they lifted their heads and studied us carefully. After a while they got up to continue their meal. The flies and the stench were almost unbearable, but the lioness couldn't care less as she dug into her waterbuck prey.

There's a common misconception that lions don't like waterbuck because of the oily secretion that protects the skin of this antelope, but this is of course utter nonsense... meat is meat, whatever the flavour. These guys aren't fussy, they can eat rotten meat and will certainly not discard a meal because of unfortunate seasoning.

While watching the lions the guide had the brilliant idea of driving out into an open area, as they probably would make their way past us down to a dam after dinner... and we got desperately stuck! This was not good. Not only were the lions busy feeding 30 m away, but also, in this macho business you don't want to loose face. The guide and tracker tried everything, piling stones under the car, etc, etc... but finally had to admit defeat and radio for help.

Help arrived shortly after... and also got stuck!!! The trackers and drivers now combined their forces but the harder they tried, the more stuck we got and it wasn't until the third car arrived that we saw any real progress. After snapping at least two towing ropes the six experienced men eventually did what some people had suggested from start... and simply pushed the car with combined effort.

This evening a total of five cars got stuck in basically the same place, but what better place to get stuck? The sun was setting and the lions watched us curiously from a short distance, probably a bit amused by the funny two-legged creatures and their inability to move gracefully through the bush.

-So what, that dinner was late that night!?

/A