Africa Wild

We took a bit of an impromptu drive into Addo this afternoon. I had heard that there were some lion seen around Arizona dam which is on the Addo heights road, so the plan was to head there and check them out. We only had 3 hours before gate closing so didn't stop for much, but the roads seemed quiet until the northern Harveys/Ngulube crossroads where some buffalo were chilling out





Arizona had plenty of elephant dotted around, but no sign of the lion I had been hoping to see
A careful scan of the area didn't show anything more than some hartebeest and zebra, so we decided to head up to Marion Baree which turned out the be a great choice! Not far from the waterhole we found a lion (Norman) doing what they do best



As we swung the car round for a better spot of the sighting, H spotted Zwaai in the bushes. I was really impressed that she saw him, because you could only see him from one angle.



He was busy watching some warthog trundling along the road, and we wondered whether he might pounce at one point



The warthog also roused Norman for a while, and he did a great job of posing for us







Norman & Zwaai both went back to sleep so we figured we would head back south as it was starting to get late. Along the main road we saw the smallest little hoglets I've ever seen



Not many people know, but you can exit the park along the Addo heights road, so we decided to pop back to Arizona and then continue out that way.... would the lion be waiting for us?

Great place to be able to make impromptu visits!

Isn't Marion Baree the place where the lions mostly stick around?

What a handsome fellow Norman is

The piggies are not even cute, when they are small

Lovely lions and very cute piglets.

Lisbeth wrote:Isn't Marion Baree the place where the lions mostly stick around?

Not really... I've seen markers for lion on the sightings board there in years gone by, but never ever seen lion there before.

Wrong information obviously!

When we arrived at Arizona there was a herd of elephant drinking at the waterhole, and we began scanning the surrounding bushes for any sign of lion. As luck would have it, one of the elephant approaching the waterhole walked close enough to Nomad to disturb his sleep and we spotted him with his head up for a minute



He very quickly flopped back down again, but now at least we knew where he was hiding. There was still no sign of any others, so we enjoyed watching the ellies quenching their thirst





As the herd moved off, some of them went back in the direction of the lion which resulted in Roy popping out from behind one of the bushes



Nomad seemed to be relatively comfortable with the close proximity of the elephant



But Roy wasn't so relaxed and decided to venture further up the hillside and away from danger





The light was fading fast and we had to head out the gate but it was great to see these 2 lion again - I haven't seen them in months which I think is partly due to the new area being opened up by Arizona.

two very old males. Don't think they have many years left

They still look great though You know living by themselves without females. may have added a lot of years to their lifetime

Wonderful photo of the ellie herd with the herons

It is always great to have the latest news from Addo. Thank you, Pete

News of the lion cubs?

Alf wrote:two very old males. Don't think they have many years left

These boys are about 9 years old now - the oldest males in the park. However they seem to be doing very well health-wise when compared to some of the younger ones
Aardlam is the oldest. She's about 13 or 14 now... so there's hope for these boys yet