It was a beautiful, cold winter’s morning in Thornybush, with a landscape that seemed to unfold endlessly before you on morning drive. Having experienced a cold front over the last few days, you could now sense from the golden hue which filtered through the slowly parting clouds that there was magic to be found…
We were about an hour into our drive, having devoted this time to relocating our enormous Northern River pride, currently numbering nineteen lions. You would think that nineteen lions would be rather easy to locate – unfortunately that’s not always the case. However, as we rounded the corner of a road called Nightjar West, we found the magic we had been searching for. “Lions in a tree!” my guest exclaimed. And behold, there they were, our Northern River pride, with most of the individuals scattered around in the bush and four of them up a Marula tree! The scene that unfolded in front of us was one that none of us on that vehicle will soon forget. A sighting of a lifetime!
Report and image by Jesse Potgieter
