William H. Macy Instagram – On the eighth day of the trip we did a “night ride” to see some lions which our Maasai guide, Neti, had located. Neti was almost magical in his ability to find where the animals, especially the big cats, could be found. He was an expert tracker and got many of his clues from watching the grazing animals. So at dusk, we hopped onto the roofs or our two cool-ass Land Rovers and drove out to see four lions – two young and two mature. Neti had seen them earlier in the day and noticed that the older female was intently watching three Cape Buffalo grazing nearby. When we arrived, the cats were still dozing, rolling on their backs, taking playful swipes at each other and basically acting like house cats. They made you feel that they just wanted to play, and if you approached them slowly and quietly, they’d love to be scratched behind the ears. (Of course they’d eat you). Finally, the older female got up and left and the others followed, still doing cute stuff. By now it was pretty dark and suddenly the walkie talkie barked and Neti, in the other Land Rover, said they were attacking the old buffalo. By the time we got there, all four were hanging off her hind quarters. She was still on her feet, refusing to give up, braying and thrashing about, and once or twice she threw off two of the lions and tried to run, but they were on her again in a flash. We were not more than thirty feet from them when they finally pulled her down. She was still braying pitifully as they began to tear her apart. Two in our company couldn’t watched, and they wept. Some of us couldn’t look away.
For the rest of the night we talked about what we had seen. Flicka described it as being a privilege to have been present. Moore noted that although it was violent, there was no rage or anger. It was life is what it was. Life writ large and up close. The next morning we rode out to see what was left of the Buffalo. The lions had eaten a great deal of her and the Hyenas and the Jackals were waiting their turn. | Posted on 20/Aug/2022 01:07:08
