Drama at the Masa Mara, part 3

We had already had a tense afternoon, waiting for a river crossing, and then instead witnessing a kill, right under our noses. But one last drama unfolded before us that Saturday afternoon on Safari. 

Tony, our driver, watched the lioness and confidently nodded, “she was just killing for fun.” Under another tree was a wildebeest she had no doubt killed earlier. With the easy pickings in the herd, she couldn’t resist taking down an easy kill.

She rose and walked back across the plain. In the direction she was heading, a huge handsome male strutted towards her. Our safari van was in his direct path, but he treated it as though it were a rock that had always been there. 

He didn’t veer from his course, passing so near to our van, that his hair may have brushed the fender. None of us inside looked that closely, because we were too busy freaking out.

The male and female lions barely acknowledged each other as they passed, he continued into the bush where the young wildebeest lay and she flopped down on the plain, near the herd of dazed wildebeest.

As the first male lion ate his afternoon treat, another swaggered into the picture. “Here we go,” Tony announced. “There will be a fight.”

But no, the second lion must have already had his fill on the wildebeest smorgasbord. He laid down on his haunches a few hundred feet away, the late afternoon sun shining on his stunning face. And I swear, he shook out his mane, as if he were Fabio.

Whatever else happened on the Mara that afternoon, I don’t remember. We saw some more elephants and the rest of the grazers, even a hyena, but even though we had missed the drama of seeing a crossing, we were more than satisfied.