The Big Five refer to the five predators traditionally thought of as the most dangerous to hunt. We’re not hunters (except to see and photograph), but this terminology has remained to this day. The Big Five are:

• Lion
• Leopard
• Buffalo
• Elephant
• Rhinoceros

We briefly saw lions the other day, but you can never get enough. So we started the day by heading for a reported lion sighting. Of course, the animals will be exactly where they’re meant to be, and we came across some giraffe doing their thing early in the morning. This is the best time for pictures in the bush; the golden light makes them all look even more majestic.

Around 7:15, Darren got a report that there had been a fight amongst several female lions. So we changed direction and headed towards that location. When we got there, we found two large males and several females lying in the grass and on the road.

One of the females, an older one, slowly got up and limped down the road away from the others. All you can see in the photo above are a few wounds on her face, but she was moving very slowly and was obviously injured. She apparently got the worst of the battle, which was with two younger adult females. The males will fight each other to protect their territory and their harem, while the females will fight each other to protect their young. We were told it’s rare for males and females to fight each other.

The four remaining lions moved down the road a short way and lay down in the shade. When they’re not hunting, lions seem to spend all of their time lying down and sleeping. The female with her head raised was the winner of the battle, but her victory was not free.

There were fresh wounds on her face and leg that were still bleeding. There were also wounds on her rump that looked nasty. Nonetheless, she was apparently the winner. She was also exhausted from the battle, breathing heavily to try and cool down. Like dogs and cats, lions don’t sweat and can only cool off by panting.

Life in the bush is hard.

We stayed at the scene for almost an hour, then the four lions moved off into the bush and out of our sight. So we headed off. I’m not sure what our destination was, but we came to a causeway that ran alongside of some water. Walking along the causeway was a herd of wildebeest. At first they stopped as we approached the causeway, since they would be boxed in if we entered it and blocked their path. After a few moments of confusion, one of the wildebeest bolted and ran towards us, veering off and up the hill at the last moment. The rest of the herd followed his example and escaped the threat we imposed.

As we continued on our meandering path back to the lodge for breakfast we saw a small group of animals walking along side the road. It turned out to be the mother cheetah and her three cubs from yesterday. Apparently they had finished feasting on their impala dinner and were headed off to their next adventure.

I wrote earlier that a typical safari day was a morning drive, followed by breakfast, then some downtime until lunch, followed by the afternoon drive. But today we booked an excursion to a local village after lunch. On our last safari, Sally and I visited a “village” that was occupied by people who lived there for a few weeks, then rotated out for another group of “villagers”. So a reproduction, but not a real village. This time we went to a real village.

The first stop was a healer’s hut, where we watched three people engage in a series of chants and drum rhythms. Healers are not just for curing medical problems, but can help you with relationships, business disputes and other aspects of life. I don’t personally think what they were doing would have any impact on my life or problems, but they certainly did and so do their normal customers.

The second stop was an elderly woman’s home, where she explained a bit about her life and how she and her family live. Actually, she said, say, ten words, and then our guide spoke for three minutes. So I’m not sure who was telling what story. But she led us into a hut and she (or the guide) told us some more stories, and got several of us to dress in traditional costumes.

After lunch we went out again to try and find some hippos. We were unsuccessful with the hippos, but we did see zebra, giraffe, one sleeping hyena, and a couple of groups of rhinos. The most interesting encounter of the day was the first group of rhinos, who were apparently startled by our appearance and ran out of the bush and thundered down the road. The pictures can’t capture the sight of 5,000 lb. rhinos thumping down the road at a surprising speed. Their size and speed is why they make the Big Five.

The day ended with Darren and Mandla organizing a more formal sundowner, complete with white tablecloth, for our last evening at Phinda. It was a busy day, which partially explains why I fell so far behind in writing these posts 🤨.