My Fist Lion Charge

I will never forget the first time I was charged by a lioness.
One of the lionesses from a pride called the Molowati Pride (In the Sabi Sand Game Reserve) had left the rest of her family to give birth in a hidden place.

One morning we found her tracks going in and out of the same dry riverbed where she more than likely had hidden her cubs. Unfortunately it was not allowed for anyone to walk in this particular riverbed as the vegetation was very thick and some of the rangers in the past had been charged by lion and leopard numerous times in this riverbed.
We were so excited about having new lion cubs in the reserve, so we decided to break the rules and go look for the cubs. There were three of us, myself and two other guides (Mike & Jaco), Mike walked in the front as he had the best tracking ability, while Jaco and I walked behind him just looking carefully to see if we could spot the lioness.

It was not long, maybe 15 minutes of walking when all of a sudden there was a loud and deep growl followed by the lioness crashing out of the bushes like a torpedo straight towards us!
From the time we heard the growl it took her maybe 2 or 3 seconds to get to us. Fortunately she stopped about 15 meters in front of us, growling and spitting, not happy about our presence there.
This being my first lion charge was not what I expected as I thought I would turn my pants brown, but this was not the case as the adrenaline rush from all the excitement seems to keep you calm, as there we stood the three of us chatting away discussing how we were going to get the Land Rover into the same spot to possibly view the cubs.

Once we had planned our route in, we slowly walked away from the lioness, facing her all the time. When we were about 50 meters away from her she turned away and went back to her cubs.
When we back to the Land Lover, that’s when the nerves kicked in resulting in unstoppable shakes. That was awesome!! What a rush!!

Well we managed to see the cubs, two beautiful females just a few days old.