Rob Barbour, Epic's partner in East Africa, has just returned from four days in the Ruaha National Park, Tanzania – staying in the new Kigelia Camp. He had some fantastic game sightings, particularly in the early mornings. As the park becomes drier animals are moving towards the Greater Ruaha River in numbers. Rob's group saw herds of 20 elephant on a regular basis, lovely greater and lesser kudu, buffalo, plenty of plains game and fantastic lion sightings too. On one early morning game drive they came across six young lions drinking at the confluence of the Mwagusi Sand River and the Greater Ruaha. After watching them drink they drove on and heard a lot of roaring. They zeroed in on a large male trying not to share a young giraffe with six lionesses. As they watched, so did two black backed jackals. The large male then had to defend his carcass against another male who came close, a lioness and five 6 -7 month old cubs. Once they had left the kill site, they saw two other large male lions crossing the road, just 2 km away.
The following morning at dawn Rob came across six young cubs about 1 km from camp. They were on their own and were very playful in the early morning light as they waited for Mama to come back from her night’s hunting. According to Rob: "This would have to be my best lion sighting for a while."
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