South Africa - Lion Sands - Flickr Set

Link to the Lion Sands Flickr Set

South Africa - Lion Sands - Lions

Lions are like big huge housecats. Super lazy, lay around all the time and eat. I think the big difference is that a lion can kill you super easy (if he just wasn't so sleepy), but a housecat has a much tougher time of it. The housecat would need to position itself just exactly right over your sleeping face, or step in front of you at just the right time so you trip and fall out a tall window.
Landon had no concern of driving right up next to a feeding lion. It wasn't even because he had a huge elephant gun right in front of him on the dash, as he barely even had the case unzipped. It might have been because this dude Eddie sits on a little chair bolted to the front of the car, and Eddie would clearly be the first one eaten, giving Landon more than enough time to carefully back the Land Rover out of any danger.
According to the story told, the big dead hippo was killed in a hippo e hippo fight, and the lions just ate the loser as a meal of opportunity.















This lion was having a tough time chewing through the thick hide of the hippo, so he had the brilliant idea to get to the juicy center through the butthole.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Elephants

There will be more elephants later from Zimbabwe and Botswana, but here are the Sabi Sabi variety of elephants. They travel around in families, but not huge herds like in the open Kalahari.
These enormous cows with distended noses are clearly much smarter than humans. The adult ones just look at you like "another damn metal box full of hairless monkeys", but the teenage ones like to try to scare you with their big ears and aggressive personalities, and the young ones play with each other and act like little kids.





Super guide Landon explained that they cry out the side of their faces like this when they are stressed out. He probably explained it better than that.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Cape Buffalo

The Cape Buffalo is one of the "Big Five", but inarguably the least interesting of the big five. Its a big dirty cow with a brain shield of about 6 inches of solid cow bone. They just stand there and chew cud. They are so lazy birds nest on their faces. The video accurately portrays 99% of a cape buffalo's daily activities.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Leopard

He's eating a young impala antelope in the tree.








Video of him climbing back up the tree to eat more impala brains.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Hippos

This one had seen better days. The lions were busy eating him. More on that later.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Giraffe

Giraffes. Big spotted horses with long necks. Enjoy.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Zebras

Zebras. Little striped horses with crew cuts. Enjoy.

South Africa - Kruger National Park - Lions Sands

The Lion Sands game reserve is in the Sabi Sands private game reserve adjacent to the Kruger National Park, described by wikipedia as "undoubtedly the most exclusive private game reserve in South Africa". And I totally agree. Lion Sands was the highlight of the whole trip. The lodge itself was awesome. In the middle of the game reserve with only a high electrical wire to keep out elephants, you had to have a security escort to walk anywhere, including your room. The rooms were individually standing thatched roof huts, huge and extremely well appointed. The staff was great, especially our guide for the 3 days who was phenomenal. We went out on a safari every morning at 5:30am, then some activity during the day like a bush walk or going to the river to see the hippos, then an evening safari each night. The Land Rovers the safaris were in were awesome vehicles.