The lion experience was particularly special. On a dawn drive in Moremi we happened across two lionesses and 5 very cute playful cubs in the open ground. After a while they moved into another nearby area with an uprooted tree which was great fun for the 6-month old cubs.

Seeing them playing round just like kitens in your garden was very touching. They were falling over themselves, biting each other’s tails & climbing all over the adult lionesses. As the photos show we were very close to them and could have easily reached out & patted them (though you most probably would have lost your arm in an instant). It could have been dangerous if one of the cubs might have got curious & innocently tried to get into our open-sided vehicle. I have seen videos on the internet of such situations getting out of hand very quickly.

We didn’t realise how long we were next to this lion pride, but after checking the timings of my first & last photo, I reckoned we were with them for about 45 minutes. Magical.

The light in my first set of photos of this pride of lions has very low contrast reflecting the early dawn light & the abilities of my camera (Panasonic DMC-TZ70). The second set of photos (showing the cubs playing on the fallen tree trunk) have a less “washed-out” look as the sun had risen by the time I took them.

Botswana 2018 Photos:

Botswana Index

National Parks & Safaris

Wildlife

• Lions
• Leopards
• Elephants
• Zebra
• Antelope
• Other Wildlife

Birds

Botswana Reflections