Kicheche Laikipia - Day 3 PM (Lion Special)

We'd said to Peter as we set off for this afternoon's drive that we'd like to skip the sundowner and be back at camp around 1830 as we still had a bit of packing to do ready for the morning.  As we were slowly making our way back towards camp Peter heard word that a small pride of lions had been seen, so did we want to try and find them? - you bet we did.  Peter warned us we wouldn't be back at the agreed time but that didn't matter one bit if we had even a slim chance of finding the lions and so we set off at a very fast past towards where the lions were - luckily the track was quite good and not nearly as difficult a drive as some we've encountered here.  We found them; two adult males and two females, one of which had 3 cubs.  Although the light was fading rapidly, it was fantastic to find them.

The males were doing what they're invariably doing = lying down.  Lion No.1 has a magnificent mane.

Whereas No.2 looks like he's wearing Elton John's or Bruce Forsyth's toupee!

Lioness No.1 lying fairly close to the males.

It never fails to send a shiver down my spine when a lion looks directly at me.

And Lioness No. 2 with her 3 cubs.  Unfortunately as you can see she's been fitted with a tracking collar, but then again perhaps we wouldn't have found them if she hadn't been.

At one point Lion No.1 wandered over to Lioness No.1 and we thought they might mate (they usually mate every 30 mins or so for the 3/4 days the female is in season).

But nothing happened and he just sat down again.   Despite the fading light, I couldn't resist taking many pictures.

There was only us and another truck and after a short while the cubs forgot all about us and happily played around.

This darker cub was definitely a bit of a "mummy's boy"

 

A little bit of grooming (turn your sound on).

How cheesy is that?

She seemed a very patient and loving mum.

What a perfect way to end our time here at Ol Pejeta.