Big Cat Wake-up Call

Jamie has been wonderful at getting up in the morning.  When that alarm goes off, even if it's 5 a.m., she's out of bed in a flash.  Now, waking up, that takes quite a bit longer.

On the 25th June, at Chobe, she was suddenly and spectacularly woken up.  I'll let her tell you about it in her own words:

It was pitch black when we started our drive that morning. I can't lie, I was not enthusiastic. At that point sleep was the only thing on my mind. As it got lighter, and we passed more impala, I was still not awake. 

But then our driver gets a call from another vehicle that says that nearby there is a lioness and her cubs. Immedietly I perk up at the words. Since lions are my favourite animal I was over the moon to hear there were cubs in the area. I sat up straight and grabbed the binoculars feeling less sleepy now. As we got closer we saw 3 jeeps already there. 

We pulled up to a front row seat and a mere 30 meters away behind some bushes were 2 cubs!  

They were happily playing and wrestling with each other biting each others' ears and then running behind a bush. It was the strangest mixture of hide and seek and tag! They didn't seem bothered by us at all. It was the first cub sighting for all of us. We watched in awe. 

Not to forget abot the mother, she was nearby eating the leftovers of her last kill. Every few minutes she was in the middle of the cubs playing. Food was obviously not on the cubs' mind at that current moment. They were 3 months old and still playful as ever. Our driver told us the rareness of seeing cubs in the open like this. We must have sat there for 45 minutes watching happily! What an amazing thing to wake up to!