Lions have been running wild this year. Sad that we think that’s a bad thing? But I spose if one was approaching me with intent I’d also want the ous in khaki to round him up and re-incarcerate him.
Lions escaped from Kruger twice this year, one lot was recaptured, one lot was shot. Then three lionesses and five cubs ran free in KwaZulu and were captured. Today there’s talk of a lion meandering around Mtonjaneni near Ulundi, munching on cows – which I suppose is the reason we won’t tolerate them running free: their manners.
I saw a lion on the loose outside Mapungubwe in 2013. (note: I see I duplicated this story – more or less – here). I had left the reserve, heading west for Botswana when an old grey-haired codger in short pants hopped out of his bakkie and flagged me down, hopping up and down with excitement. “Oom, Oom!” he shouted. “Hier’s n leeu, ek sweer. ‘n Leeumannetjie, Oom!”
I thought “Who’s Your Fokkin ‘Oom’, you Old Goat? You look Fifty in the Shade and Rather Weather-beaten and Ancient to me!” But I’m polite, so I said “Waar?” and he said “Volg my. Sommer hier naby,” and got his scrawny legs back into his bakkie to show me.
Just then a big male lion sprinted across the road toward the Mapungubwe side. On both sides of the road high ‘game-proof’ fences keep animals in, inside the Oppenheimers’ private reserve on the southern side and Mapungubwe National Park on the northern side, so he was trapped in an unfriendly corridor and he was not happy, poor thing.
He was a lovely specimen but he looked anxious as hell and panicky and ran as though he was trying to make himself invisible. When he saw us he dived under a little green bush in the dry grass, laughably small, but Hey! He disappeared under it! He lay motionless and nothing would entice him out.
This bush. Look carefully, he’s in there!
Then he finally did dart out, running eastwards, to the right in picture, along this fence and I left him. I had to get to Botswana. A gate to the De Beers Venetia Limpopo reserve said Duncan MacFadyen gate and had a phone number, so I phoned to let them know one of their lions was awol, running free like Elsa and Willy.
Then on a sudden hunch, I turned the rearview mirror to look at myself. OMG! I saw now what the old codger had seen. No wonder he ‘Oom’d’ me. I should never go without a hat.
~o0o~
It’s a beautiful area:
~o0o~
“Oom! Hier’s n leeu, ek sweer. ‘n Leeumannetjie, Oom!” – Uncle! You the ancient-looking Oom! There’s a lion Born Free here! A male lion, I swear, Uncle!
“Volg my, sommer hier naby” – Follow me; it’s close-by. You go first …
~o0o~
Once a tiger ran loose, and I had advice for its owners …