No Game Drive Needed :-)

Those of you that have been to Impodimo before knows that we are a bit different to some of the other lodges with the fact that we don’t have a fence around the lodge.
Very recently we found out how amazing it could be without the restrictions of a boundary around us. One brisk winter’s morning we were waiting around the fire place for the guests to arrive for breakfast. One by one the guests came into the main lodge with same question…? did you hear the noise last night? We couldn’t understand what everyone was talking about, so we decided to send the trackers into the direction everyone said the noises had come from.
Patrick (the master that he is) came back with the whole story of events that took place the night before.

“The wild dogs made a kudu kill about 40 meters from room four’s deck, but before they could feast on their kill a group of hyenas had swooped in and stole the kill. But with the obvious chattering and laughing, drew the attention of a male and female lion that were patrolling close by. They moved in and took the whole prize for themselves.�?
With this knowledge in hand the rangers gathered their guests and drove to the site where the action took place. After a very successful morning we returned to camp for delicious lunch.

The following morning it was business as usual and the staff gathered once again around the main lodge fire drinking their coffee and waiting for the guests to join for breakfast.
Within seconds it was all chaos in camp with lions ROARING on one side and from another the earth-moving growls from two lions fighting. The rangers ran to grab their rifles and out the door towards room four where the loudest noise were coming from. Half way over the wooden walkway we saw a young male and female lion flying down the room pathway with a huge male in hot pursuit. The female broke left and got away, but the big male had his sights set on the young male and he was catching up quickly, within the blink of an eye the big male had him pinned down on the ground and was going for the throat. Fortunately for the young male he had already developed a small yet bushy mane and that protected him long enough for a well placed paw to the face of the big male. The youngster saw his gap and clawed his way from under the giant and started running. The battle by now had taken them eighty meters up the road close to the staff village, the youngster darted through the workshop and past the water tanks into thick scrub and disappeared. Upset with himself for letting the intruder get away the big male stopped and started to roar with all his might as if to say, “stay out of my territory or there will be death to pay�?. From the far side of camp his brother responded like a very grumpy judge trying to call order to his court room.

Knowing we would not catch up with the lions, we turned our attention to the guests that were by now quite frightened although safely ensconced in their room. After the one male lost interest in the younger male he quickly trotted through camp to his brother to make sure that he didn’t lose out on at least half his share of the loot.
Once all the guests were safely escorted to the main lodge there was an awkward silence in the dining room. As soon as one of the guests spoke about his experience the whole room erupted in excitement with everyone sharing their stories and angle of events witnessed.

It was very difficult to go on drive after that and try to top what we had just experienced.
Most of the guests felt that on that morning there was no need for a game drive.