Rachel, the meerkat's are adorable. So darn cute. Pay no attention to you at all just play and run and forage. You cannot touch them and so no chance of getting bitten.

Have to do my final post. No time the last morning, then the flight and then first day back in the office. Probably the best game drive I have ever had. It was amazing. What is great about Tswalu is that it is not bush but quite open plains with scrub brush vegetation. So off-road driving is much easier and the roads are much smoother. As it is not thick bush you can follow animals and not lose them in the bush.

We followed three young female lions. They were playing around and then seemed to be on a mission. They would walk and then run, sniffing the air and the ground. Then they started roaring and in the distance there was a response roar. That was fun. The speed picked up! One female lion approached the three females. This is the one who has the very young cubs we could not find. The new lion took a submissive position but was growling at the other three females. The ranger thinks she was distracting these lions from her new cubs. Lots of growling and posturing. Eventually that settled down.

Then we heard a sound of a kill. We raced over to the direction of the sound. On the mountain side was a female with seven cubs ranging from about 6 month to 9 months. They had a brown hyena cornered and he had wedged himself in an area the lions could not quite reach and the hyena was very vocal. The little cubs were trying hard to reach that hyena.

Then the 3 female lions approached the female and cubs. Again growling between the two groups. The female and cubs came down off the mountain and approached the three female lions. The ranger said "wait for the fireworks" The mother of the cubs female charged the three females. She was much bigger and attacked full force. It was amazing the power of these animals and the noise. The three younger females instantly retreated and ran and the large female and all the cubs chased the intruders. The little cubs were fully involved in the chase not sure what would have happened if those females stopped running and attacked back. Other the intruders were chased off the two females and the 7 cubs had a love session greeting each other after all the excitement.

It was TRULY fantastic. Keeping up with all the action is a ton of fun too and in Tswalu you can SEE all the action. Ken is swamped but he will get pictures out soon.