The perks of being the general manager of Limpopo-Lipadi: living smack bam in the
middle of the reserve, with all the wildlife at your doorstep, or in this case: at your
bedroom window… Often times a dream, sometimes pretty noisy and scary. Read
the recount of Cally, our GM: “I took this photo from my bedroom window at my
house one morning. The entire lion pride was feasting on a wildebeest kill, right on
my back fence, which is not even 15 metres from the bedroom. The lion cub in the
photo had spotted Lily (our orphaned eland that lives behind the fence) and walked
right up to the fence. Lily alarm-called and then dashed to the front of the
house. Fascinating was that the lion mother came out of the bush and made a low
call and the baby joined the rest of the pride.
No fun living on top of a kill: the lions came back the second night to finish their meal
and hung out for the rest of the night roaring in my ear. Then the hyena came and
fought like crazy, followed by some barking jackals. The lions’ last call was 5:20 AM
and when I got up the world was back to normal, with birds singing and no lions to
disturb the peace. As though the nightmare and noise of the previous night had not
happened at all.”
