Even with this trip completed, we've never had "a view to a kill." But this was pretty close. We came upon a pride of lionesses where one lioness was tearing apart and chomping down a recently-killed cape buffalo. The rest of the lionesses were resting after eating by the water hole.
So in a way, they were able to "shuffle off to Buffalo, sit by the lake, and watch the world go by."
(Editor: Headline is a Queen lyric. First sentence is a Duran Duran James Bond theme song. Second paragraph is a John Fogerty lyric. What? You couldn't come up with a Kansas lyric? Writer: Well, that buffalo, whilst dying, probably thought to itself, "All we are is dust in the wind. Dust in the wind.")
As we sat in the jeeps on the dirt road just above the lioness who was chomping down on said cape buffalo. I got say, I was thrilled to capture the blood on the face of the lioness who was eating. And, as amazing as it is to listen to elephants and rhinos tear grasses out of the ground, hearing the ripping flesh of the buffalo as the lioness tucked into her meal was, in a weird way, life affirming (my life, not the cape buffalo's life because, well, he was dead, which precludes "life affirming.")
Driving off, around the a bend in the dirt road, we passed some more cape buffalo. Others in the Land Rover thought those buffalo looked sad. I thought they looked relieved it wasn't them being torn to bits by the water hole. After all, it's the circle of life.
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