I've been visiting game parks in Africa for 40 years and was knocked out on a recent trip to Chobe National Park to see a couple of lionesses in a tree. Yes, no hallucination. This was a first for me - and also for our game ranger. I'd heard of the tree-climbing lions at Lake Manyara in Tanzania but have never seen anything like this in my travels in Southern Africa. It was a truly amazing sight and took us all by surprise.
These two beauties looked as though they had eaten and had decided to climb a comfortable tree for a nice afternoon siesta. We watched them for at least half an hour and they just slept, occasionally sat up to gaze at us, then flopped down again. They clearly weren't going anywhere in a hurry. What an incredible and truly unique sighting! It certainly made our game drive in Chobe extra special.
Just a note for anyone planning a safari - in National Parks you are not allowed to go off the road, whereas in private game reserves you can and do in fact track the animals right into the bush for a really close encounter. In this instance I couldn't get a very good photo because we were too far away and I only had my ordinary digital camera. I just wish we could have got closer - or wished I had my old camera with the zoom lens with me. However the event was nevertheless recorded for posterity...
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