A female lion up a tree, her four two week old Cubs in a bush under the tree and a large herd of approximately 150 angry Cape buffalo approaching, the scene is set. I get the image sitting on the roof of the truck when there wasn’t a buffalo in sight, our attention was now focused on the cubs as we saw the herd approaching they were now in serious danger of being trampled on with only one outcome. Willy our guide reacted quickly and nudged the bottom of the tree in order to awake the mother, to our amazement she came down, saw the army of buffalo and hoping to distract them stood directly between the herd and her Cubs. Unfortunately this didn’t work as they kept marching forward, the mother ran for cover which left us no choice but to create a barricade by putting our truck between the herd and the Cubs. Willie was frantically flashing the headlights and honking the horn in the hope they would disperse, it didn’t discourage them and standoff then ensued. The light was now starting to fail as darkness approached, Willie had attempted to call the rangers in the hope they would be able to assist with our predicament but all to no avail. An hour passed which seemed like a lifetime but at no time did we give up hope. With no sign of the rangers we decided to take the bull by the horns (excuse the pun) attempting to drive the herd away, which too our surprise it worked as the herd disappeared into the night. I can’t tell you the sense of relief we felt as we hugged each other when the euphoria of what had been achieved began to kick in. We returned the next day to find the mother with her Cubs in another location and as a testament to my wife and I they were and are to this day named Jackie’s lions by Willie and the Maasai guides, who send us regular pictures and updates via what’s app on how they are doing. Alleluia is all I can think of!

Year taken: Mara North Conservancy 2019