It was Gill, one of our guests, who saw the distant buffaloes and it was Lloyd, our guide, who realised they’d be going down to the river to drink – and that they’d picked the exact same place the lions had chosen to rest up last night. He parked. We waited.

The Luangwa Valley in Zambia provides a rare and soul-deep peace. It also provides action and drama like you’ve never experienced in your life. The herd of 50 buffaloes defiled through a gap on the top of a short, sharp bank and a wise old cow led them towards the water. And the lions.

The lions shifted in an instant from slumber to action stations: crouching belly-down, agog. Apart from one young male, his mane just starting to come, still dozing with his paws in the air. But he got the vibe eventually and shifted in an almost embarrassed fashion into the lion’s ready position.

At that the cow froze. She stared. They stared. It was like the long moment before the gunfight at the OK Corral in the film Tombstone, the tension finally breaking as Doc Holliday winks and you can hear Wyatt Earp groaning: “Oh my God!”

And the cow was running and the lions were running and she reached the herd just as the herd turned and ran. But now they had to defile back through the gap and it was the lions’ moment. One – two –three – yes, three calves down, each with a lion or two fighting to inflict the killing smother-bite.

Not my daughter you bitch! Another film reference, this one from the final Harry Potter, and three groups of buffaloes, cows as well as bulls, lowered their horns and charged at each fallen calf, driving the lions off, and the calves staggered to their feet, back into the herd behind a protective wall of horns. The air was full of dust and snarling and lowing and grunting and the drumbeat of hooves.

After that it was stand-off. The bulls took turns to charge the lions on their own; each time the lions understandably back-pedalled. They were trying to get behind every bull that separated himself from the rest, but turning your back on the fearsomely armed animals behind him was never a good idea. There was never enough space, enough time.

It went on. And on. And on. Charge and repulse. In went the lions, out went a fired-up bulls like a sortie during a siege. We followed them over three kilometres and a good hour. Twice or three times the buffaloes had an over-bold buff on the ground, each time the rescue came.

The lions tired first. The big match ended in a 0-0 draw; a better result for the buffs than the lions, it has to be said. I’d never seen anything like this before and more to the point, neither had Lloyd. Always something new from Africa.

Later that morning I consulted with Chris, who was co-leading the trip with me. “I think we may have peaked a little early…”

 

• I was co-leading a trip with wildlifeworldwide.com
• Next trip wildlifeworldwide.com/group-tours/walking-safari-in-heart-of-zambia