On his way to pick up tourists for their game drive from Crocodile Bridge, Mario Paul from Izwe African Safaris, came upon a distressed lioness wandering the fence of the N4 Highway. It is uncertain how she came to be on the wrong side but luckily Mario was able to play a huge role in coming to her aid.
Mario accounts: “At around 04:30am Tuesday 17 October, we first spotted the lioness outside the first Marloth Park turnoff. At this point she was on and off the road and we could clearly see that she was in quite a panicky state. She didn’t know traffic like this and the trucks and vehicles didn’t slow down for her. We stayed with her for a while, but obviously also had to fetch our guests from Crocodile Bridge. My partner David went on ahead whilst I stayed behind and tried to contact the authorities.
When authorities arrived I stayed on until they were able to dart her and take her back to the Park. Buses constantly came to drop off workers and we had to assist in getting them into the compound safely. It could have been a tricky situation at this stage. Luckily all went well. Jaco from Marloth Park rangers was the first to arrive at the scene followed by Mpumalanga Tourism Board and they proceeded to dart the lioness.
They took her back into Kruger and we were all so grateful that nothing happened to her and she was able to return home safely”.