Stalking a Pride of Lions

There are guides and there are "GUIDES"
Well, Anthony Kashula is a GUIDE. He not only takes you from place A to place B, but he shows you everything there is to see on the route.
We are slowly driving along a sandy path (you cannot call it a road) when Ant leans out our Toyota Cruiser, studying the ground. He stops the vehicle and we get out: Ant examines the ground:  "There" he says, "there were two, four, five, six lions who crossed this path. One, a fairly big male, the others either smaller males or females." Ant looks a me. "Should we follow them?"
I have never followed a Pride of Lions on foot before, but, there is always a first time. "Yes, let's" I say. 
I grab my three cameras, the long lens on the tri-pod, Ant takes his rifle, Just in case, and off we are.
In the beginning it's fairly simple to follow. The tracks are clearly visible in the sand. But after a while they become harder and harder to read. the ground gets hard, rocky, and overgrown with a tough grass.
Ant finds an imprint here and there, until there is nothing more to be seen. Ant looks around and from the position of the last visible tracks he concludes that "They must have headed in about this direction".
Should we follow some more? Well, we had gone about a half hour and it would be a shame to give up now.
So we head into the general direction indicated by Ant. Not more than 15 minutes later, Ant stops abruptly:
"There", he whispers, "under this tree"....  he points and  I follow his outstretched hand with my eyes. And there they are.... 4 of them lying under a bush, and another three just a few meters off in a clearing.
The male lies hidden behind the bush... but females all around. And real Beauties they are.
I took many many many pictures and I will show you some below. I've got lots more where those came from.
The Lions, of course, had noticed us at once. Likely long before we noticed them. They stared at us. Even from the distance I can see their eyes burning holes through us.
Then, one of the Lionesses, her tail twitching, slowly gets up. Ant suggests a slow but certain retreat. The twitching tail means that she is nervous because of our presence.
Never taking our eyes of this wonderful group of beautiful animals, we slowly back away.
In turn, the Lions get up and slowly, slowly they disappear into the dense bush and we loose sight of them.
Ant suggests that, if we circle around the tall grass and, describing a wide semi-circle, we might see them again. Just as he suggested, they re-appeared, further away, but still in photo range....
I'll post those images later.
In the meantime, just telling you about this sighting, makes cold shivers run down the spine of
Bertstravels.