In every jungle trip that gets to be called successful, I have had an intriguing experience where it is usually ONE particular safari that comes to make the difference between an average trip and an extra-ordinary one. In the trip I made to Gir, in fact my first ever there, had one such jungle drive. Yes, even in the initial 4 drives we saw the odd Lion here and a few birds there, not to forget the ubiquitous herbivores, but it was this specific safari that transformed the entire experience of Gir. About 20 min into the jungle, we saw a few lionesses walking through the forest; then a few more appeared and they were 11 in total. For us, who had only seen Lions lazing around until then, this was a special moment. We followed the pride all the way to a water pond where they were joined by a large male Lion that gulped water for what seemed like forever, but those images are for another time
Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 300 f/2.8 L IS II USM + 1.4x extender III | f/4, ISO 320, 1/500 sec, EC -1/3, evaluative metering | Gir, Gujrat | May 2012.
P.S: Made a tight composition because of the habitat with too much human interference (read: cemented water hole, building the BG).
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