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Brighton Dube and Samuel Chuma

Patrick Chitumba Victoria Falls Reporter
TWO boys aged 13 and 14 have told how they had lions for company after surviving two nights in a dense forest near the Victoria Falls.
Brighton Dube, 14, and Samuel Chuma, 13, left home on a fishing expedition at Woodlands Farm on Saturday morning but got lost in thick vegetation amid heavy rains.
Disoriented, the lads drifted further into the woods in unrelenting rain, sleeping in trees.
The two friends had their toughest night on Sunday after two lions camped at the foot of the tree while they clung on to branches, cold and hungry.
Back home, Victoria Falls tour operators had come together with their families to form a search party.

Shearwater Adventures scrambled a helicopter which gave rescuers an eye from above, while Stanley & Livingstone Lodge brought resources to assist in the search.
Brighton, speaking from Victoria Falls Police Station yesterday, told Chronicle: “We left our homesteads to do some fishing at the dam in Woodlands Farm on Saturday morning.

“Suddenly the skies darkened and we knew heavy rains were coming. Soon there was thunder and heavy downpours and we found ourselves lost in the forest.”
As night fell, the lads realised they could fall prey to the wild animals in the area, including lions which roam freely.

Said Samuel: “We decided to climb up a tree and sleep there for safety. That was the first night and we couldn’t really sleep because we were afraid of falling down. The night was just too long.”

The boys said they climbed down the tree on Sunday morning and started looking for a possible way home, now feeling exhausted and hungry.
“We were cold and hungry, but we didn’t have a choice. We still had the fish we had caught but we had no fire to cook them and so we kept walking,” Brighton said.

As night fell on Sunday, the boys were still stranded in the woods and again decided to climb a tree for rest – but it would be their most testing night.
“In the middle of the night, two lions started making funny noises below our tree and I nearly lost grip because of fear,” Brighton remembers.

“We started whistling, making noise and shaking the tree branches to scare the two lions away and the trick appeared to have worked because they left, but we could not sleep until morning.”

The lads admit they were at first scared to come down, fearing the lions had not gone far from their tree.
But the brave lads were soon on the ground, trying to retrace their steps home.

“As we were walking, we saw an old building about a kilometre away and started running towards the place. We breathed a sigh of relief when we found that there was someone at the house,” Samuel said.

They narrated their story to the only person they found there, a man named Driver George Mdimba.
Mdimba said he was shocked to see two boys carrying fish, which were almost rotting, arriving at his homestead.

Luckily for the two boys, he knew exactly where they had come from. They had drifted into the Pandamasuwe Forest – eight kilometres from their starting point.
Mdimba returned the two lads to their grateful parents who feared they would never be found alive.

Hwange Rural District Council vice- chairperson, Mathew Muleya, said: “They were not very far from their farm, but it’s easy to see why they got lost because the forest is dense after the heavy rains we have received.

“I just want to thank all the tour operators who came together in the name of rescuing the boys. The gesture was, and is still very welcome.”