12 April 2016
Setting out
early this morning, we witnessed yet another spectacular African sunrise
painting the sky red!
The first
animal we saw was a large Buffalo bull, wandering down the road, glancing back
at us over his shoulder every now and then, in no mood to be hurried along!
We then
received word of Cheetah spotted further along in our intended direction of
travel, however, they had apparently moved into the bush. Since we haven't
found any Cheetah on this Safari yet, we decided to check it out anyway.
Arriving at the site where they were last seen, we stopped and scanned the area
far a while with no luck. We then decided to turn back for about a kilometer
and do a slow drive back to the same area. Very shortly after turning back
again in the original direction, the 3 Cheetah brothers came walking out of the
long grass right next to us! The one jumped straight up into the fork of a
Marula tree to survey the surroundings while the other 2 carried on down the
road. He then jumped down again to join them and we followed them down the road
for a few hundred meters as they scent marked the bushes and road signs along
the way, at one point 2 of them lay down in the road in shady spots while the
3rd got on top of a road sign for a vantage point and more scent marking! A brilliant
sighting and great experience to watch them for as long as we did!
About 10 km
further down the road we found a Leopard sleeping in a shady spot in a large
drainage line. We then stopped off for breakfast at a nearby camp and had a
visit from a large Nile Monitor below the deck we were on. After breakfast,
heading back along a different road, we found our 2nd Leopard for the morning!
This one had just killed an Impala and was lying with its kill at the base of a
thick tree! The Impala was still intact as the Leopard was still catching its
breath and contemplating what to do with the carcass; i.e take it up a tree or
feed right there... We watched for a while as it lay there licking the Impala,
but then decided to make our way back to camp, as by that time the vehicles had
started building up significantly - what a great morning for the spotted cats!
After some
siesta time back at camp, we headed back out for a short afternoon drive during
which we found a large Kudu bull with an impressive set of horns, browsing very
close to the vehicle as well as 2 adult bull Elephants leisurely grazing in
tall grassland under a huge Fig tree.
A brilliant
sunset signaled the end to another memorable day on Safari!
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