On Safari With Curtis 19 February 2015

19 February 2015

This morning we set off with a cooler overcast sky, perfect weather and we saw plenty of animals such ellies, buffalo, rhino, zebra, warthog, dwarf mongoose, kudu, waterbuck and impala.

However the day belonged to two particular highlights.

The first was after a tip from mark, he had found three cheetah walking along the road. Although quite far from the sighting we made our way there as quickly as we could and were lucky enough to indeed find the three cheetah still on the road. But they were acting strange hissing and snarling and then we saw why.

Out of the grass appeared a fourth cheetah and then all hell broke out. Two of the three brothers went straight for the newcomer, squeals and hissing from all of them. We were in the middle of a territorial dispute. The newcomer then managed to escape the others and sprinted at top speed across the road with the other three in hot pursuit out of sight into the tall grass.

The second highlight of the day is actually four sightings which all took place, incredibly, within a 2.5km distance of each other. The first sighting a large black maned lion sitting out in the open at the edge of the road, unfortunately with the sun getting hotter he moved into the shade and out of sight, the second sighting four lionesses and a juvenile male lion, his mohawk just starting to show. In the shade but just a couple of meters from the road we got a great look at this pride of lions before leaving the sighting. Our third sighting was a kilometer down the road when I noticed our fifth cheetah of the day, this one also a male who walked along side the road before darting across the road out of sight.

But the fourth sighting was the best. Just another kilometer from the cheetah we found a female kudu standing in the grass. As we edged forward she started to alarm call, a deep loud bark. We looked around and then I spotted why, she was alarm calling at a leopard. But it was too late as the leopard grabbed the kudus calf.

We watched as the leopard with a kudu calf, as big as itself, in its jaw shuffled across the road just ten meters from our vehicle. Meanwhile the female kudu.was watching and following the leopard constantly alarm calling and in distress about its calf.

In just a couple of kilometers we had seen the big three cats in what is surely one of the most amazing morning drives I have ever done.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Charlotte and James who even though were just with us for a couple of days now have a lifetime of memories to cherish.