Lions for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (October 2019)

[Mel]

As over the last days we again went down south, although not expecting much, seeing it was a Sunday
and Sundays are usually no good for us because we hardly ever see anything out of the ordinary.

Not this time though. Just short of Auchterlonie we found a cheetah sitting on the ridge, observing the valley.

She was kind enough to stand up at some point and therefore making it easier for me to establish that we had found
Hanri yet again

She soon wandered off the ridge towards the riverbed, but stopped in the top third to drop "dead" underneath a tree.
We decided to see if she would still be around later and carried on.

However, it turned out to be an otherwise extremely quiet day and we found ourselves back in the camp with nothing
further to report.

[Mel]

An interesting sighting at the waterhole was this kudu that had hooves like Aladin shoes
Actually, she came in a group of four and two of them sported those deformed hooves.

[Mel]

For the evening drive we of course were headed in Hanri's direction again. Arriving at the spot where we had left her in the morning
we first found a small colony of meerkats, but only one was inclined to pose for a photo.

[Mel]

We found Hanri underneath exactly the same tree again and settled down to stay with her as long as we could
before having to return to camp, hoping she would do something other than disappearing over the ridge. It cost
us a lot of patience as she seemed very comfortable in the place she was. It was getting later and later and no
sign of a movement from Hanri's side. We had actually already made the decision to leave when the SO noticed
that I wasn't my chirpy self. So I told him I found it hard to go because it might be the last time we ever saw
Hanri at all, that she might not be around anymore on our next trip. Hence, the SO suggested to stay longer then
and I was happy to oblige.

Call me superstitious or plain crazy, but I think Hanri wanted to reward us for our loyalty because once again she
eventually got up and walk down to the riverbed granting us yet another awesome sighting of her.

[Mel]

Seeing that she was moving towards the waterhole, we decided to drive to the access road for the picnic spot which
is situated just above the waterhole and wait for her to arrive.

[Mel]

We watched her drinking for a bit before we finally had to leave to make gate closing.
Not sure if the water was any good though looking at the faces she pulled

[Richprins]

How touching, Mello!

You'll see here again, I'm sure!

Do you take photos with you so as to ID them on the spot?

I'll pass the kudu/aladdin on for comment - put it up under strange behaviour so long?

[Sprocky]

What a cool sighting of Hanri.

[Alf]

Stunning cheetah pictures

Those hooves look really strange for a kudu

[Flutterby]

Stunning pics of Hanri!

I've seen a kudu like that in Kruger....I think it's called laminitis.