Africa Wild

07-08-2013

Joining us this morning for breakfast was a Brown hyena. It was 6.45am and still quite dark. He had his drink



and then walked towards us





and started marking the area where the spotted hyenas were at night





Did some more sniffing and









and then marked some more before he was satisfied





Today the temperature was a lovely and warm 6° and reached 23 in the late afternoon

Great behaviour pics of the BH marking territory.

We headed south again towards Lijersdraai. A beautiful sunrise but for the rest it was quiet.







No Safran or Tebogo nan but we did get some Namaqua Sandgrouse





The return journey was quiet too except for some haartebeest



At Grootkolk we enjoyed the birds at the water bath

Cape Glossy Starling



Red Headed Finch





Yellow Canary





Sociable Weaver




Red-eyed Bulbul

08-08-2013

We are off to Kalahari Tented Camp now for two days. We had a long drive ahead so we had a early start. The Brownie returned to drink and joining him was a jackal





The temperature started to drop again and we began with 0° and peaked only at 17°

At Kwang a lioness was drinking water but didn’t get good photos because she was walking away by the time we got there
Just south of Cubitjie Quap we saw our first cheetah of the trip and we had already spent 11 days in the Park
He popped his head up for us and this was all we saw of him



After that it was very quiet on the dune road and then onto the Auob Riverbed.

Once we settled in and unpacked we were off again and saw two Verreoux’s Eagle Owls







Martial Eagle in flight








Another Rock Kestrel

Mel wrote:The dune roads hardly ever deliver for us (if one ignores the odd
sleeping lion sighting -O ).

But a cheetah is not too bad. Like I already said to Duke on the
flavour of the month thread for KTP - ever since the collared
cheetahs aren't collared anymore, I have a hard time seeing any
in KTP. I know there still lots around as others (nan )
have great sightings of them.

Stunning martial in flight and also like the kestrel and the owls.

We're going back to KTC for the first time in years.
(Not by choice, I might add - Uri is not available at al this time )
Really curious to see what's cooking up there.

I don't mind KTC Mel. You cannot compare the waterhole to Uri but have had some great sightings at Sitzas and Craig Lockhart

Gertie coming up nan

Thanks Dewi

09-08-2013

Kalahari Tented Camp was cold, the temperature was starting to drop again, brrrrr...
The temperature started at -6° reaching a very low 15°
We still went out first thing in the morning but the animals had more sense than us It was very quiet with nothing moving except

a slender mongoose



even the giraffe wasn't moving



On the afternoon drive we saw three cheetah cubs near Sitza's but they were quite far from the road





Just as we were settling down with them they got up and moved further in and we realised Mom (Gertie) had called them









They went further up the dune and were just visible


So here we are discussing do we wait here and hope the cheetahs will come down for a drink or do we move on. The driver say he has a good feeling about 14 borehole and we on our way

So we head south. We don't see much till we get to 14 Borehole. We take the top road and enter 14 from the south. Nothing at the waterhole. Did we make a mistake

We drive on heading north when Miss Sharifa says, "Stop, Leopard"

Nothing unusual about that - I have heard that many times



Little did we know that over the next 40 minutes this would turn out to be an exceptional leopard sighting and one of our best sightings ever.

So what happened next -O

Hint: another animal is involved

Dewi wrote:You cannot leave us all hanging on in suspense. It's not fair. -O

Nice Cheetah pics.

All will be revealed soon Dewi -O

Penga Ndlovu wrote:Love it S&D.

PN

iNdlovu wrote:Good stuff here, superb TT. Ok so who was involved with the Leopard?

Thanks iNdlovu You have to guess who was involved with the leopard

Bushcraft wrote:Great cheetah sighting, but I’m wondering about your leopard sighting

Don’t leave us hanging. I have seen some of your amazing leopard sightings over the years and if this is up with the best then

This one is right up there BC

nan wrote:wonderful to see Gertie again and the three little
thank you
then Leopard... 14th... could be
... with Porcupine no to dangerous... Aardwolf... Aardwark... Pangolin... what else

Hmmm ... with Porcupine no to dangerous... Aardwolf... Aardwark... Pangolin... what else

Mel wrote:Miss Sharifa said "Leopard" - I've really grown fond of that,
and I'm not even in the lucky position next to her in the car. -O

My, those cubs have grown! I so hope that KTC will pay
off. So far, I saw them exactly once (at least they were still small
and fluffy and cute - now they're just cute ) and I think I'm
in for more.

Great sightings once again, Sharifa and Duke.
But I'm not impressed with the suspense

The cubs have grown and glad they still doing well You will be impressed soon

Wanda wrote:It is so lovely to see Gertie and her cubs again. They are gorgeous no matter what age. Thank you!
And now for 14th and.....
Ready and waiting S&D!

They are gorgeous Wanda and soon what we saw at 14

So what did we see at 14 -O Only nan has hazard a guess or three.

This is a long story and will be done in a number of episodes

Here is the deal - for each correct guess on what the other animal is I will donate a sum for Timbi

For Timbi - what do you think happened next

The leopard turned out to be Tsamma and she was a distance from the road. She came out into the open, walking in the riverbed





She climbed a tree and we were hoping that is not the end of the sighting but was down again in an instant and seemed to be eating something - tree rat ??



There was some tree hugging



sniffing



rolling around



spraying



and then she started walking again.



She stopped to look at us and this is when I was saying come to Mamma, hoping she will walk towards us.



Had I known then it was Tsamma, I would have said, come to Mamma, Tsamma -O