Flavour of the Month: February 2014 S65 Waterhole Road

[nan]

Tawny Eagle - 12.5.2011

[flying cheetah]

Thank you for all your great input here

As the month soon comes to an end I think it's time to report about my best sightings on this road and I will show you lots of pics that I never showed on any forum before

Afte the encounter with the cheetah on the signpost I had two more nights in Skukuza and early the next morning I returned to the signpost. As I expected there was no sign of my cheetah but far in the S65 there seemed to be something in the road. I took my binos and I saw.....2 cheetahs in the road I had to drive nearly 1 km to get to them and it was very hard to keep my nerves down and to drive within the speed limit. I had to drive nearly 1 km and when I got to them I noticed that there were not 2 but 3 cheetahs I was very lucky because there was no other car for more then 20 minutes and after a while the cheetahs ( a mother with 2 around 8 month old cubs) lost there shyness and became very familiar with my car. It was fantastic to notice the different character of te cubs and to see them playing, sniffing and running . They were always on the move ad delivered a great show. Here is the first set of pics:





















More pics to come

[flying cheetah]

And the next pics



















more pics to come...

[flying cheetah]

That was the last pic I took before a second car arrived. To my disgust I noticed that the copilot lost no time to report the sighting on the net and soon the cheetahs were chased into the bush. While driving on more than 20 cars passed me within 5 miunutes!!! What a shame Here are 2 more pics and you can actually see that the poor cheetahs were not as relxed as they were before...

[nan]

Gabar Goshawk - 12 mai 2011
*EDIT*

Lizard Buzzard
thank you Tina

[flying cheetah]

Thanks again for your replies.
@RP: when I arrived the cheetahs were very shy and I kept a good distance. After a short while they got familiar with me and even came very close to my car to have a look inside. When the second car arrived they were lying only a few meters infront of my car. The second car came from the other side and drove as close as possible to the cats, so they were cornered. No wonder they left the road and a bit later they left the scene


But that's not the end of the story. The following morning I thought I should have a look and try if the cheetahs show up again. And I found them, same spot, same time The cubs even sniffed at the same stones and climbed the same trees. And again I was alone with them for 25 minutes, not one of all the other people who rushed to the sighting the day before thought it's worth to drive the S65 as long as no sighting was reported Unfortunetely the end of the sighting also was the same, only this time it was a JJ who reported the sighting and then I knew what I had to do. I left straight away
Will post some more pics soon

[flying cheetah]

And they don't realize that it's much better to get good pics if you are a bit away. Especially if you have more than one animal and you want to get them all in one image

Here is the next set, more to come tomorrow:

[flying cheetah]

Thank you all for your support Next pics:



















One last set of pics to come...

[flying cheetah]

Thank you nan, Flutterby and Mel for your great support
Here are the last pics of one of my best sightings in Kruger:

















I think now you all can understand why the S65 is my favourite road in paradise and even if I drive there and see "nothing", there are always some trees and rocks that bring back some wonderful memories

[Richprins]

Brilliant, again, fc! It seems you like cheetahs! Great to see them in the trees...people often think they can't climb!


My own, Nov. 2012:












A great view as you head south and near the N'waswitshaka river!












Lion on both sides of the bridge/causeway....
















































A little 4x4 course at the watergat....gave me a chance to experiment with the traction control on my new luxury German hatchback from Wolfsburg!

















Traction control was required! And then the "watergat" overflow from the windmill...always water there...don't know how it works currently?