It's so dusty, the animals can't see...*

[Mel]

The last sighting of this day was the SO breaking the rule and getting out of the car



And actually it had been the third time already

That Jeep had gotten stuck in the sandy stretches somewhere around Uri the first time. When we arrived at the scene a Hilux 4x4 driver was trying to pull them out, but failed because the Jeep was too heavy. Luckily that beast of camper truck arrived and the (German!) lady proved excellent driving skills and got the Jeep out. While the Hilux and the Beast decided to carry on with their respective game drives and told us to go ahead, we travelled with the Jeep for about another 3 kays before they got stuck again. No use in us trying to get them out if the other Hilux didn't manage either. So we settled down for the wait because we knew that the Beast would show up eventually. It did and it pulled out the Jeep again. This time it lasted all of 200 metres before it got stuck again. By then everyone was fed up with applying and taking off the tow rope all the time, so the Beast's passenger walked the Jeep for a bit to see if it would be alright now.



I nearly wet my pants!

At the end only the best things come out of situations like that - you make new friends! But we also heard that not everyone is prepared to help you when you got a problem. Well, tough luck, I think. Because good things will always come back to good people and the same goes for the opposite.

[Mel]

24 October - Mata Mata

Seeing that we were waking up in a main camp with quite a few eager beavers who wanted to get out at gate opening, we decided to fall behind a bit and left only around 6.30 am.

About 12 kays down the road, Spots asked what was darting across the road? Binocs told me it was an African wild cat But by the time we arrived at the scene, the cat had ducked into the shrubs, sometimes an ear visible, sometimes not even that. But hey, what was that?

A second one



Never before had we seen two cats together! What a treat!

[Mel]

Further on I saw a black-shouldered kite sitting in a tree quite close to the road. We had to stop for that one because it's been some time since I was last offered a good photo opportunity of them. In fact, we only had the odd sighting of them for the last 3 or 4 trip. This individual turned out to be really accommodating - he didn't fly off and took great interest in me.



Next up was a spotted eagle owl in a tree to your right (very close to the road!) about 100 metres north of the northern entrance to the 14th loop.



And since there was a second one in the very same tree sitting on a nest, I assume they'll hang out there for a while.

[Mel]

Two colourful birdies also asked to be included in the travel tale

Bee-eater enjoying breakfast...



...and lilac-breasted roller still looking for the same.

[Mel]

The last pic of the morning drive was spent on some more cute springbok lambs.

[Mel]

The evening drive revealed nothing at all, apart from...

It's so dusty, the animals can't see

[Mel]

And while we were having dinner that night - pasta salad for a nice change to all the meat we had devoured so far - a male lion found his way to the old waterhole in front of the hide.



That guy was part of a group of four who would cost us our sleep that night. The roaring was on and off and there was quite some commotion going on in the middle of the night. I basically didn't sleep from around 1 am until the wee hours. But it was flipping hot anyway. So maybe I can't blame it on the lions only. They were still there very early the next morning, but once the sun had created some light for possible photos, the bunch had vanished down the riverbed.

[Mel]

25 October - Mata Mata

That morning we left the camp around 6.20 am and that was probably the reason why we got to see a bit more of one of those AWCs from the day before. One of them was pretty much at the distance from the camp than the previous morning. With a "minor" difference: in the riverbed and better visible.



So, AWC to start off again means this would turn out to be another productive day. I was certain about that. And I really mean. My gut always tells me if we'll be seeing something exciting or if it'll be a long, boring day. So far, it has betrayed me only twice. Once to the positive and once to the negative.

[Mel]

Once the cat had hopped into the tree for the day, we proceeded further south. Arriving at the northern entrance of Dalkeith, we had to decide whether to take the loop or the dune road above it. Since the latter had proven itself quite productive in the past, we opted for that route. Plus, you can see the waterhole from the dune road and check with the binocs for any lions. That was our exact wording. Whereas the dune road stayed quite, I told Spots that there were indeed lions at the waterhole, after checking with the binocs. But why are there cars parked not with the lions? Decisions, decision, decisions... Should we go and check those cars out and what the might have or should we rather go for the safe option and look at the lions before they disappeared?

Unfortunately, we weren't adventurous enough and picked the reliable option. Had I just known... The other cars had stood with four cheetahs. Luckily, I never found out if they were still around at the time we went to the waterhole or if the cars were just sitting there to see if the spotted cats would re-appear from the dunes. Like that I can tell myself that I wouldn't have seen them any because they had vanished for sure. But darn! Two minutes, maybe five too late for my favourite cat.

It didn't help really that the lions at Dalkeith waterhole turned out to be a sad affair. They were pretty thing and one of the young males was really bad off:



All skins and bones and the fur didn't look healthy either.

Since it was pretty busy with lots of cars hanging out there, Spots and I preferred to escape the crowd and travel further south.

[Mel]

Arriving at the road to the 14th borehole we once again had to make up our mind if we should enter the loop or take the dune road. We're creatures of habit, so dune road it was. But we pulled into the loop at the southern entrance to check out the waterhole. Pretty empty... However there were 2 cars parked further up. Obviously, we went to investigate and found another wild cat And it kept quickly running towards us. All I had to do was sit and wait till it had come level with our car.





This one looks really ladylike, methinks, tail up and all.



Okay, two wild cats and four lions... we might as well return to the camp. Could hardly get better, seeing that the heat was building up again.