Having the Time of my Life revisited (October 2016)

[Alf]

Lovely birds in flight

Stunning bateleurs

[Mel]

PRWIN, Flutts, PJL, Richprins, Bushcraft, Pumbaa, Alf

Happy that you enjoyed the birdies and promise to have something more exciting up my sleeve for those of you who are not all to deep into the feathered ones

RP, in the Kgalagadi you'll often find the secretaries airborne when approaching waterholes. Easy, since they are far more common than in Kruger anyways

[Mel]

On the fourth morning of our stay, we decided to drive down to Lijersdraai and see if we could find Safran the leopard with her cub (about one year old as far as I gathered). For whatever reason, the northern Nossob leopards seem to like to drink around 8 am, if they do... Our late friend Rob had always gone down to Lijers to be there at that time to find Rosa and her cub back in October 2014. In six trips he did, he managed to see her once. But a quality sighting with Rosa and the cub posing and drinking and finally climbing one of the trees in the parking area at that waterhole. So, it obviously it was a long shot to travel there only once and hope to find something.

On our way we were delayed by a brown hyena just north of Kannaguass. We had probably missed it drinking there but even with the brownies operating like clockwork at Grootkolk waterhole at around 8 and 10 pm each night, we were happy to see one in daylight.

[Mel]

Approaching Lijersdraai, we found a variety of animals hanging around the waterhole and the overflow pools respectively. No leopard then, we guessed because all the animals didn't appear nervous just a little bit. Oh well, let's settle in and wait a bit... still not 8 am yet... Now for those who have never been there: You cannot see the waterhole from the road. There is a basically 200 metre slip-road just wide enought for one car and coming in you can't immediately see the waterhole. When we had reached the "peak" we saw wildebeest, oryx, jackals in good numbers. All of them. Seeing five jackals together should have given us food for thought... Anyway, we slowly drove down to one of the overflow puddles in order not to disturb any of the animals when all of a sudden the SO pointed at the shrubs behind said water and asked: "What's that there?" LEOPARD! No, actually two of them!

By now I have learned to "point and shoot" as quickly as I can because often enough sightings were over before I had managed a photo. So while the SO was still rolling to a halt I had the camera going already. The settings hadn't been ideal, as I had need much more light to capture the brown hyena in the road...

[Mel]

I managed about ten shots in rapid succession before I took the camera down to adjust the settings and settling in for a wonderful leopard sighting. The cub had still been sitting in the shrubs and all I could see of it was the head and the front, but I thought I'd take some photos of it once it came closer. Only... it never did. Before we knew what was happening, Safran was bolting



And with that her cub was obviously gone too

[Mel]

Spots and I looked at each other - not really sure what was going on? It couldn't have been us as we were rolling towards the water and Safran had moved in from the other side without bothering. So, if it wasn't us, it couldn't have been another car either. Or had it? We turned around. Nothing... But why...? The SO looked some more and discovered two spotted hyenas moving in from the east, aka behind us. WHAT??? Who needs spotted hyenas when you've got a major leopard sigthing? The string of expletives I must have uttered seemed to have made a serious impression on the SO as he would tell anyone we talked about that leopard sigthing afterwards. But I was gutted. I felt betrayed. The first proper leopards sighting in anons and then the flipping spotted hyenas move in? Gimme a break! Sure, they are a fantastic sighting for themselves in the Kgalagadi, but not when they scare off leopards! I was livid and it took me quite some time to appreciate the sighting that followed.

And now a warning... the next pix will be a bit gross...

[nan]

[Mel]

We then noticed the eland carcass that was lying right next to the original waterhole. That had obviously been the reason for the spotties to move in. And boy, they did enjoy their trophy! First task at hand... drag the carcass into the waterhole and produce some broth

[Mel]

Even the jackals had their fill and one was suffering of constipation

[Mel]

When it got too hot to handle, the older hyena dragged the carcass into the shade.