Awesome Mashatu

[pedro maia]

This next game drive would be our last in Mashatu, since next morning we would go for another activity before starting the long way back home,

In the heat the game drive started slowly in terms of sightings, in our first stop we managed to photograph this 2 elands, a difficult task until then because they are quite skittish. I hadn´t seen eland before this trip to Mashatu and I don´t find them very pretty but it is always nice to see a new species.



Further on the way, after a bend we started to descend to the river and we bumped into this ellies family in their favourite activity, mud bathing





When they finnished their bath they decided to take the path where we were with the engine turned off, but they were really relaxed and just passed by us, really close from the car, and went their way.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY9C5Qua5Io

And then we had another great sighting, we found the cheetah we had been following during the morning drive, she had killed an impala and was feeding on it on the dry river bed.

[Flutterby]

Wow, what an amazing sighting and fantastic pics!!

[Alf]

Really amazing pictures of the cheetah. How many times have you visited this place?

[Richprins]

Interesting the almost stripeless eland!

Also very informative cheetah feeding pics, Pedro. As a rule they eat the organs first, along with starting at the buttocks which are rich in meat. This is because they want to get maximum food for time spent, before hyenas come to chase them away, or lions. So she seems to feel she has time? Difficult to see...

[Lisbeth]

Great close-ups of the cheetah eating

You are right, the elands are not pretty, but in return they are big

[Mel]

In both camps (tented camp and main camp) we had our meals with the other guests from our vehicule and our ranger, but I guess that if you want a private dinner they will do it, in the room I don´t know.

They have a limit of 6 guests per vehicule and in the tented camp it was only us and 2 other guests, in the main camp it was great because we were only 6 guest in the camp and we only had one game drive with all the 6, and another game drive me and my wife were the only guests, so it was like a private game drive (that happens because there are other activities in Mashatu, but more on that later).

Thanks for the info! And patiently waiting for more

[Mel]

That cheetah sighting was a bit gooey But magnificent nonetheless

The elands are beautifully captured too

[pedro maia]

Thanks for the comments .

[pedro maia]

Really amazing pictures of the cheetah. How many times have you visited this place?

It was my first time, but I wouldn´t mind returning.

[pedro maia]

Also very informative cheetah feeding pics, Pedro. As a rule they eat the organs first, along with starting at the buttocks which are rich in meat. This is because they want to get maximum food for time spent, before hyenas come to chase them away, or lions. So she seems to feel she has time? Difficult to see...

She was in the river bed in the open, it should be around 4 pm and it was quite hot, I think at that time of the day the other predators are not as active as cheetahs and maybe that´s why she did seem quite confortable and didn´t feel the need to rush, but that may be just speculation.

It´s curious what you mention about the organs because in the previous pictures of the leopard feedind on the impala you can see that she didn´t touch the stomach, our ranger said the reason was to avoid spreading the smell which would attract competition. What I don´t know is why the leopard dind´t take that impala to the tree, maybe because it was to big for her?