From Floods and Surprises in River beds

[Flutterby]

Looks like the boons were all posing for you!

[Richprins]

Aha! The poor bush cousins of the Satara district...not used to anything..

Plum-coloured starling!

Very nice in the bright sunshine, Pumbaa!

[Pumbaa]

The baboon pics are extraordinary! The one youngster sitting all the time on the throne is fantastic

Plum coloured starling

We had a great time in watching them and could have stayed longer but after a while they were gone

[Pumbaa]

Prettily colours birdies Same goes for the dragonfly too

And I'm sure the boons were interesting to watch I also like that pic with the baby riding on mum's back

We were so happy about such a variety of all the birdies during our trip

[Pumbaa]

Looks like the boons were all posing for you!

They were and on top extreme curious what we were doing there

[Pumbaa]

Aha! The poor bush cousins of the Satara district...not used to anything..

Plum-coloured starling!

Very nice in the bright sunshine, Pumbaa!

As already said the rain we experienced was over during our last days during our trip

[Pumbaa]

This part of that area was far dryer especially compared with the wet area close to Gudzani so after a fruitless visit at Ximanwaneni we needed to stretch our legs a bit and paid a visit to Mudzandzeni picnic spot which turned into a wise decision lateron…..so we decided to carry on the S36 and in a dry riverbed at one of the causeways we discovered a smaller elephant herd



smoothly crossing same and they were indeed in no hurry.



Not far we again had to stop as a couple of giraffes also had to cross the road



but as usual they had all the time in the world and so we even had time to take some nice close ups even with oxpeckers.



Another brilliant time we had with them



especially with some youngsters willing to pose



and we also had a lot of time and let them pass in their speed.





After we then carried on a couple of kilometres we noticed suddenly two cars parking in the road and the people were busy in staring at a far away bush, we asked what they were looking at and the magical word “cheetahs” was said and after they explained us very patiently under which bush the cheetahs were lying (the bushes indeed looked all the same and had all the same size) we finally saw a spotted head popping up from time to time but in the beginning we only stared at that bush



and settled and waited patiently for some movement from the cheetahs who met finally our wish and one of them sat up but still looked into the wrong direction…..



on top the grass was also relatively high in that area but we can be very patient and the cheetah



turned finally into the way we wanted same



and to our luck also the second one who was in the beginning invisible showed up as well



and even looked into our direction.

[Pumbaa]

Luckily for us from time to time clouds covered the sun and it was easier to photograph them





as in the midday sun the air already heated up extremely and even started to glimmer again



and as usual when standing longer at a sighting the birds showed up too and even sang us a song.



It was such a wonderful closure of our stay at Satara which so far was completely catless which was due to the rainy weather at least we guessed so



and on top cheetahs are indeed not a regular sighting in Kruger for us so we were twice happy.





Finally it got a bit more activity at the cheetahs and one started to clean itself



followed by a yawn



and after over an hour at that sighting one was even willing to stand up



only to start the playtime with its buddy





and turn into the sleepy part.



to be continued…….

[Alf]

Wow not easy to capture the cheetahs in that tall grass

[Flutterby]

Difficult to spot anything in that long grass!!