BELOVED KALAHARI - Our Home Away From Home

[Lisbeth]

Thank you for the squirrels I them!

Great lion sequence

Is it still the same "Charlie" which I saw in 2017

The fox in the road has a hilarious expression

Beautiful cheetahs

[nan]

wow.... delicious chapters, again
love the playfulness Lions
the cloud is magnificent... without rain alas
and Charly the Fax but this one in the road live dangerously indeed

[Mel]

Since I had to catch up on two instalments, it was basically like a KTP holiday for myself... All the known ones were there

Those lions are up to no good And look how fat they are

Can't wait to get back to meet all the big and small friends again. And very much looking forward to be entertained by squirrels in camp.
Would mind some of the bigger critters either. (Top of all cheetahs, of course...)

Talking about cheetahs:

The male at 14th loop is Shesha - one of the two blokes who got into that fatal fight with Gandalf and Gustav. Like Gandalf, Shesha's mate Gijima died during / right after that encounter. We don't know if Shesha and Gijimas were brothers or just formed a coalition since they only popped up as (young) adults. What date did you see Shesha? He was down at Batulama on the 12th October. Would be interesting to see how quickly he covered the distance back up (or down south, depending on when you saw him).

And the girl in the shade is Hannah, Hanri's 2017 offspring. (Was this on the 5th October?) Very jealous of that sighting. Haven't seen her since she was a subadult Having said that - I've never seen Shesha in my life so far. So there goes a huuuge bucket list for April

[Pumbaa]

WoW exFmem,

what incredible sightings you had - Simply love the hard working lions and the cheetahs

The little foxes as well as the squirrels are extreme cute and on top another bunch of insects

[Richprins]

Astounding stuff, Ex!

The squirrels are great!

And so nice to see and hear lions being active, ja a group roaring is quite spellbinding!

They cannot resist plastic and rubber, for some reason...

Interesting the short armoured antennae on the grasshopper!

Never knew there were rabbits there!

[ExFmem]

Sis - Thanks, as always. Don't know if it is "Charlie" or not, but I assume so. Maybe Mel would know more about it.

nan - Thanks for the nice comment - yes, I loved the cloud formation as well.

Mel - Yes, that lion youngster's belly was HUGE. Have a GREAT visit, and I'll be anxiously awaiting your own TT. Thanks for the cheetah IDs - Shesha was seen on Sept.28 and Hannah on Oct.6.

Pumbaa - Thank you!

RP - Yes, we don't see hares very often ourselves, but maybe only 2-4 times in all of our trips.

[ExFmem]

The ever adorable African Wild Cat








Black-breasted Snake Eagle













This encounter was VERY far away, so no good pics, but the interaction of the cobra with 3 squirrels was interesting to watch. The squirrels seem more curious than afraid, until the cobra rears up in strike mode. But they always returned for a closer look, until the cobra finally got away from them.





A couple of mongooses

[ExFmem]

Martial Eagles












This skink was hunting insects, both flies and butterflies...










Turtle




The ever plentiful Tawny Eagle

















This cheetah was seen just over the dune on the Lower Dune Road near Kij Kij, but we never got more than a head shot for ID. (Seen Oct. 10)

[ExFmem]

Thar I wuz...

This entry about creepy crawlies is a bit different than my usual delight at seeing them.

One night at a Mata Mata river cabin we were both sound asleep when we start hearing PLOP, PLOP, PLOP, then feeling soft squishy "things" falling on us, including our faces. What the heck??!! We got up, turned our flashlight on, as the electricity was off, and saw worms/caterpillars EVERYWHERE. The floor, our bedding, even our clothes were dotted with worms.

I love bugs, but I draw the line at them being on my face in the middle of the night - the trick was not to roll over so I wouldn't squish them, or sleep with my mouth open...yuck. We both buried ourselves under the covers and tried to sleep, but kept hearing the splats the rest of the night.

Early the next morning we took the bedding and made "tents" over our beds for the next night. We were told they come in thru the thatched roofs and there was nothing they could do, except clean the floors. It wasn't a big deal, but was kinda creepy, having never heard of this or experiencing it in all our years of travel.

The following night we slept under our "tents", but there were far fewer of them, thank goodness.

[nan]

and again magnificent episode, I love..... well I love all
and laugh about the tent (in a tent)