Africa Wild

Maybe it is a good thing that we only had this frog sighting on our second last day in the park….it pretty much pales everything in comparison but I did promise you a bit of a trip report so best I share a few more things with you all.
So on my wish list was a decent sighting of a Cape Fox or a Bat-eared Fox. By decent I mean “close up and not running away.” We had moved over to Urikaruus from Rooiputs and had decided to do a drive up north in the afternoon. We left fairy late in the afternoon and only had enough time to go to 14th Borehole. On the way back to Urikaruus we got lucky and came across a Cape Fox lying next to it’s den close to the side of the road.
For all intents and purposes my wish had been granted…here was a Cape Fox, close to us and it didn’t run. As a matter of fact the fox pretty much put us on ignore and didn’t budge at all. Unfortunately we had to budge though as there was a small matter of gate closing time that had to be attended to. We took the Co-ords of the den so that we could check in on it the next morning and headed back to camp.



Well our luck was in the next morning but as we slowly pulled up the three foxes scattered. One ran off into the riverbed, one disappeared into the den and the third hid behind the tree





We quietly sat and waited…eventually the one behind the tree came out of hiding and other that had disappeared into the den reappeared.



They half-heartedly played with each other….



and very kindly posed for me…as if to say “we are tired, we have been playing all night long…the show is over.



Well I for one was very happy with that little show…I wanted some close-up photos of foxes and certainly got them .

Gorgeous foxie shots, Michelle,

my favourite is the second one

Pumbaa wrote:Gorgeous foxie shots, Michelle,

my favourite is the second one

Thank you Pumbaa..:) I rather like the second one as well...:)

I love them!!! And they were certainly some of the stars (we had an amazing trip!) of our last trip in October - 37 different individuals and most of them were pups back then. But I somehow got the feeling that we never saw this bunch... Where exactly was this sighting? We had some at the northern exit of the 13th loop, but not next to the road. And slightly further north of 14th waterhole. Again, not next to the road. The only ones so close were towards the south (one close to Rooibrak / Montrose with that large tree where you can drive around, basically into the riverbed and the others between Batulama and Gemsbokplein).

What astounding photography, Michele!

You use light very well, and the second one is well-constructed and daring, as the photo elite would say!

Michele, your fox pictures are awesome!!

Mel wrote:I love them!!! And they were certainly some of the stars (we had an amazing trip!) of our last trip in October - 37 different individuals and most of them were pups back then. But I somehow got the feeling that we never saw this bunch... Where exactly was this sighting? We had some at the northern exit of the 13th loop, but not next to the road. And slightly further north of 14th waterhole. Again, not next to the road. The only ones so close were towards the south (one close to Rooibrak / Montrose with that large tree where you can drive around, basically into the riverbed and the others between Batulama and Gemsbokplein).

Mel..this den was between Urikaruus and 13th. We only spent 2 nights at Urikaruus but our friends spent 4 nights..the next day they drove north and witnessed Bat -eared Foxes taking over the den..Good-bye Cape Foxes...:)

Flutterby wrote:Michele, your fox pictures are awesome!!

Thx Flutts :)

Richprins wrote:What astounding photography, Michele!

You use light very well, and the second one is well-constructed and daring, as the photo elite would say!

Thank you RP...I am beginning to realise that there is no such thing as bad light...one just needs to get creative. And when one gets such lovely comments one realises that one's creativity is not in vain....thank you :)

My cheetah wish list sighting happened on the same day as our Cape Fox sighting.

We left Urikaruus at about 5 pm or so and drove north. Just before we got to the end of 13th Borehole loop we came across a traffic jam. It didn’t take us long to spot the cheetah family up on the dune. Mom with 4 cubs. They sat and surveyed the cars for a while…we sat and watched and waited for a while…2 can play that game. :). One by one the cubs decided to walk down the dune and picked on a tree. They were chasing each other round and round the tree. In turn they each tried to climb the tree..the competition was on to see who climb the highest. Mostly they got stuck and ended up falling out the tree. The fun and games went on for a while and afforded us much entertainment. Eventuallly Mom pulled the plug on the fun and she walked off…her cubs dutifully following her. This was the cheetah sighting I had been hoping for..the cubs had put on a delightful show for us. The photographic opportunities were not of the best...but hey I had wanted an awesome cheetah sighting....again the KTP had not disappointed :) :)