Africa Wild

I wonder if we did see those lions when they were still in their prime.
The blind one seems to have been quite a beau in his time.

Christmas Eve in Nossob

24 December and we were up bright and early, and first at the gate, waiting to go south.
Our plan, do Maries and then, sighting dependant, head down to Dikbaardskolk and back.



We stopped briefly to admire the sun rising over the Nossob




Further on, as we drove into the Rooikop loop we realised that we had just been given a very early Christmas present.
Three lionesses with three cubs in tow were at the waterhole



Lion cubs are one of Debbie’s favourite, especially when they are jolling around the place

Playtime


No words needed
.










After a while they moved away from the waterhole area and onto the road



What a pretty lady



And cub



They suddenly changed their minds, as cats do, and returned for another drink





Before moving off into the dunes to the west, where they parked off for the day





We carried on south, very happy with our morning so far

What a great start

Those lion cubs looks so cute

What a lovely Christmas sighting

Wonderful start

That is a very cool Christmas sighting

Fantastic start, Gavin,

especially with all these cute Lion cubs and all the colourful birdies

Thanks everyone, as always, for your awesome comments

Christmas Eve continued....

On Maries se Draai we spotted a far away brown hyena just near the water hole, walking away, as well as a few Gemsbok at the waterhole itself
They were however, overshadowed by this rather splendid slender mongoose posing on a tree near the waterhole



Carrying on down south, the road was quiet, but this starling made up for the boredom.
It looks like something out of a Science Fiction movie with those angry eyes



At Kaspersdraai, we found a couple of flat lions at the waterhole, two males and a female.







They were not moving so we carried on down to Dikbaardskolk for coffee
The rest of the drive was pretty quiet, but we did see this Lanner briefly before it took off



I’m not sure what was annoying the birds in the Kgalagadi today, but these drongos back in camp looked as annoyed as the starling we saw earlier.



After spending a time chilling back in camp, we took a slow drive back down to Rooikop in the hope of seeing the lions again. Unfortunately, no luck.
The highlight of our evening drive was the sunset as we made our way back to camp.





That evening Debbie decided to retire early and I decided to take a walk down to the hide to see what was going on



When I got there, it was chaos.
A lion pride with cubs were at the waterhole, the one lioness being very vocal
I ran back to inform my sleepy wife about what was going on, and after a brief return to the hide, we decided to call it a day.

Too many people and we were too tired to try and jostle for a position in the hide.

We also needed to get ready for our trip up to Polentswa the next day.

Beautiful slender mongoose and a very grumpy starling

Lovely pic of the Lanner

Fat lions!