A Fantarantulatastic Trip To Kruger - April 2017

[Lisbeth]

Nice birds The snake eagle could also be a brown one

Lucky with the lions

The log looks very convincing

[PJL]

The snake eagle could also be a brown one

Agreed - difficult to tell them apart when young

[Richprins]

Beautiful leopard, Peej!

Ja, lion has other priorities!

I also think brown snake eagle...

[nan]

me too... going for a Brown

[PJL]

Beautiful leopard, Peej!

me too... going for a Brown

When looking at the description and photos of the juvenile black-chested one it seemed to have more lighter sections which this one had round its head so I was leaning that way initially... one day it will grow up and know for itself

[PJL]

I like the leopard log! Nice of the wildebeest to get the lions up for you.

Very kind of them

Stared last year on such a leopard log and hardly could see anything especially no Leopard but the others swore that there was a leopard

Brilliant bird and giraffe shots and for sure the lions must have been a highlight

Thanks Pumbaa. I'm sure a leopard ducked across the road but the moment they hit that long grass they get lost from view very quickly

Love the “leopard log” We have been caught so many times

You scored with a few lion couples They disappear in the grass

Yep we did see plenty of lion couples, but not really any prides to speak of this time

[PJL]

April 3rd Continued

We had booked onto a sunset game drive, so we had plenty of time for a relaxing lunch and afternoon swim. Our hope was that the guide might shed some light on specific areas which were good for certain species as well as increasing our chances of seeing some of the nocturnal animals.

The relaxation was great and whilst everyone was swimming I popped across to the shop for something where I overheard some talk about cheetah just outside the camp... really?? It was worth a shot so I forgot about the shopping and ran back to drag the rest of the family out the pool and off we went for a quick game drive in our swim stuff

The grapevine news was correct! Less than a km out the gates we came across a few cheetah in different shady spots, and as they slowly moved we found that there were four males together











The tall grass and heat haze was making them very difficult to photograph, but we were just thrilled to see them





There was a short pose on a rise from one of them, but in general they were staying in the shade - it was a hot afternoon





After a while the last one of the group wandered over to join his mates in the shade and they all dropped down out of view





It had been a very unexpected bonus sighting

[Lisbeth]

Admirable to get into the car in your swimming stuff in order "maybe" to see a cheetah Luckily there were no less than four of them

[nan]

the chance... four Cheetahs

[stefan9]

Awesome photo's, very nice trip report.