Africa Wild

Sprocky wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2012 12:25 pm

Today's "double sighting" will be titled...The Stand-off on the H14.

A bit of a long story today, but this is how it goes...

Yesterday evening the SO received an SMS saying that there is a Lion kill at the Ngwenyeni water hole. We decided to brave the crowds and take a look. There must have been about 20-30 cars at the gate, most of them behind us as we were there just after 05h00. The rain had just started falling again so we decided to go via the H14 instead of the S131. What a wise call! We saw 8 Tortoise on the H9 all drinking from the pools of rain on the road. Doing 40Kph not to waste time getting to the kill, we were over taken by quite a few cars, even some towing caravans. Thankfully all of them carried on straight towards Letaba, except for one local that I could see was on a mission to get to the kill. Anyways, onto the H14 with one car getting further and further ahead of us. I told the SO that we will take it easy as the kill is going nowhere.

Suddenly it all started. The first contender in the stand-off walked onto the road and headed in the same direction as us. We couldn't believe our luck, right in front of us. z0z Let me introduce you to the first contender...



While watching this young man we noticed movement in the road a short distance behind us. We could not believe our eyes or our luck! Ladies and gents, contender number two...



These cats were not even 100m apart. They were eyeing each other and both very alert. In this next pic the Leopard is clear, the Lion is in the bend in the middle of the road. This was the only angle that I could get both of them in the same shot.



To be continued shortly...

Sprocky wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2012 12:26 pm We decided to stay close to the Leopard as we thought that he would move away soon. BTW, we were the only car witnessing this event. The Leopard gave me time for a few pics before moving into the bush.



Soon enough he was gone, :( and we headed towards the Lion after turning the car around. As we headed off, there he was, on top of a termite mound. :D



He kept on watching the Lion.



We watched him on the hill for more than half an hour, and it was raining the entire time. After a while he chilled a bit and relaxed, and started grooming himself.



More to come...

Sprocky wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2012 12:28 pm It was now time to spend a few minutes with the Lion. When we got to him he was taking a long drink.



With him not being phased by us at all we decided to get a bit closer.



We could hear every action of his tongue and jaw while he was drinking.



All of a sudden after a few minutes he gave a roar, jumped up and ran into the bush. Once I had calmed the SO and LO down we headed for the kil, our original reason for popping in today.

Sprocky wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2012 12:29 pm The kill was exactly what I had expected,...a couple of Lions still feeding and a few more lying down trying to keep out of the rain.



Can you believe that a kill could be boring. -O



Our plans for the day had changed dramatically. We were going to check out the kill, then head to Letaba for a bite. Well now I said, stuff that, I am going to collect my newly repaired PC and look at the pics.



We were out of the gate at 08h05, had a quick breakfast, collected the PC and tried to get all working the way it should.

What a day!!! / 0:0 O_ OY O00