Imfolozi Browns July 2024

[Bushcraft]

The cheetah all lay down, so we positioned the cars, switched off, and waited with the hope that they would stand up or move again. My patience isn’t the best and the hamster head often takes over, so after 15 minutes I started chirping

“Where’s an impala when you need one”

“If an impala shows up, they will chase instantly”

“It would be perfect if an impala popped up on the other side of the road, so the cheetah cross in front of us”

Others were participating in the fantasy “what if” story, but another 5 minutes passed and still no movement, so distraction started setting in and we were chatting and checking out other animal movements in the valley, etc when suddenly there was cheetah movement.

“There, they up!”

“#@%, they moving, there’s an impala!”

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This was when the penny dropped that it was actually a mother with 3 young adults/teenagers. The mother had spotted an impala that had popped it’s head up about 50m in on the other side of the road, so she was instantly on a mission and heading straight towards us at pace and she seemed to be utilizing our vehicles to hide her view from the impala ram.

The tension obviously escalated dramatically in our vehicle and I laugh about it now, but unbeknown to the Cow and I, Bushpig had forewarned Turtlehead that things can get “tense” in our car at certain sightings and that he mustn’t be concerned about it as it’s standard practice and there may be a few pelicans at the time, however things return to normal soon afterwards.

The fast-approaching cheetah mother was on the Cow’s side, so I was trying to photograph through the Cow’s window while she was trying to video, therefore we were fighting for space and the Cow’s head kept getting in front of the camera, which excited the situation more.

“Quick, operate, take pics!”

“$##t mind your head!”

“I’m videoing!”

“Stuff the video!”

“$##t, she’s too close now! Pass the other lens!”

“I’m videoing!”

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To be continued

[nan]

[Bushcraft]

Hey nan

I hope all is good

Unfortunately the "action" falls flat

[Bushcraft]

Saturday 5th July continued

The mother cheetah then crossed the road right in front of our car and instantly went into stalk mode.

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Chaos then erupted as the teenagers also started running straight at our car and 2 of the 3 shot past the front of the car in a blink of an eye.

“Here come the others!”

“$##t, too fast!”

The mother cheetah took off at pace after the impala a second later.

“THERE, she’s after the impala. $##t!”

The impala ram fired up his afterburners, pulled off an impressive side step, some kamikaze leaps over shrubs, etc and disappeared out of sight into thick bush with the mother cheetah in pursuit close behind.

We once again stuffed up the photography thing and ended up with blurred pics of bushes, half a cheetah and an impala bum as the speed was too much for our amateur photographic skills. Fortunately the teenagers hit the brakes and nervously hung around close to us while looking in the direction of where the mother had disappeared, so we had the opportunity to take some more pics of them.

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[Bushcraft]

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Around a minute later the teenagers starting making the odd call and minutes later the mother cheetah reappeared and it was clear that she had missed out on the impala. The teenagers regained some confidence now that they could see mom and took off after each other in some sort of game, but the mother cheetah didn’t seem to be in the mood for boisterous teenagers so she turned and headed towards a distance bush to lay down and soon the teenagers followed.

The view of the new cheetah position wasn’t that great and they seemed to be settling down for the afternoon, so we snapped one last pic and headed on the short drive back to Gqoyeni while grinning and chatting like excited vervets because it had been a great cheetah sighting, however we stopped once for a kudu next to the road.

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We arrived back in camp just before 2pm and found a large herd of ellies cruising around in front of the viewing deck, so the Cow and I parked off to watch them and everyone else did their own thing around camp.

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[Bushcraft]

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While on patrol around camp Albert ambushed Bushpig and Turtlehead with a pic and also found a large snake skin directly outside Bushpig’s unit and then they found another in Bushpig’s bathroom, so the war stories started and Albert had a cheesy ripping her sister off about potentially having a snake in her unit, but it backfired because Albert then found a snake skin in her own unit’s roof.

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[Bushcraft]

The odd elephant, nyala, impala, wartie and boon showed up throughout the afternoon, but at around 4pm we decided to cruise 5km down the road to where we had last seen the cheetah.

The cheetah teenagers were parking off in the open about 100m from where we had seen them earlier and the mom was 20m further in under a bush.

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Another car arrived, a father and young son team, and they kept signalling to us with their hands in the air, so we all pointed to the 3 cheetahs, but minutes later more hands in the air, therefore I shouted out the window while pointing at the cheetah.

“Cheetah, there in the open”.

More hand waving, so the Cow also tried to point out the obvious.

I’m not certain if it was the sun setting behind the cheetahs that was causing the issue, but minutes later more waving of hands, however this time the father opened his car door and stood up next to the car and his kid climbed out on the window, so I started to lose my marbles.

“HEY, get back in the car, you going to scare the cheetah!”

Then the idiot decided to casually walk over to our car and my cylinder head popped

“$%&*@ Get back in your effing car. I will arrest you!”

The idiot turned tail and headed back to his car, but now the Cow was cackling like a chicken which wasn’t helping my temper.

“You will arrest him. Whahahahaha!”

Eventually the son suddenly got overexcited and it was clear that they had finally seen the obvious right in front of them, but they had ruined the vibe, so we decided to go for a leg stretch and walkaround at view point 17 just up the road, but stopped for some buffalo on route.

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We hovered around the view point for 10 minutes, however there wasn’t much animal movement, so we cruised back towards where the cheetah were, but to our surprise the cheetah and the father son clown combo had moved off.

It was now just after 5pm, all were hungry and we thought that we may get lucky around camp as the sleeping lions from earlier in the day got mobile, so we headed that direction, however only a few of the usual clan, including some rhinos made an appearance.

I started the fire “pit” and braai fire as soon as we got back to camp as the temperature was dropping rapidly again, so soon everybody had jackets on and the fire on the floor gained in popularity.

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[Bushcraft]

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The night noises started, including the odd hyena, however the lions we expected to hear never materialized and no gate-crashing cane rats arrived, but there was the odd movement in the surrounding bush to keep attentive interest alive due to the lack of fences.

The kitchen assistant had made a salad for us and he done the normal fancy dining room table setting before knocking off work, so we cruised inside to eat.

After chow we all cruised off to the hide for a last look around before going to our units and to our surprise the cane rats were out and about directly below the hide.

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We sat watching the rats for around 10 minutes and then everyone ducked off to their units to shower, etc, before the generator went off at 10pm.

I was just getting organised to climb in bed and the Cow was already in bed when suddenly she received a WhatsApp message, which was a surprise because there is generally no signal, and it was Albert, supposedly something had banged into her unit and was cruising around outside, so the Cow instructed me to investigate.

It was freezing cold outside and I had already showered to warm up, so I roared down the walkway to Albert’s unit and she answered her back door with a towel on her pip and large eyes.

“Something hit the side of the unit!”

I admittedly hadn’t paid much attention to the surroundings when approaching her unit’s back door because of the rush to escape the cold, but Albert’s story seemed legit, so I carefully opened the front door and instantly also got a skrik as a bushpig burst from under her unit and took off into the bush.

“PIGS! You got pigs digging and snuffling around under your unit.”

The pigs roared off in the direction of the hide, which was around 40m away, so I ducked back out the unit’s back door and to the hide with the hope of a better view.

It was a little creepy in the hide in the pitch dark so my head was on a swivel, therefore when Albert suddenly arrived out of the dark about a minute later with a towel still on her pip, I got another major skrik as my brain didn’t immediately comprehend the dark alien shape.

“WTF”

“Do you see them still?”

“Yes, there!”

There were a couple of pigs cruising around in the Gqoyeni riverbed and Albert suggested that I should try and take pics, so I left Albert to keep watch over the pigs and roared off back to our unit to get the camera.

The Cow wasn’t keen to get out of the warm bed, even with my hyped-up pig story and the fact that her youngest was out in the dark alone with no fences, so I quickly grabbed the camera and ducked back, but forgot the proper torch.

The pigs had moved a little further up the river by the time I got back and the torch we had wasn’t functioning too well, so the camera wouldn’t focus and it was way out of flash range, but you can vaguely see 1 of the pigs in the “pic” below.

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The pigs started to head back towards Albert’s unit, therefore we did the same thing and ended up on her veranda balcony, but the they were staying in the bush line and our torch was dying by the minute, so we called it and I ducked back to my unit.

To be continued

[Richprins]

Yoh, all sorts again, Bushy!

Cats all over the place, and awesome general sightings!

It does look like a lovely setting without too much driving.

And what excitement with the cheetahs!

I see one youngster also has the disgusting barefoot habit.

Very entertaining!

[Bushcraft]

Yoh, all sorts again, Bushy!

Cats all over the place, and awesome general sightings!

It does look like a lovely setting without too much driving.

And what excitement with the cheetahs!

I see one youngster also has the disgusting barefoot habit.

Very entertaining!

I'm not so sure about "cats all over the place" and Imfolozi. We were lucky as it can be a mission at Imfolozi to find cats when compared to KNP.

The setting is very cool and correct, the driving is minimal by comparison to the mileage one does in KNP

Sasquatch sometimes doesn't wear shoes What's wrong with that