I woke with my teeth chattering and was about to swear at the Cow for putting the air-con on, but couldn’t even see her under the pile of blankets. A massive cold front had come through and for a KZN gang it was freezing. I hoped while packing the car that Satara would be warmer, but I knew it was wishful thinking.
It was 5 degrees at 6:30am when we got in the car and the wind was blowing which made it even worse, so I was battling to maintain “the open window principle”, but others were committed, therefore I had to tie a scarf around my head again to stop my ears falling off; however this always results in a few “skeef” looks from other visitors.
An alpha loop leopard had been hanging around, so that was our first mission at 5km/h because it was still rather dark so we were battling to see anything, however around the halfway mark the Cow squawked “There……….lion?” which left me in limbo, but then “LION!” which left no doubt.
A lion couple were having a drink in the riverbed, so we stopped to watch them, however it wasn’t long before the “What do you see’s” pulled in, but most even after being told still had blank faces and the one car even drove off, so we were only left with the trusting ballies next to us who got a big skriek as the lions cruised out the bush next to us.
It was clear they were also going to cross the tar, so we ducked that direction but as we hit the tar they crossed about 30m down the road, so we continued on with our slow cruise down the H4-1.
Next up was a tree full of green parrots which got the Cow excited and then a few cars stopped in Steve’s territory but only his pip was visible and the gang was growing, so we moved on.
Just before the H12 Bridge the local lion pride showed themselves but a faulty mother ellie was causing a distraction, so we moved a little on, however a tortoise next to the road, but between 2 elephant dumps, resulted in chaos from the rats and then on the H12 Bridge a guy told us about a lioness with cubs in the distance up the river, so we parked off for 10 minutes but only managed a long distance pic of the mother as she briefly stood up.
The H1-2 was rather quiet until just before Tshokwane where a lioness made an appearance but she was in thick bush, so we didn’t hang around long.
Tshokwane had full on construction happening so the car park was a stuff up and it just wasn’t suitable for a relaxing break so on the spur of the moment I decided to check out Orpen Dam as a peaceful option and just up the S32 we hit a luck with 2 cheetah.
To be continued
Had leopard calling a few times like this 
