Africa Wild

Moggiedog wrote:

He was very aware we were there and he was keeping a close watch on us as well as the around him. He did not want his hard work wasted by something stealing his lunch.


it didn't take very long before he was back and tucking in to his meal.




With the shadows moving he decided to display his strength and dragged his food to the other side of the tree.


Puffing and panting after all the exertion of dragging his meal through the dirt, he lay down to take a bit of a breather.



before long he had his breath back and went back to eat some more.


At this stage of the game, his belly was almost dragging in the dust, but he was determined to eat as much as he could stuff down his throat before he lost his kill.
Time to move on, once again, as we had spent a long time with the cheetah watching him watch us in between eating and resting.

Moggiedog wrote:Not far from the entrance to the game viewing area was a bit of a traffic jam. We could see some springbok and wildebeest on the dry riverbed and they were all on full alert. There was no doubt in our minds there had to be a cat on the prowl.

We drove round the waterhole then slowly headed towards the traffic. We pulled up behind the last car and Jax could just make out a cheetah lying flat on the ground. At this point I could not see any cheetah. It soon became obvious the news had spread resulting in more cars arriving. Everyone was very good about pulling up behind the last car - but you always get one - A car came past the stationary vehicles - saw the cheetah and slammed on brakes. This resulted in said cheetah getting up and moving away. I could now see the cat.


I don't know what was said to these people by the people in the car next to them, but they reversed a bit and forced their way in between us and the car in front of us. This is what happens if you try and do the decent thing by not parking on top of another car. They had obviously lost sight of the animal as they started jostling for a view.
We ignored them totally because what they did not see or know was that there were four more cheetah in the distance under a tree!

Unfortunately they were a good distance away and getting shots of them all together was not working to plan.



The cheetah took turns in moving to different spots - it seemed like two at a time.


The original cheetah made it's way to join the others, casting longing glances at supper on the hoof. For now it had given had given up the hunt.




He/she greeted each member of the coalition and then settled down in the grass next to one of the gang.


All of the cheetah were lean and mean - they would be hunting again very soon. Jax and I debated sticking around but decided to head back to camp. We were almost positive the cats would not hunt until most of the vehicles had left and we believed the ambush would happen closer to the waterhole. The herd we had seen where heading further and further away and we were sure the cats would have to wait for some unsuspecting supper to come in for an evening drink.

Bushveld Jock wrote: At first only one cheetah was spotted and then two other followed. They were two far apart to get them all in one photo:

GavinW wrote:

GavinW wrote: Near Jan se Draai, we were told about 3 cheetahs in the river-bed hunting. Initially we saw only one, which after walking along the river bed went towards a tree on the far side of the valley. It’s family members were flat under the tree. We were lucky enough to capture these very zoomed in and cropped photos of the first cat as it walked along the river bed.

GavinW wrote: We were about a kilometre past the turn off to the Polentswa campsites, which in turn is about a kilometre south of the waterhole, when we came upon a procession of two or three vehicles heading in our direction. The reason for the congestion was this cheetah walking along the road.



With a fully laden bakkie, reversing along the road was not the easiest task to undertake. So eventually I had to do one of those 8 point Kalahari turns
The cheetah found it much more amusing than I did.



Now ahead of the cheetah and the following entourage, we decided to go back to the waterhole, and take our chances that she would come down and drink, in which case we would be parked in a good position.

After what seemed an eternity, and not without quickly going back to the road to check on her progress, our plan paid off.

She cautiously made her way down to the waterhole.





And finally after a lot of checking around to ensure all was safe, she came to drink.



We watched her in awe as she drank, thinking how fortunate we were that our cheetah drought had finally been broken.







Having sated her thirst, she then left Polentswa and headed back to the road and carried on north.