Lions for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (October 2019)

[Mel]

What a good looking small lion family
It is rare to see such a limited human sized family of lions but very nice /quote]

Agree on the unusual size of pride, but don't forget that he's been chased off his territory and is
actually quite lucky to have managed to find another wife

[Mel]

Meerkat and 2 x elephant shrew
Brilliant lion sighting
I agree with Alf, that male lion looks like he's had a blow wave

Ja, maybe he has to work for his good looks to make sure the girls still notice him.

[Mel]

9th October Grootkolk to Urikaruus

The next morning we left Grootkolk for our final destination of this trip: Urikaruus. The journey all the way down to Nossob was actually extremely quiet, but after our first few days, we were pretty relaxed. Just before Dikbaardskolk - the turn off to the Upper Dune Road and therefore the link to the other riverbed there were some flat out lions of which I took some proof shots, but I reckon, you've seen enough of lions for the moment.
There was also a wild cat in a tree again:

(I swear it's a different cat in a different tree, even if it looks pretty much the same as the first one )

The Dune Road was a totally nightmare, bordering on criminal assault and we were more than happy when we finally reached the end of it. At the junction we were to turn right to get to the camp, but there was a car parked on the left... Curiosity got the better of us and so we went to enquire what those people were looking at. Turned out to be bee-eaters which I find adorable, but due to the way the other car was parked in, there was no chance for me to get a decent picture. On a hunch I asked them about cheetah sightings and we were told that there had been one right next to the road just south of the picnic spot which is very close to the turn off we were at. Obviously, we decided to check it out.

And there she was Hanri.

[Mel]

Hanri didn't hang out for long anymore. Not sure why, but it seemed that all of a sudden the amount of arriving cars were too much for her even though she must has seen plenty throughout the day since she had been lying there for hours.

She went up the ridge and settled in the shade of a small tree, so we decided to go to the camp, unpack and check her out again later, seeing she was only about 7 km down the road from there.

,

[RogerFraser]

Mel

Been catching up a bit on your TR .Wow what a great start with the Caracul and meerkats and then the rest of the trip gets better with the Lions and Cheetah . Love the Lions that Male certainly has some presence with his wind blown hairdo . I believe from some of friends that have been there lately that some of the Lions have become very naughty with cars & biting tyres recently -glad you moved away .

[Mel]

Roger, thanks for dropping in and for your encouraging comment Those lions can indeed be very naught. I'm not sure about that particular one, but rather safe than sorry

[Mel]

An hour later we were back at the scene and much to our surprise, Hanri was still hanging out underneath the same tree.
After about half an hour, she showed the first indications that she might get moving soon.

[Mel]

And she did! Slowly but surely she closed the gap between us - and what's going to follow now is cheetah photos overkill

[Mel]

The light played along as well

[Mel]

So close and all to ourselves