Africa Wild

All sorts again, Peej!

Love the gecko, and the mongoose!

And of course Hanri to spend time with, lovely when they come towards you!

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 12:47 pm I like geckos ...with or without a tail

Squirrel

Mongoose

Fabulous photos of Hanri

Hanri must be getting rather aged by now

That gecko was very cool... interesting colours. The ones here at home are quite pale and bland in comparison

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 6:32 pm WoW PJL,

you had a couple of stunning sightings - Great cheetah and lion shots and also love the geckos and mongoose and for sure all the secretary bird shots

Thanks Pumbaa... we had a lot of close up secretary birds which was nice, and finally finding a cheetah that was a bit closer was rewarding

nan wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 10:23 pm Oh ! Hanri... dear Hanri for the pix
love the Gecko too (Bibron Gecko, it seems to me) and the Slender Mongoose

Thanks for the gecko id nan

Mel wrote: ↑Mon Nov 21, 2022 8:26 am How fit Hanri is considering her age - amazing
Still my favourite cheetah. She's always treated us well
(in contrast to her sister Corinne who would go AWOL on us on more than just one trip )

Yep she seemed in great condition Mel
And that "leopard" tree really didn't have any spots that we could see... even in the area you circled. Most of the light patches are just the background coming through between the branches

Richprins wrote: ↑Mon Nov 21, 2022 5:48 pm All sorts again, Peej!

Love the gecko, and the mongoose!

And of course Hanri to spend time with, lovely when they come towards you!

She didn't get the "come towards us" memo quite correct... she continued wandering along the other side of the riverbed. But still it was our best cheetah sighting

Hanri continued wandering along the riverbed and it seemed as though she was on the lookout for a meal.





We were hopeful that she might come across in our direction but it wasn't to be. Instead she climbed up out of the riverbed and up onto the ridge where we had one last look at her before she disappeared



Hanri had been walking along between Houmoed and Monro, so we were left with a bit of a conundrum... should we go hang out by Monro where leopard had been seen the past 4 evenings, or go back past Houmoed where there was supposedly a leopard in a tree

We decided (along with quite a few others) to go park off at Monro, but after a bit of waiting we did check out Houmoed as well. There didn't seem to be any sign of the leopard so we went back to Monro again and waited a while longer. Eventually we called time on the waiting and started heading back to camp, but by now a number of cars had parked up by Houmoed because the leopard had appeared and was chilling out near the waterhole



This was Kutyhilwa again who we had seen early one morning a few days back. The borehole pump housing kind of got in the way of photos but it was busy (for KTP) so we didn't have an alternative to begin with



But soon other cars were heading back to camp and we got into a nice spot to enjoy watching her as she checked out the surroundings





I'm sure her tail is the same length as other leopards, but she loves flicking it around and in doing so she makes it look reeeeeally long



We stayed with her as long as we could, but it was getting dark and eventually we had to head back to camp







What a day it had been! After no cats the day before, we had seen Lion, African Wild Cat, Cheetah and Leopard all in one day

What a beauty she is

You got very lucky that evening drive. Spots all around

@Lis, sorry I hadn't seen your question about Hanri's age. She'll turn 12 in March. Legend!

Mel wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 7:59 am @Lis, sorry I hadn't seen your question about Hanri's age. She'll turn 12 in March. Legend!

That's alright! I got your answer all the same

How beautiful Kutyhilwa is She is still young enough to play with her tail

Beautiful stuff, Peej, and reward for persevering!

A lucky day indeed!

That shoddy work at the waterhole would drive me mad...not neat at all, obviously they don't have elephants there!

WoW PJL,

what incredible leopard shots and still cheetah pictures

Must have been a very successful day

Thanks everyone for the comments

Our last day in the park had arrived, so we planned to make the most of our drives. The morning would see us head up the Auob to see if Kutyhilwa was still around, then over the lower dune road and back down the Nossob riverbed.

Crossing the dunes over to the Auob we were treated to another spectacular sunrise



We kept a good eye out as we travelled along to Houmoed, but there was nothing to be found so we continued on up to Monro where we stumbled across not one but two leopard



This was Kutyhilwa again along with her brother Boniswa

Boniswa is going to be big like his father





Kutyhilwa then started wandering more down in our direction









After some scent marking at a tree she continued across the road and on towards the waterhole









And then a nice long drink

The leopard is a beauty, Miss KTP 2022
but the photos are "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"