Africa Wild

And I even managed to capture them in the last magic and very unreal light.

Mum laid down:

Warona joined her:



And started to mark her mummy with a look on her face telling us that she was all hers.

And then -



A flipping awesome experience!!!

(Bar that Freak, that is )

17/10/2013 Kieliekrankie

It was another coldish morning that required to wrap up in a blanket while sitting on the deck overlooking the waterhole and waiting for the sun to rise.
Even the chicks were cold:



Gate opening time came and went and with it our neighbours left the camp. Good! At least we got rid of the Freak. (I should later learn that the other
neighbour - who was a real cool guy with a real cool wife - had found the leopards again and had shared that sighting, as in pointed it out, with the Freak.
At some stage they lost the leopards and went looking for them. The Freak found Warona in a tree but never bothered to tell our other neighbour. How
sick is that?)

Well, we took a slow start, did a bit of sorting and packing and eventually left the camp at 9am. It was still cool and we were sure that we wouldn't have
missed much in the last three hours. We couldn't be any more wrong!

Either way. At the turn off dune road / riverbed we decided to go a bit up north to see if we could find the leopards again as this was the direction they
had moved off to. We drove painfully slowly but there was no movement in the concrete or on the ridge. Darn! We turned around again and about a km
before Auchterlonie, I order Spots to stop to check the dunes with the binocs. Carefully I worked my way through the stones, bushes and what have you.
But no leopard... I told Spots to drive a bit further so I could work the next row of dunes. And this is the result:





BC, take note: We left the camp at nine!

While watching Warona, as AstroMatt IDed her later (we had thought it was mum...) walking forwards and backwards,
sniffing here and sniffing there a Volkswagen T approached. It was Michele & hubby! But the stunning pix Michele
got of Warona chasing the mongoose weren't created that morning, I'm afraid... Anyway, while chatting with Michele,
we lost sight of Warona. She probably laid down in one of the caves. So, we said our farewells and got on our respective
way. Michele northbound towards Urikaruus, we southbound towards the cheetah highway.

And it didn't take long for us to bump into several parked cars. But we could see a thing. So eventually, we dared to ask
someone what they were looking at. 'Dare to ask' because most people were rather reticent those days... But this one
at least shared with us that there were cheetahs on top of the dunes who had been chased away by the 4 spotted
hyenas just around the corner because the latter tried to steal a springbok kill from the cheetahs.

Seriously? Cheetahs AND hyenas?

The cheetahs stayed hidden, hence we opted for the hyenas. Clever decision.

These chicks were huddled up in the riverbed:



And this rampage gang was the reason for it:



The were walking and walking and walking and we trailed them as long as they were close enough for photos and videos.



Eventually one of them walked into the road and passed our car right underneath my window. I did hold my breath
while taking this photo!



BC, take note - it was just past 10am then.

The spotties moved off and so did we. But only 5 minutes later we saw Elena sitting on top of the dune.
Very agitated and not looking comfy at all.



Ekon, Erela and Eileen however had already regained their appetite and were munching away on a springbok kill.





Wait a minute? I thought the spotties had stolen the springbok kill of the cheetahs? I was confused! But luckily our cool neighbour and his cool wife
were there as well and fill us in: Elena as well as her three almost grown cubs had kill a springbok lamb each - and that simultaneously! Cool neighbour
said he hadn't seen it either Elena had been charging down the dunes as well as the trio and that the guy who had told cool neighbour had been pretty
high on adrenalin when he related the story. So, we obviously missed something quite spectacular there.

The good news was that this was the first time the cubs had killed themselves. A week earlier, they hadn't known what to do with a springbok and
now they had managed to get one down on their own.

As we had been lucky enough to secure the prime spot next to the munching cheetahs, we didn't plan to go anywere any time soon.
Also, we had a long and very entertaining chat with cool neighbour and his cool wife. The only downside was that they had to move
forwards and backwards to let other cars pass. While we were talking the cubs had finished their meal and moved off to sleep
off the day.

The little ones were still quite clingy to mum and Elena kinda looked not amused with the fact that her grown ups
were still living of Hotel Mum.



Cool neighbour and his cool wife and us had resumed chatting again - all the while the cheetahs right next to us.
In hindsight, it was a bit of a mean thing to do as we were hogging the prime location but didn't marvel at the
sleeping cheetahs as others might have done. Oh well, too late now...

But BC, take note again: It was just after 11am.

But we hadn't sat with the cheetahs for the whole time. Someone had spread the news that there was a lion on a springbok kill not far from here.
Another springbok kill? My, it hadn't been a good morning for the antelopes... We were told that yet some other cheetahs had made the kill and
that the lion had robbed them. Not a good morning for the cheetahs either...

Here is a video, as the cat was too far in the riverbed for decent photos.

Note, BC, that was 10.30am.