Not what we expected KTP Dec Jan 2017

[All-Nature]

Wow beautiful kitties all round!!

Exciting sighting and the pix's tell the 'bloody' story!!

[Mel]

Great sightings all around! Love the foxies in the early morning light and the squirrels lined up just as well as the tawny (those drongos are pesky! )

How many lions were there at that gemsbok kill? I'm surprise to see such young males and find it hard to believe that they would have managed to bring down the oryx

Cheetahs!!! I think (!) they are the Muskateers but must double check with the ID guide later Lots to catch up upon all over the forums before

[GavinW]

Ok let me continue.
Sorry I have been away for a few days in Namibia so I have neglected my travel tale a bit.

Big brother comes to check on his younger siblings
(Ok not sure, but it sounds good)

We woke on the 2nd of January with the previous night’s rain slowly starting to clear up, and we were going north to a) check if we could still see yesterday’s cheetahs and b) to fill up with petrol at Mata Mata

Everything was quite as we travelled up north, all the animals probably hiding away from the last of the rain.
But, not for long.

About a kilometre before the loop at 13th borehole we spotted cats walking in the riverbed.
A big male lion was walking down the riverbed on a mission, followed by the two juvenile males who now had flattened off the gemsbok kill. (Only it’s head remained at the site of the kill)

We think the male lion was the same one we had seen the day before just north of Urikaruus, and that he was either an older sibling or the father of the two younger lions, and had come to see what they were up to and if all was ok.

They were walking towards the waterhole at 13th with the injured lion lagging behind a bit.





First up was the big male



Followed by the first juvenile,



And then finally, the injured juvenile following behind. his wound now,for the first time clearly visible to us. It still didn’t look great, but he seemed to be managing





The larger male came up to our car and passed by.



And the trio then arrived at the 13th Boorgat waterhole for a drink. We positioned ourselves next to the waterhole, and had a lovely display from the three lions.







Having had a long drink, the male lion got up




And moved over to join the two youngsters on the other side of the waterhole.





Once they had finished greeting and drinking they plopped down under a bush on the far side of the riverbed for a well deserved rest.
Walking and drinking is hard work.

[nan]

love the last one..... hugs for the hurting one

[Mel]

I find that set up quite intriguing and wonder what their real relation might be.
The fully grown one surely must be too old to be the youngsters brothers... but would he tolerate those guys in his pride if they are his offspring?
Or are the all cast outs who happen to find each other somehow. And if so, are the youngsters brothers and why would they then get together
with a fully grown male and vice versa. Would love to know if there were some females around as well at some point, but I guess we'll never really
know.

Do you think the youngster got his wound during the hunt? Looks quite fresh and could easily have been cause by an oryx horn the way it looks.

[GavinW]

Hi Mel
The young lion was almost certainly injured by the oryx when they killed it. It also had a broken horn.

[Mel]

Ouch! Do you know how easily (or not) oryx horn breaks? I thought it must be quite sturdy seeing how the gemsbok use them in fights.
And imaging that impact being transferred to the lion's flank... No wonder it looks that bad.

[GavinW]

All about nothing

With the lions now asleep, we reckoned that we should head up to where we saw the cheetahs on the wildebeest kill the previous evening, as we were sure that something would still be happening there

Wrong. Nothing, Nadda, Niks. Not even a scrap.

We and a few other people with the same idea in mind were perplexed.

The cheetahs wouldn’t have finished off everything
Lions would still be around
A leopard? Maybe, but where was it? No trees nearby with wildebeest (!!) in them
And no BBJ’s

One of those mysteries of the bush.

According to folk travelling south from Mata Mata, the road between 14th and Mata Mata was quiet, and corrugated, so we decided to can the Mata Mata idea and return to TR for petrol.

The lions were still asleep under their bush so we carried on.

Once we passed Kamqua, we spotted these bat eared foxes on their den near Montrose







As well as this heron high up in a tree



We met up with Sharifa and Duke a bit further on who told us of a lone male lion walking along the river just before the Lower Dune road.

We caught up with the lion just in time to see him disappear over the dune just before Auchterlonie.
We went up on the dune road with the hope of seeing him again, but with no luck





I must admit it made quite nice surprise to see this scrub hare a bit further on.

We were a bit over lions by now.



We arrived at Twee Rivieren at about 10.30 only to find out that the petrol pumps had stopped working at about 9am and wouldn’t be operational again for the rest of the day

That presented us with a bit of a problem. We had used our reserve 40l after we didn’t get our full quota of petrol last time, and we now had only about half a tank left.

I had no option but to head down to Askam, some 80km out of the park to get petrol so we could carry on.
Debbie decided to stay at Twee Riveren to download photos and recharge batteries while I was away for the next two hours

Really irritating, and a waste of time, and petrol.

[nan]

like the BEF


remember the problem with the petrol... glad I had diesel

all the pomps are out of work... why want to built more and more "chalets" instead of fix the old stuff

[Lisbeth]

That is spending, Nan, not investing with the expectation of a big gain