Mata Mata Day 3

We were up at 4:45am and this time we could here Cheetah Meowing at the fence line. Drinking coffee we were dreading another day like yesterday while Ellie made Tuna Mayonnaise sandwiches and packed a carrier bag with snacks.
We left the camp just after 5:30am and we were probably 5th out of the gate. There didn’t seem to be as many going out first thing. The sun came up at 5:50am and it was slightly cloudy so we didn’t have the glare in our eyes which was good. 10km out we saw a big herd of giraffe crossing the road. Atleast today there was something to see.
20km out we came to the Dalkeith watering hole and there was nothing at the edge so we drove past and then in the exit road of the waterhole there were 10 cars stacked in a line. I put my foot down and joined the back of what I thought was the queue and and we looked across the pan to see what everyone was looking at. We were so busy looking further away when the big male lion stood up 40 meters away it took us by surprise.
It was a pride of seven lions, 1 male, 2 female and 4 big cubs. And they were on a Gemsbok. It had been killed probably an hour before we all got there. One of the females was sleeping it off away from the pride and 2 of the youngsters and a female were right by the kill and the male was still eating it. It was fascinating to watch him tearing it apart.
Once they were done they all fell into a food coma while 2 Jackal stood close by barking. In the end the male lion picked up the 200kg dead Gemsbok and dragged it under the shade of the closest tree and put his paw in it and fell back asleep. The Jackal gave up waiting for a bit.
We stayed with the lions for about 3 hours until they looked like they weren’t going to move again, then we turned around and headed for home.
I decided to drive past the final watering hole before camp and then a little loop road and couldn’t believe it when we came across 4 cheetah taking shelter from the sun underneath a camel thorn tree about 50 meters away. We sat and watched them for about 30 minutes. The shade was very dark so pictures weren’t great.
We got back to camp at midday and had coffees. Ellie had a quick nap and we decided we would head back out around 3pm to see if the cats were still about.
We couldn’t wait until 3pm as we got bored so at 1:30pm we left camp and drove back to the cheetah to check if they were in the same place, which they were, then we drove back to the lions who had moved closer to the road except for the male who was still guarding the remains of the gemsbok a little further away. We got more photos of them closer and then at 3pm went back to the cheetah.
Back at the cheetah we decided to wait for them to move. I thought the first thing they would do was go to the watering hole so we waited. 30 minutes went by, then an hour, then 90 minutes and we knew we couldn’t not wait as we’d invested to much time. Then just after 5pm they all got up and to our amazement the mother cheetah spotted 2 springbok around 400 meters away. Straight away she was alert and slowly started to walk towards them, the babies followed but as she got to the next lot of tree cover she silently told them to wait and she ducked down in full stalking mode. This was an unbelievable sighting.
More cars started to pull up and we moved our position in between the mother cheetah and the springbok. There was a big clump of trees in between and I suspected she would try to get to there and then ambush them. She gradually crawled half way and then stopped. The springbok weren’t moving closer any more and she was stuck in no man’s land.
We waited and waited and in the end she just sat up, then turned around collected her young and started towards the water hole. We now didn’t have time to go to the water hole and wait as it was 6:20pm but we’d had a great cheetah sighting.
The wind really got up in the way back to camp and at 7pm when we got back it was a nightmare trying to light the charcoal but eventually the firelighters stayed lit and we had gemsbok Wors for dinner before heading in to bed at 8:30pm.Leggi altro