Wednesday 16 July 2014

12 - 13 July










Yesterday we had one un-forgettable experience.
We finished off the super seven with a cheetah. It had killed a young waterbuck, and filled its belly to its brim. While the spotted cat was resting off his meal, the mother of the deceased waterbuck calf came looking for her young, walking within reachable distance from the cheetah. At first the cat did not mind her presence but after a while it became aggressive and chased her away, the waterbuck cow kept coming back.
We left the site for celebrating sun downers at the fire break south of Annette’s camp, a few minutes into the celebration we noticed a movement in the distance, due to the grass being burnt we had a very good surrounding visibility and spotted a leopard! It was bahuti strolling around looking for a meal.
We gathered everyone on the vehicle and packed up (we have ice in our cooler boxes which we use to keep the refreshments cold, usually throwing it out after the sun downer) we moved closer to the elusive cat but as we got to him he moved off towards where we stopped for sundowners. We noticed what he was after… the ice!
 He crept closer smelling the solid water cubes but lost interest quickly. We followed him for an hour as he strolled with ease through the bush. We eventually got to a point where he came to a stand still looking at some unaware impalas. We waited patiently both us and the leopard was focused on the impala. So much so that none of us noticed the hyena sneaking up on Bahuti!

We heard a rustle and the next moment the hyena came walking directly towards Bahuti. In a flash Bahuti gave the male spotted hyena a claw filled smack chasing the hyena away, brave for a young leopard. This morning we spent some time with the styx pride enjoying the wonderful morning sun!

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