Day 6: Cubs! We have cubs!

The next morning, I was in the first group of cars out the gate at 6. I immediately set course for Nsemani, but it was deathly quiet so instead I drove north to Girivana on the faint hope that the lioness and the three cubs I was promised yesterday had finally made an appearance. As I turned left down to the waterhole, I saw a jackal (another first!) and my heart actually sank, because I wouldn't think it would be there if the lions were there also. At the parking lot before the actual dam, I saw one other car parked and my heart sank further.

And then I saw them.

Just as I was about to hit the gas and pass the parked car, my eyes focused on four shapes to the left of me, that I might otherwise have taken for stones or just some immovable objects in the background. But I saw and behold; a lioness and three cubs. The one nearest to me looked bigger so he might have been a year old, but the two other ones must have been born this year.

I barely got a pic of the jackal.


The two tiny ones.


Slightly larger cub & mom.


I turned the car around, so I was facing the other guy. Then I fired up the ole 600mm and let her rip. Additionally, I shot a couple pics and a short movie with my phone. As is my personal curse, my camera battery chose that moment to blink out, but I had two spare ones ready and expertly slipped one in and continued firing away.

Video.


On the prowl.


Eyes reflecting.


He soon settled down.


Sho, sho cute.


Ish tired. This is currently my cover pic on Facebook.


I apologize, but at this point, my brain was turned to mush and my finger just pressed down on the release button and I took a gazillion pics of the babies.


Cuz dey be sho cute.


A mere five minutes later, the idyll was broken, when some guy with what I like to think was a very noisy engine approached and suddenly they'd had enough. One of the kids ran up to mom and she got up and then they all slowly ambled into the grass and disappeared. It didn't last long, but by Jove it was pure magic.

Here, he's had enough.


Look at that faaaaaaaaaaaace!


Beauty and cuteness combined.


Getting the hell outta Dodge.


Last pic.


Still in a daze, I drove back to the road to Orpen, and then back towards Skukuza. A couple of clicks down the road, I came upon the same bunch of jolly baboons I had photographed last year. I took some shots, but my heart wasn't really in it even though they were very droll and humanlike and all that.

Mom with baby.


A little later down the road, I passed an old bull with one and a half trunk and what I can only describe as the beginnings of a fifth leg. Talk about penis envy… Then followed a long succession of waterholes with tons of impala, wildebeest and zebra plus the occasional cape buffalo, giraffe and ellie.

Fifth leg.


I dutifully dropped in to check on the southernmost Baobab tree in the world, and it was still there.


I lunched at Tshokwane, where I devoured what I think is a South African specialty, a kind of baked bread thingy filled with anything your heart should desire. This one had honey glazed chicken and some pineapple chunks thrown in for good measure. I believe it's called a jaffle and it was very good. Thumbs up for creativity, South Africa!

After lunch, I went up to take the gravel loop road to Orpen dam. At a dry riverbed, I happened upon yet another group of baboons. This time, a small band of youngsters were digging down into the sand to get at water. Their little butts were sticking up as most of their bodies were down in the hole and they were chattering and squabbling amongst themselves. I stopped and got some good pics, but mostly I just sat there and enjoyed the slapstick show.

Their numbers varied; sometimes there was only one guy there, other times half a dozen.


I find these animals hilarious.


Looking at these pics weeks later, I still chuckle.


Eheheheheheheeeeee.


Delousing in the shade.


Pondering life.


This one guy was at it more or less all the time.


With some funny facial expressions along the way.


With his little butt in the air.


At Orpen, the water was almost completely overgrown with vegetation. A hippo and her baby were swimming out on the lake and she looked mostly like a camouflaged crocodile; very amusing. I also got to talk to an Afrikaaner couple from the Free State. Their English was surprisingly weak, but I guess if you're about my age or a little younger, you never had much need for it; Afrikaans ruled the land. Anyways, they were very nice people and he got to look through my awesome, beautiful, lovely, sleek, adorable, sexy … uh, where was I? Yes, he got to look through my lens and pronounced it good. We also watched an ellie climb up the hill and some waterbucks walking v-e-r-y slowly and carefully into the water to drink.

It's a hippo, not a croc.


Real crocs watching the proceedings from the shore. They look largely unimpressed.


Ms. Hippo w/baby coming up out of the water.


Video from Orpen Dam.


Close up of the waterbucks.


V-e-r-y careful.


At this point I was struggling with the cuteness of the little furballs vs wanting footage of a crocodile attack.


After Orpen, I went down to Skukuza. I drove through several herds of ellies, but only took a couple of pics, mostly of the babies. Then I decided to leave early for my hotel in Hazyview and exited the park with almost three hours of the day to spare. Still, I had seen and felt more than I can do in a whole month in effin' Norway.

I thought the branch looked slightly like a skeleton hand.


Video of waterbucks crossing the road.


Video of ellies near Skukuza.

Day 5: At last, CHEETAS!

The next morning, I drove off shortly after 6am. I made about an hour's worthless roundtrip back to the first Olifants lookout point, then I drove down a pretty but quite barren gravel road close to the river. It was only when I got to the paved H1-4 that shit started to go down. First, I spotted some vultures and some wildebeest and dutifully photographed them.

Mr. Vulture on the lookout.


He was soon joined by others.


A solitary wildebeest.


Then, right after the Nyamarhi waterhole, I saw two male lions. The first one was underneath some bushes, but still clearly visible in profile and not far from the road.

Yeah, I'm good looking and I know it.


He soon keeled over and went to sleep.


The other one was lying on the actual roadside, also in profile and they were both magnificent animals. I opened the side window just a notch to get some pics with my cell phone and then another notch to poke my big lens out (not a euphemism).


However, my window sometimes made this screeching sound when it went up or down and this probably annoyed the lion sufficiently that he decided he'd had enough. He got to his feet and gave me the second near-nature encounter in as many days, as he trotted directly over to my car, where I was frantically trying to shut the window. He gave me a stern look through the now closed glass and then veered off around the front of the car and down on the other side of the road.

To the other people along H1-4 that day, I would like to apologize for ruining their orgy in lion-photographing and if you have the address of the windowmaker for the Toyota Corolla, we can find him and beat him up together.

The second lion one was RIGHT by the road, not a care in the world. Until my window started making screeching noises. Again, I sowwy.


Chilling in the morning sun.


Here, he's had enough.


The second encounter was with a male and a female who were trying to position themselves under some bushes a little way off to the left of the road. That is, she was trying to find a good spot to sleep, while he was doing his best to get some action going. I could see her turn around and hiss a couple of times and finally he got the message and just keeled over on his side. Even the king of the animals knows when he's lost a battle.




The rest of the way to Satara was a fantasy of game. Everywhere you looked, there were impala, wildebeest and zebra. The occasional group of giraffes or ellies dotted the landscape and I could have spent both a day and all the storage capacity in my several 32gb memory cards just photographing them. At Satara, I had brunch, something called a savannah breakfast, which was quite good. I purchased some trinkets in the store and set off again.

Video of some wildebeest in the road.


Goofy McGoof is everywhere.


Ellies turning their back on me. Probably a wise decision.


Even the zebras were walking away.


Just down the road I made a right turn and started driving west towards Orpen. Maybe a kilometer in, half a dozen cars were parked and the people inside were all looking in the same direction. I crept up to the first car and asked what was going on. The answer made me swallow back tears and had all the hairs on my considerable body standing up: Cheetas.

I spent the next half hour taking pictures and just watching them. It was a pair that had taken refuge from the sun under a small tree and the only movement was a flicker of the tail and the odd routine of standing up, walking in a small circle and then lying back down. I managed to get in a few half decent shots of one of them sitting up and that was enough for me. I finally had my last big cat; I could go home with my head held high. In fact, I could have died happy right then and there.

Mah first pic of a cheetah in Kruger. Sweet Jebus, my life was fullfilled then and there.


I kept taking picture after picture.


After picture.


Ish a purdy puttycat.


As it was, I kept going to a dam I'd been to last year called Nsemani. It was a haven for ellies and impalas and last year I'd also spotted a flock of baboons there. I spent another half hour watching a herd of ellies coming and going. The star of the show was a teeny tiny wittle baby who sprinted around chasing birds and kicking up grass and bumping into his siblings just to get some action going. I took picture after picture and chuckled while doing so. This guy was Xanax personified, happy to be alive in a world where everything was new and exciting.

They're so cute when they still haven't quite gotten their trunk under control yet.


Swinging it from left to right.


Receiving new directions from the mothership.


Then he went and dug up something.


But was soon joined by another ellie.


And then more came to.


I'm not sure what happened out there; did they bully the little one? Did they come to protect him? Was it the ellie version of a tickle game? I dunno, but suddenly he was on the ground.


Bigger babies were surrounding him.


Whatever it was, he was soon on his feet again.


And ready for new adventures.


They were soon friends again.


I even watched as the larger one gave the small one a couple of friendly nudges that would probably have sent a human flying.


And then they all went back to mommy.


One big, happy family of ellies. Oh, how I love these animals.


Video from the lovely Nsemani dam.


As the ellies began leaving, I started driving further west and soon encountered two ostriches. Afterwards, I drove north on the S12 loop, where I'd stopped and urinated in the wild last year. This time I met a car with four elderly ladies who told me that there was a lioness and three cubs up at the Girivana dam. I sped on as fast as I dared and spent the next half hour waiting for an animal that was either lying in the shade or had left the premises altogether. Le sigh.

The ostriches. Possibly Kruger's second most stupid looking animal after the giraffes.


After a quick break while checking in at Satara, I went out for one last drive. The only thing remotely interesting was meeting the ellies again; this time they had made it up to the road to the east of Nsemani. A new round of pics and back to Satara, where I stuffed face on a very mediocre T-bone steak, but rectified it with a sweet, yummy Cape Malva pudding. I fear I would eat myself to death on these things if I were living here.

Ellie baby again.


Trying his best to mimick the bigger ones.


When you're tired of grass, the mommy teat is a good option.


Sunset over Satara.