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.
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