November 25, 2:05PM, Nossob Camp

Another hot afternoon at the table.  Gina and I took naps – sleeping deeply while a fan blows air over us – and now I’m writing and Gina’s reading a book. 

Another good morning. 

We headed south, hoping to intersect the path of that large pride of lions.  Albie had also heard that a cheetah was sighted about 30 km south of the camp, so it made sense to head that direction and keep our plans flexible. We found where the lions had stepped out of the bush, onto the roadway during the night, but it looked like they headed north on the road for a short distance and then stepped off to the west.  So we shrugged, and continued south hoping to find cheetah.  Eventually, we found a vehicle parked in the road and it was someone Albie had worked with previously and he told us that there was a mother cheetah and two nearly independent cubs, working their way down the riverbed.  We were able to pick them up and, indeed, they were working their way along the riverbed heading south, moving very slowly and cautiously.  They were too far out to take a shot so it was, again, a matter of guessing where they were going and trying to position ourselves to get a shot.  Albie estimated that they were headed to a waterhole about 1 km south so we headed there, found a spot and decided to wait.  But after waiting for quite a while, we headed back out to find them because it didn’t seem like they were coming.  But they were, just very slowly.  Back to the waterhole to wait.  And wait.  It seemed likely that they’d dropped down the shade somewhere for a nap and so we weren’t sure if they were coming or when.  We decided that that was a good time for a coffee break so we broke out the thermos and the cups and the biscuits and just then mom cheetah slowly moved out of the bush and began to cautiously make her way to the waterhole, cubs following far behind. 

It’s not clear to us why they were moving so slow and cautiously.  Albie thinks mom was hunting and she was looking around very carefully at everything.  It’s also possible that they were very nervous about lion in the area (like the big pride?  Or someone said they’d heard a male lion calling in that area early in the morning).  At any rate she moved very cautious and drank very cautiously.  The two cubs came into the area and one drank, clearly on edge, hissing at the water from time to time as though the whole thing was terrifying.  The second cub never drank at all.  Mom eventually plopped down in the shade, quite close to us and the two cubs joined.  They rested for a few moments before getting up and continuing to move south down the riverbed, toward a larger tree.

We photographed mom and cubs, but the good light was gone and there was a lot of heat haze so the images won’t be great.  But it was a great sighting – very satisfying to see mom and cubs.  Mom’s obviously done a good job for these little ones.  Survival rate for cubs is very low and it’s not unusual for a mother to lose all of her cubs.  So to get two up to near adulthood is quite a feat.  She’s a good mom.

Juvenile cheetah calling for mom

The juvenile cheetahs keeping up with mom

Mom drinks very nervously at the waterhole

By then, light was gone and it was getting hotter on this yet another beautiful cloudless day and so we headed back for breakfast.  After breakfast, Gina and I spent a bit of time at the hide here and saw 5 secretarybirds interacting and one of them made this belching/roaring call as it drove another away from the water that I’d never heard before.  Nothing like the recordings I have. So, something new there to add to the memory banks.

Gina at the hide

And now two hours before we head back out for the end of the day drive.