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Published: June 22nd 2017
Geo: -23.926, 31.4209
Seems like our plans are always changing. Planned on seeing zebra and hippo. Radio traffic between guides who have seen a pack of wild dogs. About as rare of sighting as the cheetah. Off we go. Found them. I was shooting pictures of them as they crossed the road because the might keep going. Nope. They stopped on the road! After that we did see hippo plus other animals.
Afternoon drive, our last one.
We left early because the cheetah has made a kill and will be in the area and every other group will be heading there. Find the kill but no cheetah. To prevent being ambushed by another predator like the lion or leopard, they move away. In this case about 150m. He didn't pick a great spot to be viewed from though. The ground in the area shouldn't be driven on so we had to pick our way through the brush to get a view. After that we drove to the kill site from the lions a couple of days ago. The carcass was picked clean! Probably the hyena found the site. We decided to see if the wild dog were still in the area. A
Morning drive
Drinking water. long drive to that area. They were in an adjacent property that we couldn't enter (they can't enter our property either) but we're on the move to our property. The chase was on. We were the only vehicle from our property. We followed them. We thought they were on the hunt but they were heading to a water hole for the night. We heard them lapping water. We watched the pack play and run. They became used to us and came very close to the Land Rover. Very rare to be in the middle of a pack of wild dogs that don't care we are there.
We moved away. Found a nice quiet clear place to have our last round of sundowners. Happy Hour to celebrate an ending to a fantastic safari trip. We had a great guide/ranger and wonderful tracker. The other two couples (one left midday) were great to be with too
On the way back our tracker using a spot light found a white faced owl. We watched it find something in the grass to eat. A KILL! Not the one we wanted to see though. No pictures since it was dark and all we had was
a spot light.
The weather has been perfect. Dress warm in the morning. Gloves help until the sun gets higher in the sky. Afternoon is good. By the time we return to the lodge, it's just getting cooler. We picked the best time of year. Any earlier and the morning drives are cold (uncovered and open vehicles). Any later, and it is getting too hot. Middle of August to early September is the right time. I will do a wrap up probably while waiting in Johannesburg to fly home.
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