June 14th. This morning, I was so tired to get
out of bed! I finally got up at like 6:10, and we had to leave at 6:30. I got
ready really quickly and ran to make coffee before we had to leave. I had
decided to go on the predator drive, because Lukas was going for cheetah. We
left, and it was sooo coooold. We were all bundled in blankets, and I had my
coffee to try to warm up from the inside. We drove out to Lufafa, seeing some
general game along the way. Our first unique sighting was a family of
black-backed jackals! We saw a male, female, and a baby run across the road,
which was awesome! Then, we continued down to the fenceline to look for the
cheetah boys. We found some older tracks, but we continued along to look for
fresher ones. The man at the front gate at Makalali said that he hadn’t seen
any cheetah around. But then, we turned a corner to a different road, and
Jonathan spotted a cheetah down the road! We rushed down to it, and saw two
cheetahs disappearing into the bush. We rounded the block and looked for them
to come out on the fenceline again. Sure enough, both boys were sitting on the
road near the fenceline. We got fairly close to them, and got to take some
pictures for ID uses. Then, they began to move off into the bush. We followed along
and watched them for a while, and then they moved deeper. We circled the block
a few times, but we couldn’t find them again. We stopped for a while, and Lukas
walked in to see if he could find them again, but no luck. We talked about
cheetah for a while and learned about their behaviours and whatnot. Then, we
set off towards home, taking the scenic route home. We saw a cute family of
warthogs, with a few babies! Then, we went to Weaver’s Nest Dam. We had an
awesome hippo sighting, with at least 10 hippos. There were even two cute
babies! We watched them for about 30 minutes, and they all moved closer to us.
The babies kept climbing up on the mom’s backs. It was so cute! Some of the
hippos starting grunting and calling, which was pretty cool to hear. I also saw
a tree with a lot of weaver’s nests, which was fitting because we were at
Weaver’s Nest Dam. After spending some time with them, we left and went through
a clearing called Xinkanka (Cheetah) Clearing. There were some impala around
the clearing, as usual. But what was really cool was when we turned the corner
to a clear area that was farther along the road. There were literally so many
animals, it was unbelieveable. Large herds of zebra, wildebeest, impala, and a
family of warthogs all together. There had to be at least 100 animals there all
together. There was a nice fresh watering hole that is man-made and maintained,
so all the animals like to come to graze and drink there. We stopped and
watched them for a while, but it was so awesome! There was a little baby zebra
that was only a few weeks old, and it was so cute and tender looking. We also
got to watch impala racing across the plain, and kicking their heels/hind legs
so far back that they completely stretched out! It was a really awesome
sighting. Some of the wildebeest began to get a little frisky and run around
and call at each other, in response to some of the zebra calling around as
well. It was definitely a cool sighting. We were all having a great drive, and
we were laughing and having so much fun. It had gotten so hot, and Lukas was
driving home like a Ferrari safari again today. There are a lot of ditches and
bumps, so we were flying over those and catching a lot of air! We pulled onto
the airstrip, and Lukas stopped the truck and asked if Jene wanted to drive! So
then, it turned into a manual safari jeep driving lesson. Everyone got a turn
learning to drive except Judith and I, because we are going to be here next
week, so we let everyone else go first. Good thing too, because during Amber’s
turn, a bull elephant decided to cross the airstrip. Lukas jumped in the driver’s
seat, and we followed the ellie off-road for about 15 minutes, through thorn
trees. It was hilarious to see everyone hitting the deck of the truck. After we
followed him for a while, we headed back home, Ferrari safari style. We saw
some really fresh lion tracks at Concrete Crossing, the Makhutswi crossing
right next to camp, but we didn’t see the lions. We are hoping to find them
during our afternoon drive. We got home and relaxed for a bit while lunch got
made. After eating, most of us helped to clean up and begin packing for the
sleepout. We are leaving at 3ish to go on an afternoon drive, which will then
turn straight into a sleepout. We are collecting lots of firewood, and cooking
a chicken poitjie over the fire for dinner. It’s going to be so cold but SOOOO
fun! I can’t wait! Hopefully everything will go okay with the night watches, so
we don’t get attacked by hyenas! :D
Cheetah boys on the fenceline. :)
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