Ngala at its best

After exciting viewing of a female cheetah and 3 cubs hunting a herd of impala, to no avail, they gave up and rested on a termite mound. The previous evening, however, the impala had not been so lucky and had fallen prey to another single female cheetah that we had viewed feeding. Every drive with these guests had an incredible sighting: from a buffalo calf finding its feet for the first time, to playful viewing of our resident lion pride, with 3 males, 4 females and 5 young cubs capturing everybody’s attention. These sightings and others had led my guests to be on the vehicle early this morning and we set off in the dark. Not long after leaving camp, a hyaena showed up in the spot-light, followed shortly thereafter by a rare sighting of serval. Tracks of a leopard kept Steve and my attention fixed on the road as one of the guests shouted out: Rhino! We drove away to drop Steve off to follow the leopard tracks and then returned to view the 2 rhino bulls slowly feeding. On leaving the rhinos, Steve’s voice called us in over the radio to where he had found the leopard, a young male cub. It provided us with some enjoyable viewing. The highlights continued, but ones that stood out, were our first day-time sighting of a giraffe, and viewing a female lioness with her 2 cubs on a young zebra kill. This brought a smile to everybody’s face, as we had seen the family 2 days previously, in need of a meal. This afternoon we will head out west and watch the sun fall behind the Drakensberg mountains.

Posted: Ngala by Kenny Baxter, Date: 17 April 2008