Our night drive at Letaba was a night for little discoveries. We saw Civet, Genet, African Wild Cat and Cerval, which was a treat. Seeing all four of these cats in a short span was fun. In addition to the small cats we saw a few Giraffe, Elephant, and various Antelope before returning to camp.
Day three was our long haul day, Letaba to Lower Sabie. We left shortly after 6 and made a quick stop at the Letaba River bridge before heading south. Just a few km south of Letaba we spotted a pair of Hyena laying under a bush very close to the road. While we watched a number of cars drove by, but one stopped next to us and said that the pair have a den under the road and that they have pups (or is it kits?) in the den, that they bring out usually later in the day. Unfortunately, we had places to go, so weren't able to get any baby Hyena shots.
A little further down the road we joined a parade.
A number of lazy lion sightings, they are sure boring, and hard to get a good shot when they are sleeping. Finally not too far north of Tshokwane we were able to get a good shot of a Lion. We stopped to watch Vultures in a tree and caught movement on the other side of the road. A lone lioness with a kill, she seemed to have eaten her fill and after a few minutes walked to some tall grass 10 or 12 meters away to lay down. As soon as she laid down a single Hyena appeared and started trying to locate the kill, after 5 minutes or so, he had come close but all of a sudden a male lion appeared.
It was really funny watching how the posture and attitude of the Hyena changed when the male showed up. The hyena wouldn't look at him and started walking away, then broke into a run to get out of there.After a break at Tshokwane, we took the H10 to get to Lower Sabie. What a glorious drive, and the view from the top of the mountain is spectacular.Getting close to Lower Sabie we came upon a few cars watching two Lions at a Giraffe Kill, the Lion were sleeping in tall grass, and most of the action was a group of Vultures picking up scraps. After watching for a while we continued on to Lower Sabie and settled in for the night.
Hi Norman
ReplyDeleteIt must be great to be able to stop and view the wildlife like that on the side of the road. Was it scarey being that close?
I am about to google civet, genet and cerval as have never heard of those names...
thank you Norman
Happy days