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Immature Pale Chanting Goshawk at Marie se draai May 2011

Early morning lions at Nossob.



Out numbered ?


Line of defence.


Next time.

Lanner Falcon at Cubitje Quap.

8 May 2012
We were the first car through the gate heading north, followed by our friends from Sannieshof. We were on the hunt for lions and did not want to waste to much time between the camp and Cubitje Quap and loose our advantage of being in front.

Well it came at a price , because although I belief that we have four pairs of very experienced eyes in the two vehicles we missed the two Cheetahs, on their kill, just outside the camp.

When we reached Kwang I could not belief that we were still on our own, not knowing that the Cheetahs kept te other cars behind.

As , we turned of at Kwang, we immediately saw the two females and only realised that the male was right infront of us after we stopped.






They were finished drinking on our arrival and moved away from the waterhole.


The Jackal then came to drink.


After watching them for a while we decided to move on, still not knowing why no cars were in sight.


As always I was watching the road for tracks and soon realised that there were fresh ones going north, which were unlikely to be those of the lions we just saw.

I drove even slower and spotted these two lions on the other side of the river.




As they were so far away, we decided to move on. We spend the rest of the day between Kwang and Union's End and planned our day to be back at camp just in time before the gate close. Our friends turned back at Lijersdraai.

On our way back to camp, (15:45) about 500 meters from Kwang we came upon this road block. The lions we spotted the morning on the other side of te river. The two were not intrested in moving although I drove close to them a few times.


He was badly hurt by a Porcupine.




NEXT: A LOVER IN PAIN.

We had almost no traffic during the day and I was sure we were the last vehicle going to Nossob.

Then a car arrived from Nossob's side and for some reason decide to stop far from the lions, which did not help me to get them out of the road.
Meantime the lioness got up and it was time for action, but still without clearing the road








More cars arrived and they also kept their distance.







The action was over, but the road was still blocked.











More cars arrived, but they also kept their distance. They must have been on their way to Polentswa, 38 km down the road.





Eventually the other cars made a move and only after the car's front wheel was almost 40 cm from the lionesses head she got up.





On our way to camp we told GavinW and others , who were on a late drive, to go and have a quick look. At the waterhole they had the other lions between the cars. We missed that, but we were happy with our days sightings.

Some birds north of Nossob.

Immature African Harrier-Hawk


Pale Chanting Goshawk


Immature Gabar Goshawk ?


Yellow Canary at Kousant


White Stork at Polentswa


Secretary Birds at Polentswa

Lijersdraai.

I love the four-striped Mouse
is the Steppe Buzzard... a PCG ? (juv. Pale Chanting Goshawk)

We now move from the Nossob river to the Auob river.

We had this "once in a lifetime" sighting in the entrance road of Urikaruus.

Cape Cobra eating a Mole Snake.















I wonder what the Cobra will do if the mole snake is longer than he himself. How he was going to get the knot out of the mole snake is another question.

On the morning of 12 May at 07:50 we had this sighting at Dalkeith.

When the the Spotted Hyaena's left we went south.

After one or two km we stoped at these two male Giraffe. It was 8:00. We sat in absolute silence and watched them while they were making there moves, also not making any noise. They were like actors on a stage while the moving clouds were changing the lights on the stage.

A few cars passed, not realising what we were watching. Lucky for us, because the actors were playing only for us, keeping eye contact with there audience.

There were no other Giraffe in sight and the two stayed on the same spot doing there act.

ACT ONE.









Thank you for the applause.


ACT 2 WILL FOLLOW.

ACT TWO.









Kiss.


Thank you.


THREE WILL FOLLOW.

LAST SCENE.









Tank you.

I can hear you

Sorry, they ( Suricates) were at Kannaguass.

Suricates.