The Day of the CATS and the ELLIE!!

Starting out early in the morning we hadn't driven very far when we saw this little "deer"...A steenbok, which is a very 

small antelope.  We always got excited no matter what we saw but we had no idea just how exciting this day would be...

Oh... i forgot to tell you that Lukimbi knew we'd be cold in the early morning.. so 

not only were the blankets on the seats but this morning they 

all had hot water bottles tucked into them.  They felt so wonderful.

He is a very tiny antelope! 

This little bird gives you the idea of how cold is was..
He was all fluffed up trying to stay warm.
He needed a hot water bottle.

But then just a little ways further... James and Andrew stopped the truck suddenly and said, "Look...
this is a rare sighting."  Can you see what is in the tree?

This beautiful golden leopard!

 This big male was on one side of the tree!

Getting ready to sleep for the day...
He must have had a hard night! 

He sees us!

 Penetrating eyes!

Doesn't seem too concerned.

But this girl was concerned!

Here she is on the right side of the tree...  You can barely see the male on the left..but follow his tail.
 It is about this time that our guide was just brimming. He told us how rare it is to not only SEE the leopards in the
daylight, but how much more rare for them to let us watch them for such a long time.  So we did... just sat and watched and took a lot of pictures.  This was a first for me and for most in our truck... Andrew said he rarely sees one.. let alone a pair up in the tree.  He and James were pretty happy about this moment in time.

But Mama wasn't happy about Papa starting to move.

She was not too happy with us either, i don't think.

The she started hissing and snarling each time he moved and
he wasn't moving very much...

His beautiful tail...

and steadying paw.... holding him in place. 

Her tail just relaxed.

Her LONG tail.

Something moved in the bush...

 She remained motionless and steady.

But Daddy is rising to the noise..

 He, too.. gazing intently at the noise.  

The sun shining on him makes him even more golden..
One of my favorite pics.  Perfect symmetrical dots!

Once again she hisses/ growls-- I'm not sure what to call it.. but
it was not the voice of approval.

His ears always forward and hers were always back.

He is patient but inquiring.

 Still virtually motionless....

Tail and toes relaxed.  ha!

Just to give you the whole picture.

Then he turned around.... I think to watch us, too.
How often do they have a human sighting of 3 couples in
a truck sitting motionless....ha!

 More noises...

And now he is up!  

Looking for whatever it is..

 Ready to pounce

Why do the guys always get the great eyelashes?  

Once in the bush... he only looked back once....
and I'm so glad he did.

And Daddy was away....  Mama stayed in the tree
and just watched him..
Perhaps she was content that he'd gone on a hunt.


So at this point it is probably 7:30 am and the day had
just begun... but how could it get any better?
 

 Then just as we pull away --another rhino
was running away from the truck...

But then he turned and started running toward us....
but not for long.. just long enough for us to be warned 
not to get too close. 

These were the only zebra we saw.. Different from the ones
in Rwanda...  Their manes stood up like fans!  

Driving across an open area, Andrew gets a call from one of the other trucks that
they have spotted Cheetah.  (no pun intended)
So we took off rapidly to see if we could find them
and thanks to Andrew and James, we did!  

Just one, at first.

He looked hot.... Maybe too many trucks had been in pursuit..  but there he was sitting in the tall grass.

Then resting in the tall grass.

Then another comes in from the other side of the road.
Oh, i missed him.

And just then he turned to look at us.  Our lucky day, again!
Actually Henry, these pictures are for you!
You are the one who asked me to get pictures of Cheetahs for you if we saw any and so here they are. 

A large hornbill flew in while we were driving around
 looking for more cheetahs.

Looking and looking... driving and driving...

and then almost totally camouflaged...
another one--no, two. 

They were all there now... all four.. the one you can't see very well, because he had lain down in the grass.
So Henry.. there are 4 cheetahs for you and it was as
close as we could get.  

They kept moving further and further away. 

One last time for this one to check us out!

and one last time for this one..... 

And one last time for this one...   I think it is so cute how their little mouths always look like they are saying "ooooooooo".
Maybe they were just mocking us as we were saying the same thing!!

By now it is about 8:15 am and we've seen 2 leopards and
4 cheetahs and 2 rhinos.
  I just thanked the Lord for giving us these
great glimpses or gawks, actually, into His beautiful creatures.  They were amazing...  
but the morning would get even
more eventful... Really? 
Really!

We are just about back to the lodge...maybe 10 minutes away when this little Ellie made us stop in our 

tracks.  We couldn't drive around him... so we sat.

At first we just were watching him eat..

He seemed content.. but our guide noticed some other signs.

He began to look at us intently.

And he started toward the truck.... 
his ears flapped back...

But as he got closer he sort of waved at us with his ears...
Our guide whispered... "Don't move".  

Andrew continues to whisper to us...
"This guy is really in need of a partner... Look.. he is
 in full Musth."  (Musth is characterized by secretion from the bull's temporal glands, dribbling urine, and increased aggression).   He really looked like he
was relieving himself.... but Andrew said no..not exactly... he was just looking for love! 

You can see the temporal gland secretion.

His eyes never left ours.

I wish these would work.. but I can't figure out why they won't upload.

Loved watching his trunk and watching him eat.

Then he started to get closer..  We were all worried about James... sitting out there on his little seat.

Note James trying to look "casual".
and note his ( the ellie's) broken tusk.

He did it!  The bull doesn't seemed threatened because
he starts to walk away.

Back to the bush for more snacks.

 MMMMM.... this is so good and crunchy!

Mr. Ellie...decided to walk virtually along side of the truck right beside me on the right side of the truck. I began videoing and as he passed he seemed to be walking off into the bush away from us but then, all of a sudden he turned back to the truck.  He came out in the road and stood about 5

feet from the back of the truck... where I was shooting from. 

He stood still for a couple of minutes.. just looking at the 

camera.  His trunk either brushing the ground or resting on his broken tusk.  I could not even breathe..  None of us were moving at all.. Realizing he could just put his trunk up and knock my camera away or take it and crush it.  After over 3 minutes he shook his head and walked on down the road.

  

Before he did Elvira took this picture...  

She took this picture of me videoing the ellie...  after he turned to leave, I collapsed into Bruce's lap and breathed again..
I can truthfully confess that the only other time I was so scare was when I felt I was drowning in a lake when I was five. 

 We didn't learn until the next day that he backed up this Food Delivery Truck
for over an hour...
Thank goodness that Andrew taught us to stand our ground.

The time now was about 9:00am.  

Yes, all of this had happened 

since 6:30 am.  

What in the world will we do for 2 more days?

This morning seemed like a miracle. 

We have now seen 4 of the Big FIVE. 

The only one we haven't seen is the lion.  

Next we will be taking a short trip after lunch. 

Wonder where that will take us?

Hopefully you'll find out soon! 

love,

margie

The  blog page is "acting" up so if there are things out of order... i'm sorry... 

No fixing it tonight.