Today was another great day. We were greeted by zebra outside our tent first thing this morning.
As we drove away from the camp we saw a group of buffalo, one had a baby. I am guessing the camp staff were not too happy to see buffalo so close.
Then slightly further down the road Alladini spotted a serval cat. Lovely to see this slightly smaller and more elusive member of the cat family. He stopped for a minute or 2 allowing us to get some photos before disappearing into the bush.
We drove on spotting the usual giraffe and gazelles before noticing a group of vultures circling in the sky. They always remind me of a tornado when they do this. We drove over to see what had attracted their attention. As we arrived we could see a large number of vultures on the ground with more arriving by the second. They were all landing on each other and fighting each other trying to get to the carcass, the noise was amazing. There were so many of them that to start with it was difficult to see what they were eating.
Some had a bit of a crash landing
After a while, some had obviously had their fill and moved away, their red “bloodied” faces making them look like something out of a horror movie. As the numbers eating slightly decreased we could tell that the unfortunate animal was a zebra. We could also now see that one vulture had actually got inside the rib cage of the zebra and was eating from this position! After about half an hour things had calmed down a bit and we decided to leave.
Soon after this we saw what looked like a deer. Alladini said it was an oribi. We had never seen one before. It was very quick so the photo isn’t great.
After this we found a group of elephants who were moving at some pace, they weren’t really stopping to eat. We followed for a short while.
We were now in the Makoa region of Ndutu, where Alladini had planned to spend the day. After driving around for a while we had seen plenty of zebra and wildebeest but not the cats we were looking for. We saw a secretary bird sat on a nest and a chameleon on the ground. The chameleon has a strange way of walking, rocking backwards and forwards several times inbetween taking each step.
Throughout today we must have seen over 20 hyenas including these 4 altogether.
Driving around for the last few days it has become obvious to us that at the present time with very few people out on safari, there are hardly any calls over the car radio reporting other animal sightings. However today we do see a couple of other cars in the distance, so using their radios, the guides arrange to work as a “team” to look for cheetahs.
At one point we cause false hope when we stop to look at this Great Spotted Cuckoo.
Anyway the plan works and half an hour later one of the guides radios through that he has seen a cheetah mum and 3 cubs so we drive to join him and have a look.
In the end a total of 4 cars watch the family group, I imagine in “normal” times this would be at least 20 and maybe a lot more. The family are clearly hunting so all the cars keep well back - something I was really pleased to see. Luckily E-Trip has provided 3 good pairs of binoculars in the car so we can all watch events unfold. It is also good that our cameras have a pretty good zoom.
After about another 10 minutes mum makes an attempt at a kill. She goes off at speed but we can see she stops before making a kill. She then calls for the cubs to follow her.
Having spent all that time searching for a cheetah this morning we all have to laugh when, as we leave our lunch spot we see another cheetah, right beside the road!! Of course we still stop and take some photos.
We have a shower and do some washing before enjoying a drink around the bonfire and dinner with Alladini. It have been another good day.
Loved the Serval sighting.
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