Cheetahs....

The drive started later then. usual , we were not on the road before 8.30.

We drove towards the main river mostly birding and enjoying landscapes. Birding is a quite slow process so to do few kilometres take long time but it is always very good fun. I also saw a bird I never saw before, a chestnut sparrow.

A guide from another camp told us he just saw a mating pair of lions not a couple of hundred meters from where we were, we reached the place but the lions were behind a bush so we could not see them.

They were mating and they always move when the copulation takes place so we bet on this and decided to wait there for them to come out. We just needed a bit of luck and we actually got it, after less then 5 minutes the lioness walked out from the bush and the male mated her in the tall grass in front of the car. It was quite a special thing for my guest particularly being the first time she saw this happening.

We drove off to see a wonderful white winged widowbird, one of the first of this season.

Sometimes herbivores help us to spot carnivores and this was the case of two giraffe staring at some tall grass under an umbrella thorn. They were staring at something and that something was cheetahs. I did not see them for some times and I was very happy. A mother and her onlòy cub were resting in the grass.

On the way back we got a wounded zebra, we could see the marks off three lion’s claws on the muscle of the back leg, 2 claws went very superficial but one was very deep in. Amazing strength must have occurred to survive that attack

Many tse tse fies on the road to Mdonya this afternoon.