DAY THIRTEEN ~ Spots Before Our Eyes

After a noisy night, which started with a Leopard's snarl and continued through most of the night with Elephants browsing in the trees around our tent, punctuated by the whoops of Hyena and a lone Lion roaring several kilometres away in the distance, we packed the tent and headed out to look for wildlife to photograph.

Sitting at the fire with Ndololo Campsite to ourselves.

Along the Pipeline Road, we found a Jackal and then two Lions who had made a buffalo kill probably two days previously. The remains of the kill were just visible behind small hillock about 100yds from the track. The Lions were resting just the other side of a waterhole, roughly half-way between the kill and the track. We photographed them for a while, until they requested privacy by moving away, then we headed for Kanderi Swamp.

The Jackal stops to look at us, as we stop to look at it.

Lionesses along the Pipeline Road.

Who's watching who?

On arriving at the Swamp, we could not believe our luck, as two Cheetahs walked north out of the swamp and sat perched on a small Termite Mound. They seemed to be headed somewhere purposefully, so we headed up the track about half a kilometre and waited. Surely enough, they strode towards us, eventually arriving at a dead tree beside the track, which they scent-marked before carrying on on their quest.

One Cheetah jumps onto the dead tree.

Tsavo has one of the most important Cheetah populations, monitored by the Tsavo Cheetah Project

We then headed for Aruba along the River Route, before turning east to head out into the semi-desert expanse of the Ndara Plains, where we found a large herd of Fringe-Eared Oryx, including several calves.

Fringe-Eared Oryx on Ndara Plains.