Ntudu In A Day (Really day and a half)

We left at 7 am for an early morning safari ride. It started out bad for me - the dust had been so bad yesterday, that my camera's lens cover won't shut, so my camera won't work. I have a back up, but it doesn't have much of a zoom and no back up battery. 

 




























On the plus side, we got to see the kill everyone was wanting. But not until after seeing for younger lions drinking in a pond and a momma cheetah with her baby.

We were watching a momma and 2 younger cheetahs stalk some "food" (zebra, wildebeest, and gazelles - they tend to move together), when suddenly they all went off.  The whole herd went running. I was focusing on the momma, who did not get her kill.

The mom tried to take down a large animal (or distract the animals so the kids could get the kill, we aren't really sure).  The kids successfully took down a baby wildebeest. They weren't so successful at killing it. Because they are still learning to hunt, even working together they couldn't kill it. Meanwhile, the wildebeest's mother came close trying to figure out what it could do. After a few minutes, she gave up and left. 

Finally the cheetah mother stepped in and killed the baby wildebeest. Then they all proceeded to chomp away at it for a while. Safari trucks from far and wide came running, lining up to watch. In the distance, jackals and vultures were waiting for the cheetahs to finish so they could scavenge.  

It was cool to watch, but not for the faint of heart. Especially because the younger cheetahs couldn't kill the wildebeest.  So the mother had to step in eventually. 

After we left, I almost felt like we should go back to the lodge - what more could we see...

They is always more to see. We also saw giraffes, lion cubs (though they were hiding in the bush), Stan buck (had never heard of them; similar to a dik-dik).

After lunch and feed time, we went for our late afternoon ride. We stayed with a list of things we wants to see, some, I honestly thought most were a long shot. Instead we keep meeting our goal and adding to the list.

Our late afternoon safari, we went down to the lake with the flamingos. I was disappointed we couldn't get very close. After we left, we came across three lions. They were across the path from quite a few wildebeest. We had hoped to see lion's kill, but after a few false starts, they left them alone. 

As we left we saw a Giraffe drinking in a pool of water. Unfortunately he was behind trees, so we couldn't take a picture.but it was funny to see him stretch his legs apart and do his head all the way to the water. 

We kept going and found a lion family with two baby cubs. They went down to the water to get a drink, all the while playing and acting cute. As more vehicles showed up to watch, the one baby got nervous.  The first went right past a vehicle to get back to his dad. The other would start, and then get scared, then start again. Eventually he got brave and ran very fast past the vehicle. Then the two proceeded to play as they went back toward their dad. 

All In all, another great day.