Aat & Elly TR2020 - 05 - Cheetahs part II

[aat]

*** Travel Tales ***
Trip to Kruger NP 2020 New series of Stories

01 – 3 Beauties

Hi all,

I really hope everyone is doing well. We returned March 19th from a 3 week trip to Kruger NP. Just in time , we all know why.

We stayed 14 nights in Mopani and 6 nights in Letaba and had a wonderful time. The Mopani area , specially Tihongonyeni was like a small Serengeti , hundreds and hundreds of Zebra and Wildebeast with sometimes hundreds of Storks, many Elephant Bulls including some tuskers, Eland and even seen Lion.

One of the great sightings was with Cheetahs , near Mooiplaas waterhole.


It’s March 17th and saw some Zebra looking same direction and they looked a bit nervous. Very understandable since there were lots of Zebra “babies” around.

I was scanning the area where they were looking at and after some time I found these beauties.

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3 beautiful Cheetahs !
It was hot but decided to wait till they started to move. Well, after about 1 hour waiting , finally they got up and moved towards Mooiplaas waterhole.
They crossed the road in front of me

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The last one crossing

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Next they were playing a bit, rolling over, and sit and lay down in the grass


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Then…. My alarm was ringing… not really but in my mind. I realized I was looking at a Mom with two younger ones …. And I was thinking about last year October , also close to Mopani on and near the main road near the Conference Lookout

Photo I made in October:
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Back to the story.

I was just enjoying this sighting and after some time they got up and walked away. But… they walked away to a very nice place , so starting the engine and drove to the right place near a big tree and waited…

There they are

And closer and closer they came…

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Distance between me and them was probably 5 meters, and wowww so beautiful


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Time to Mark…. Look and you can see it

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A last shot of one of them

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Thanks for joining and hope you liked it

Aat & Elly

[harrys]

Awesome sighting

[Alf]

You always bring luck with you on your trips Aat

[Richprins]

What a leisurely and personal sighting, aat!

[Flutterby]

Wow, fantastic sighting.

[Klipspringer]

Great sighting, aat and very cool to identify the female you met before, give her a name!

[Pumbaa]

WoW Aat,

once again cheetah luck at Mooiplaas and even so stunning shots

[aat]

*** Travel Tales ***
Trip to Kruger NP 2020 New series of Stories

02 – Elephant Spa

Hi all,

It’s been a while again but here story 2.

Hoping everyone is doing well.

Location : NSEMANI Dam and about one week before the lockdown in SA.
We heard that Nsemani dam was loaded with water and so we would like to see this with our own eyes.
When we arrived is was a wowwww…. In all the years we have been here (that’s many times) we have never seen so much water. It looked like a big lake.

No much animals when we arrived but just a few moments later a herd of elephants was on their way.

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It’s always fun to see them getting exited for playing and drinking

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Just a minute later another herd arrived

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A bit of socializing , yelling and playing , mothers taking care of the kids , just great to watch

Then looking left again where the other herd was going into the water.

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At the RH side

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Then pending back to the LH side another herd was arriving (nr 3) It’s funny to see how they walk faster and faster when they “smell” water

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This herd was “mixing” with herd 1 with loud yelling and for the matriarchs it was a job to keep her herd together.

It was even getting more busy because herd (4) was arriving at the RH side , it became a big elephants meeting. In total we estimated over 100 elephants taking part of this meeting

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All together in the big pool

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Elephants like water very much , they don’t care about signs about “not diving” etc…
The herds at the LH side were now in the water for a nice swim competition.

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And at the RH side …. Why not … also swimming.

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Another very nice moment in KNP

Thanks for joining and hope you liked it

Aat & Elly

[Alf]

[Lisbeth]

Finally I can see the photos

Wonderful cheetah sighting and loving elephants, I find the SPA pics gorgeous