Lions for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (October 2019)

[Bushcraft]

What a start Mel

You can't chirp me on my KNP trip if your trip started like this

The Caracal sighting is special

[Mel]

Wow what a start

Absolutely stunning, Mel!!
All those cat sightings, WOW!!!

Incredible luck, Mello!
You could have slept for the rest of the trip after that start!
What is the story with the deadly water?

Four different cat species in one day....what an amazing first day Mel!!

Wow as you said "what a day", very nice sightings

And that was only the first day
Caracal AWC and a gorgeous squirrel
Too sad about the elands

I think at least 3000 is acceptable
Really great sightings on your first day Mel! What a lot of cats... the caracal would be my highlight I think

Thank you all It definitely was a very exciting day... one that doesn't happen too often, at least when you're not one of the
extremely lucky people who get to see everything all of the time. Which we definitely are not (no porcupine yet ever, for example),
but we still feel blessed with all the stuff we got to see.

And, yes, the caracal certainly was one of our two highlights, PJL. But cheetahs will ALWAYS make my day too

Richprins, I'm no good at explaining the phenomenon in correct terms, but what basically happens is that the elands drink so much
water quickly because they are totally dehydrated (and also undernourished). The fast intake of water causes pressure on the brain -
possibly because they take in too much oxygen in with the drinking? - which apparently lets their blood cells pop and therefore their
whole system collapses and they'll die. Hope that makes any sense.

[Mel]

What a start Mel
You can't chirp me on my KNP trip if your trip started like this
The Caracal sighting is special

There was no leopard yet, so I'll keep chirping

[Mel]

6th October at Grootkolk

After the many hours we had spent on the road the day before, we opted for a lazy day in the camp.
And the amount of sightings showed that it does pay off to go out Although, it was Sunday and
Sundays are usually very quiet for us - so who knows really what's the better choice

That's all we got to show for that... At night we had a brownie coming in, but I never took a photo thinking that
I would get ample of chances to do so since brownies are given at Grootkolk. Or rather they were. Bush news has
it that the new dominant male lions at Grootkolk (3 or 4 of them, I don't know exactly, we never saw them) took
out two of the hyenas right in the camp two weeks earlier and the one we had seen for a last time hat Sunday
was killed near a waterhole further north on our third night there. The neighours apparently saw it and by now
I also saw footage of one kill at the camp.

Darn lions took away our best chance to see brownie. They must be troublemakers anyway seeing that the
car park has been fenced in just recently. I think, those naughty lions kept chewing the tyres and guests were
stranded...

[Mel]

7th October at Grootkolk

Next morning we started going up north to Union's End but it was extremely quiet up there, not even tracks in the road.
So, we decided on going south too. But it kept quiet and we kept going south. All we found were three warthogs far off in the riverbed.

By now we had reached Polentswa with not much to bee seen. We decided to keep going until Kousant which is only another 8 km down the road -
by then we had already done about 100, so it didn't matter anymore

And what a lucky decision... We ran into the cheetah girls from two day before again. And sat with them, and sat, and sat. A total of 4 hours!

[Mel]

Eventually we decided to head back to the camp. But not without stopping at Polentswa for possible raptor sightings again.
What we found were some very skittish kudus. Having switched off the car and they eventually would come closer to drink.

After they had their fill, we were about to get going again but got talking to fellow visitors who asked us if we had seen the
lions only about two kilometres further up from the cheetahs. Uhm, no, we hadn't. The lady was very kind and tried to reassure
us that anyone would miss them if they didn't know they were they because they were basically lying in a dip.

Still, we had to try to find them since they were four kilometres from us at the max.

[Mel]

It took a bit of patience but since we were talking a mating pair, they were more active than lions would
usually be during the day

After that the lady had to use the bathroom, so she wandered off for a bit.

Before going into round 2

We decided to let them have their privacy for the next round and finally got on our way back to the camp.
We hadn't had any breakfast yet and it was way past 2 pm by then.

[Mel]

Still, the SO had to drive into Polentswa again for yet another raptor check - and there we were.
Even with my favourite stage regarding development bateleur

[Mel]

Late in the afternoon, back at the camp, the sociable weavers had finally gotten the message that a bird bath was set up for them again and so the frenzy started just before their bed time. I love watching their antics and listening to their chirps

[Alf]

Bad lions