North of Satara proved to be very dry and quiet and the H7 on the sighting board was even worse, so the S100 again was on the cards for the morning drive.
We were one of the first out the gate this morning as I didn’t want to get jammed in with the S100 gang, therefore the first few km of the S100 were peaceful and relaxing, so my teeth were hanging out and I was driving along slowly at Brad’s pace when something far off on the left caught my attention.
I slowed and said “What the heck is that blob moving out of the bush?” The Cow then spotted it and shouted “Leopard!! No not a leopard, what is it?”, “Civet!”
It’s only the 3rd Civet that we have ever seen in the day time and Brad had never spotted one at night or in the day, so he was stoked.


Next up we spent a few minutes with the S100 waterbuck locals who seemed rather tense about something, but we never figured out what it was.

A few km later the first scallywag for the day came out the bush and crossed the road in front of us. This aunty looked like a real thug and seemed to also have some serious damage to the jaw.


When we reached the end of the S100 we had a small conference between cars about a quiet spot for a skottel breakfast and as all enjoyed Muzandzeni, we decided to head back on the S100 and down the H7/S36 to the picnic spot.
The first little inlet coming back on the S100 produced a lioness cruising along in the riverbed, but she was a long way off, so we decided to continue on down and wait for her to pop up again.
About a km later there’s another inlet and we found a few cars stopped next to the road opposite the inlet.
I recognised the driver of one vehicle, it was Mgoddard, so pulled up next to her to say “howzit” and find out what the deal was. Apparently there were some lions a long way off in the bush, but she couldn’t see them, so was moving on. We said cheers and pulled into the inlet, which was on the opposite side of the gang and waited for the lone lioness from earlier who was definitely heading in the direction of the rest of the pride.
A few minutes later she arrived in the riverbed and we found ourselves alone initially as the gang was still trying to spot the distant pride in the bush behind us.


The lioness then decided to park off in the riverbed to do some body work, which enabled the gang to realize that there was something happening, so we were soon snowed by others.

The gang that had developed above the lioness didn’t seem to bother her and a few minutes later she walked up the bank towards us and crossed the road towards the distant pride.

A faulty over excited tonsil decided to cut us off and block our view of her heading towards the pride, which got the Cow chirping, but I couldn’t give a toss by that stage and could see the panicked excitement in the tonsil’s car, so just drove off.
Just before the tar we found a male and female ostrich with a couple juniors, which got the Cow and rats excited, so we stopped to spend a few minutes with them.

The H7 and S36 were once again quiet and only produced a few zebra and impala, so we were happy to reach Muzandzeni for a chance to get out the car.
Our hired skottel this morning was rather long in the tooth, so Brad eventually pulled his out the car in frustration and we operated on two.
Halfway through breakfast a large ellie arrived for a drink and a few minutes later another arrived and folded his trunk back over his head and kept it there until the larger chap left. This had us all rolling with laughter, but I’m interested to find out, is this submissive behaviour or potential aggression?

To be continued