It's so dusty, the animals can't see...*

[Mel]

One of the young males had discovered a jackal that had found its way behind the fence around the watertank.
Well, the jackal didn't make it, but the lions didn't have a snack either...



The lions had chased the poor jackal around in his enclosure and I assume the jackal either died of a severe injury or he just had a heart attack. We couldn't really see from our spot. I took this pic only when we left. In either case - moving lions at almost 40°C who are desperate to catch a jackal... tells you a lot about the state the lions were in.

[Mel]

At Urikaruus we were greeted by the ever so friendly Jacques. Luckily, I had ask to be allocated to number one otherwise the Swiss couples next door would have had number 1 and 2 and the other two units don't have any shade during the hottest hours of the day. The locals were waiting for us and hoping we would be daft enough to leave the veranda door open while unpacking.



Well, we did not. You steal food from us only once.

[Mel]

When staying at Uri, you basically have the same problem as at Grootkolk: Staying in or going for a drive?
Seeing that the waterholes are much closer together than up north on the Nossob side, we left around 4.15 pm in southern direction.

At Montrose a beautiful tawny awaited us at the waterhole.



The year before I had discovered a spotted eagle owl nesting 100 metres down the road in a niche in the rocks opposite the waterhole.
In March this year she was never there when we passed by. But now she was back.

[Mel]

Just past Batulama we bumped into a few cars... Sure enough there were cats around. More malnourished lions
And a very odd coalition on top of it: two younger males, one Methuselah-aged male and one who I would have considered in his prime.

The two younger ones got up to leave and I only managed to get a shot of one of them:


I'm sure he was a beautiful guy too when he was younger. Now he hardly has any teeth left and I'm actually surprise how perceptive he still appears.


What a handsome guy!




If he had just a bit more to eat...


By now I have figured out where I have seen the last one before... Almost exactly a year ago in the same area... following a group of females with cubs in various sizes through a sandstorm in 38°C and seemingly trying to make the females his pride. Appears as if he failed badly and has to rely on his own skills to get some food. Appears he's not any good at that...

Any suggestion on how this coalition got together? I can see that the two younger males might be the offspring of one of the older ones and maybe they got evicted together by a new dominant male. But how does a second adult male fit into the equation...

[Mel]

Good night at Urikaruus

[Mel]

AstroMatt managed to ID this bum (with a different angle from this one) as Margie.

Not so good news then because people who saw them said there were two of them and both in a really bad condition,
not having eaten for days obviously.

[Mel]

27 October - Urikaruus

For some reason I can't remember anymore (probably the heat...) I got up really early that morning. It was still pitch dark outside when I started to make some coffee. Spots was still blissfully snoring away upstairs, so I was completely on my own. I pottered about in the kitchen and eventually the day started dawning. Hmz... I'm sure that's a new shape in the riverbed there, I thought to myself. Well, that shape turned out to be...



... yet another lion.

When we arrived at Urikaruus the day before, Jacques had told us about Charlie Fax having puppies and that they had been regularly seen up the road by the building crew who came in every morning between 6.30 and 7 am. So this is where I wanted to be headed at that time that morning. But would find that I didn't have to... Spots - who was up by now as well - announced at some point that Charlie was in the dunes next to the camp attendant's unit and she had brought 3 cute puppies with here. Forgotten were all the missed cheetahs. Charlie had come to introduce us to her family. What a privilege!

I really do believe in things like that...

[Mel]

The lion was royally put off because nobody every paid him any attention anymore and so he scampered off to find a more appreciative audience.



The foxes eventually disappeared underground and we retreated to the deck to finish our coffees. There had been plenty of those that morning!
What an excitement.

At the waterhole a breeding cattle egret had moved in with his future wife. But she was a bit shy and tended to stay further away.

[Mel]

At some point we embarked on a drive but the day was rather quiet. Of course, we needed to check on the owl at Montrose again.
Especially since I only took photos in the mornings anyway because she was in the shade by the time we passed her on our evening drives.



Opposite Gemsbokbplein waterhole a lioness had parked herself in a somewhat awkward position underneath a tree.



We went all the way to Houmoed and back without seeing anything exciting anymore. But no surprise there as it was hot, hot, hot once again and all the critters lay still somewhere in the shade.

[Mel]

As it was so hot again and also because we hadn't had anything to eat yet, we decided to travel at 50 km/h to get back to the camp as quickly as possible.
And although I must consider getting reading glasses soon, my eyes are still good enough to pick up yet another owl in a niche in the rocks - despite the speed.
This one was 1.2 to 1.4 kays south of the look out point junction at Gemsbokplein.



The lioness was still there as well.