2nd August – Mpaya to Khiding


 

We wake up (well “wake up” is a figure of speech as there was no sleep at all between all the activity at night and all the excitement) early and at 7am to search for the lions in earnest.  They cannot be too far off as they left just before dawn.  We soon catch up with them but it is a very short encounter as they move off away from the road for a nap.  The light is gorgeous however.  It seems the pride got split up during the night, the young males were left behind to frolick in our campsite whilst the others moved on.  We witnessed their happy reunion which was quite heartwarming.
One of the young males approaching the rest of the pride

One of the young males approaching the rest of the pride

 

Group Hug! Lion style

Group Hug! Lion style

 

Lion in Gold

Lion in Gold

 

Lurking Danger

Lurking Danger

 

Another young male walks towards the pride

Another young male walks towards the pride

 

Another young male walks towards the pride

Another young male walks towards the pride

 

Tried something different here ...

Tried something different here …

 

Smiling Lioness

Smiling Lioness

We return to camp and start to cook.  We do not have a booking for today either and we adopt the same plan of leaving as soon as the new occupants arrive.  What we did not expect was the extremely rude new occupants which storm out of the car waving papers in anger already before they even say hello.  I swear they seem disappointed that we just smile and say we’ll vacate the campsite soon, and they remain extremely grumpy.  Note that there is no time listed when campers have to leave a site and we only have 2 cars and 1 table which we duly move out of the way for them.  We watch in amusement while finishing our lunch while they build a whole village.  They also brought quite lot of young children including newborns.  The kids are running, screaming and throwing footballs around all over the place far from the adults and I politely warn them that the lions are around.  They are extremely rude, shout at me and wave their hands around and send me off.  Amongst all the nice people we meet there are always the obnoxious noisy ones.

 

We set off for our last game drive.  The lions are still sleeping so we head of to Lesholoago trying to find the resident cheetah.  To our surprise we find him immediately.  We spend some time watching and following it.  At one point it crosses the road in front of us and proceeds to climb a tree making a strange call.  Lions in a shower, leopards on termite mounds, cheetahs in a tree – things have turned upside down during this trip!
Cheetah at Lesholoago

Cheetah at Lesholoago

 

It looks suspicious

It looks suspicious

 

Yes definitely looking suspiciously at us!

Yes definitely looking suspiciously at us!

 

It blends beautifully in its surroundings

It blends beautifully in its surroundings

 

Now we have seen it all ... cheetah in a tree, lions in the shower and leopards on termite mounds

Now we have seen it all … cheetah in a tree, lions in the shower and leopards on termite mounds

 

Cheetah in a tree

Cheetah in a tree

Mongoose pretending to be a meerkat

Mongoose pretending to be a meerkat

In the evening we go to our designated campsite, Khiding, only to find it occupied.  The Dutch couple arrived first and went to talk to them and they lied through their teeth that they had a booking and refused to move.  Since it is late and we are leaving early we  leave it at that as the other spot is empty.  They even have the nerve to glare at us when we go and visit “their” ablution since ours is a mess.

 

We have some last drinks and snacks before bedtime, and only a jackal keeps us company during this night.