escapewindow | viii: the perfect day, part i. 12 oct 2012 (Reply)

We started early the next morning, and caught the leopard mum at their home rock.

(tight crop)

We saw wildebeest on the move.

Our driver got stuck twice: once in deep muddy ruts, and once as we were crossing a stream. That one required a rope, another car, and people leaning on the side of the car to keep it from rolling over into the water.

After a breakfast in the field, we got a lot of pictures of an old male lion lounging in the shade, then an entire pride of lions snoozing: one here, one there, four there, two there.

Then we saw a gathering of cars, and drove over post haste. Cheetahs.

The cubs followed their mom a distance as she stared at some distant gazelle? and I did everything I could to prepare to capture her running. It wasn't to be, however; we left before anything happened.

Still, I'm pretty stoked we saw 4 cheetahs. That's over 1% of the regional population.

We headed back for camp to rest for the afternoon, and planned to head back out in the evening for the second half of our perfect day.

The rest of the photos are here.

Previously: