Sunday, November 6, 2011

Drive #7, Day 4 (evening ) Sept. 11, 2011

This night was all about watching the mama cheetah and her five cubs feeding (which, by the way, was one of my top 4 moments of the trip!)  and chasing down the perfect sunset.  It was breath taking this night!

This picture shows just how long the spikes on the trees are with all this fresh spring growth.


Wildebeest!

And here's mama and the cubs.....

All of the adult cheetah's had tracking collars, although I'm not sure the guides were actually using the locating info to show them to us.

She had killed an impala earlier in the evening to feed the family.

The cubs were just as cute as they could be!

This is the best shot of the "family" I was able to get.  Mama is over the impala and the 5th cub is just to the left of her.  You can just make out the top of it's back in the grass.

Would YOU like to take dinner away?!?!?!?

Louiza was a complete scaredy-cat, but she was a good sport!

I'm sure Welcome was giving Louiza some line about since she left the group to go back to the jeep by herself, she was going to make good cheetah food!  LOL

Grouse, I think.

Bill had a specific picture in his mind he was trying to duplicate for a photo to bring home.  We never did capture the "perfect" shot, but we got some pretty awesome ones.





This time when we found the ostrich's, they weren't so close they were trying to untie my shoe or steal my sunglasses!

We found the brand new parents on the way back to the lodge!  The baby was so tiny, especially standing next to mom!  We weren't able to get a really good angle of any of these guys, needless to say, they were being very protective of the baby and just not co-operating for the tourists to take great shots of them.  LOL  We had pulled off to the side of the road to watch them for a bit.....as we were leaving, we had our 3rd flat tire of the trip!  It's all good though, because these experiences are what make for the best stories once you return home.

Our new friend Julian had a birthday the day we all arrived at Zulu Nyala so at his request, we were all having dinner and a nice long enjoyable evening together.  It turned into a party, with the staff asking us to leave so they could close the dining room down.  (We ALWAYS have fun, no matter where we go!)  We just moved the party pool side (but not before snapping a few pictures)!  The restaurant staff (most being Zulu) put on an impromptu performance of their native dance for the birthday kids.  (Some one else was having a birthday also!)  The manager put a dessert plate together complete with candles for Julian to blow out.  It was really a fun night!

Julian and Louiza

Katie and her mom Louisa

Penny and Bill (if I was GOOD photographer, I would have moved everything away that was in front of them.  LOL)

This would be the night I stole Welcomes ball cap from him.  I could have bought one from the front desk, but I didn't want just "ANY" ball cap ----  I wanted Welcomes ball cap!

There was one other couple (Pat and Al) that was part of our group, however, they were staying at the Safari Lodge and the batteries had gone dead in the camera by the time they were able to make it over to join us.  Danged the luck!

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