Moremi GR - Day 4

Another morning another glorious sunrise

It turned out that only one slop survived unscathed. The hyena had left one of Cheryl’s flip flops, bitten though the thong of the other, but decimated Dru’s.

We had to finish packing the car but were still gone before dawn. We had heard lion in the opposite direction but wanted to get to Xini Lagoon earlier rather than later to see if we could catch the wild dogs.

Still, you are in a game drive at the best time of the day and we wanted to take advantage of that so decided to head along the riverside to 2nd Bridge rather than the main road.  It turned out to be the right call because not too long after Dru managed to make a really difficult spot of a cheetah standing still among the brush.

Lechwe keep a close eye on a cheetah 

It turns out the cheetah was actually trying to hunt lechwe although it wasn’t a particularly good attempt as the lechwe saw him a mile away and were soon whistling their alarm call and bounding through the water to safety.

The cheetah actually did some walking in the delta waters before crossing the road back again and managed to surprise a massive flock of helmeted guineafowl who promptly turned the tables on him, chasing him into the bush.

The cheetah sightings have increased in Moremi

We waited around for a while but didn’t catch sight of him. Happy with the sighting we made our way to 2nd bridge, checking the pan nearby for lions but had no luck.

Cheetah in perfect light, what a magic sighting

We had just crossed the bridge and were driving towards 1st Bridge when out of her eye Cheryl spotted another cheetah. It would have been a crime if she had missed it because it was almost on top of the car walking towards us, it’s just that she had been focused on a herd of wildebeest on the other side of the road.

Still, we had another cheetah in the bag but he had started running, crossing behind the car and disappeared into the bush.

Luckily we found a road that took us into the veld but the grass was tall and it was difficult to see the cat, let alone shoot it.

But there was a termite mound nearby and he seemed to be heading in that direction. And for once, our luck paid off and he hopped onto the termite mound.

And then he just stayed there, allowing us time to drive along the road to the mound and get some lovely shots of him in good light - a perfect pose.

We eventually left him still regally sitting on top of the mound and continued our drive through to Xini Lagoon.

It took us about an hour until we hit the turnoff to the baobab tree at Xini Lagoon and began following the directions to the wild dog den.

In the end they were pretty straightforward to find but we didn’t even need to as we met a game drive vehicle along the way. An excited guide told us that they’d just seen a mother cheetah with 4 cubs but they were walking away.

Waiting for the dogs to make a move

We never saw the cheetahs, they had disappeared into the bush but the guide then went straight to the wild dog den so we just needed to follow him.

The dogs were already mostly in the shade and the pups were at the den but a bit too far away to get any shots of.

We found out a bit later that there is a road that takes you right to the den but for now we were just happy that the dogs were there, even if they were already resting.

Hooded vultures seem to be around the pack full time

We spend quite a while with them but it was clear that they were done for the morning. A dog would get up now and then but it was only to move into better shade so nothing much was happening.

We decided to have another go at the cheetah mom and cubs as it was just up the road but had no luck there as well so decided to turn around and head back to the dogs.

Resting dogs, it's going to be a long wait

We wanted to get a soft drink and our lunch out of the fridge at the back of the bakkie and that’s when we discovered that we have no bumper!

A few moments later and we found it lying in the middle of the road. These bad roads plus the damage from hitting the stump on the first day had taken its toll and the bumper was off. We had been worried that it may fall off on the highway when we were driving back to Gabs so at least that problem was solved.

We couldn’t fit the bumper in the car so we had to move it off and leave it there after just taking the licence plate off.

There will be a greeting ceremony in the afternoon

Back to the dogs and the pattern seemed to be that a couple of dogs would go to the den, regurgitate some food for the pups and then head back to the shade of the trees and the pups would go back into the den.

The Pups getting an afternoon drink

This happened a few times while we waited, but we were hoping that they would have a big greeting ceremony as it got a bit cooler - that's what we were aiming for.  We just hoped that they would do it before we needed to leave - we estimated that we needed at least an hour and a half to get to South Gate, our camp for the night.

We put a deadline of 4.30 pm to give ourselves plenty of time which meant the dogs needed to be up earlier than that for us to have any chance and luckily for us they did.

For hours we sat there but then just after 3pm we heard a strange noise. We thought it was a bird but turns out it was a pup calling. It’s surprisingly loud and the dogs reacted immediately, with all of them suddenly rushing towards the den.

20 Puppies from 2 litters, all heading towards us!

And then there was pandemonium! There were dogs and puppies everywhere, chasing each other, twittering at one another and running back and forth.

The bulk of the pups found mom and demanded a drink. The mom stands up while the pups clamor for a suckle and there is also a lot of begging from all the adults for regurgitated meat which all the adults oblige. Absolute chaos!

Then suddenly the dogs decided to run towards us and more chaos ensued. It was like they needed to find out if we were friend or foe so they got really close to the windows, stared in like they were assessing prey and then growled at us.

It got a bit hairy for a moment and we had to actually partially wind up one of windows in case one of the dogs made a jump at us. But then they obviously decided we were friend because the next minute all the puppies were playing around the car using it as a nice shade cover.

For the next hour or so we couldn’t move while puppies played next to the car and the adults oversaw them. An amazing and unbelievable wildlife experience, especially since there wasn’t another car in sight the whole time we were there.

The Pups playing in the shade of our car!

Eventually most of the pups wandered back off to the den site leaving 2 little pups fast asleep next to the wheel of the car with 2 adult minders asleep next to them.

Time was starting to run out for us, we needed to start heading to South Gate if we were going to make our campsite in time. So reluctantly we started the car which obviously woke them all up and had the little ones bolting for the den.

In all this time we had been the only car and so left them in peace to chill out while we started the hour and a half drive to South Gate.

It took us a little over that time and that was because we didn’t have to stop for anything. A good sighting or an elephant on the road and we would have been cutting it fine.

But we arrived before closing time, although the park gate staff had already left for the day.  And of course we got to our campsite and there were already people setting up - a good old double booking.  Luckily it was quickly resolved as the campsite attendant was there so we moved to another campsite as there were plenty of free ones.

We had a lot to do, with the main task being to put fuel in the car. We don’t have long range tanks so we carry 80 liters of diesel in jerry cans and it was time to get half of that in.

It’s a messy job but we’re well practiced so it was done quickly before the rest of the camp chores were finished. We had to keep an eye on the resident honey badger running between sites to make sure he didn’t swipe our steak when we weren’t looking but otherwise it was a pleasant evening around the fire and we got to bed at the usual time while listening to lions roar outside the campsite.