I spent yesterday afternoon editing a few photos and writing the blog. I met the young man who would be joining me in the truck. He is from Switzerland and has been here many times, even knows all the names of each of the leopards. Whew, I was afraid I would get some newbie that wanted to bounce around seeing all the different animals and not take the time to wait for the awesome activities of the cats.

First we saw some warthogs – love how when they run, they stick their tails straight up.

Warthogs We first found the pride of lions we had seen before. The youngster we saw yesterday that appeared lost had not rejoined them. The tiny, sickly cub was still with them. But they were sleeping in the shade, so we didn’t spend much time with them. Pretty casual…

We heard that the female leopard we had seen this morning had been spotted. Apparently when first seen she had left the cub where we had seen them this morning but had gone back for it. Now, she must have hidden it someplace else because it was not with her. She was sleeping in the bottom of a sandy wash, so not very interesting to watch. Every once in a while, she would lift her head up then go back to sleeping. I don’t know how these drivers get down into these tight places, it barely held two trucks and took some real maneuvering to trade places.

Then we heard the really exciting news – a mother cheetah and her three half grown cubs had been spotted. Cheetahs are very rare in Sabi Sabi so everyone wanted to see her. There are five lodges, each with 1-2 vehicles. The rules are no more that three vehicles at a time, then you get on standby. We were second to standby. While waiting, we found a group of five white rhinos. For any of the Big Five, we can go off road, so makes it nice to get up close. Here’s four of the five.

By the time we go up to go to the cheetah family, it was nearly sundown, so light was very poor. They were sleeping in dense grass and every once in a while they would sit up. But we saw them and got some good documentation images. Thank goodness for DeNoise programs because I was shooting at 10,000 ISO or higher.

Hard to shoot them in the grass

We stopped for our sundowner drinks. Finally found a herd of zebras and wildebeests, but in the dark.

After the game drive I went straight to dinner. They had it set up in a sandy patio by the fire pit. Again, a four-course dinner. I had a beetroot salad and carrot/lentil soup. For the entre we had the choice of vegetarian pasta – no, chicken breast – double no or, filet of kudu – had to have that. I was so delicious. For dessert I had the Pavlova ice cream.

Waddled back to the room. Tried to edit the afternoons photos but kept falling asleep into the laptop.

This morning the usual 5:30 am morning coffee to leave at 6 am for the game drive. Found a huge herd of Cape Buffalo, but like yesterday, shooting black animals before sunrise is not worth the bother but still interesting to see such a huge herd.

Our tracker found tracks of four, well-known male lions that have moved in this area. We searched and searched but could not find them. But we heard that the cheetahs were in the same exact area as yesterday, so we rushed over there.

Now here is the great part of not being on a tour – we were the second truck there. Eventually a third truck showed up. I'll tell you why so few trucks later in this blog.

The lighting was so much better, they were playing and sometimes sitting up so we could see them.

The cheetah family was starting to rouse and eventually started walking.

All three trucks followed at a decent distance. No other trucks showed up. We stopped by an ant hill and we commented “wouldn’t it be nice….” And sure enough, they all climbed up on the ant hill and posed.

Then they posed on a log and finally stopped to drink at a water hole. Only one other truck there for a few minutes, then just us.

We spent over and hour with the cheetah family – where was everyone else? They are on a tour and once they have seen something, they take their cell phone shots and then move onto something else because they need to see all the different animals. They had seen the cheetahs last night and weren’t coming back. I was lucky that the gentleman with me was like me, and wanted quality time with just the cats. I just loved all the interactions, especially between the siblings.

One more game drive this afternoon then off to Victoria Falls tomorrow.