Thrill of the hunt

Our last morning we planned to search out the illusive leopard. Instead, we ended up following the adventure of two cheetahs.

We picked them up near an old, dead tree. They were very interested in it, then spent about five minutes scent-marking it, claiming it as their own, as it were.

As they moved off, we decided to chuck the idea of looking for a leopard (a losing proposition most of the time) and stick with the cheetahs. And we were glad we did.

They stalked and chased some big waterbucks. When that didn't work, they looked for easier prey.

Sneaky.

Our guide guessed where they were headed and we got ahead of them and hunkered down. They came towards us, then disappeared behind a small hill. One finally popped out and kind of sat there. Finally, our guide spotted the other about thirty yards beyond in tall grass. Just after we spotted him he took off and flushed out two small reedbucks who jumped once, twice, then one was down. The other ran off as the cheetah focused on the one in his mouth. We started up the truck and drove closer to see the cheetah end things and get down to breakfast (that picture was posted earlier).

As we were driving the 70 or so meters to the first cheetah, the second cheetah circled around our truck and got himself a bushbuck for breakfast.

Pretty incredible.