10th October – stay at Lower Sabie Rest Camp (part 2)

10th October – stay at Lower Sabie Rest Camp (part 2)

We carried on driving south and about 3km north of Tshokwane Picnic Spot we saw 3 cars had pulled over. We looked to see what they were looking at and saw a large herd of zebras. We decided the light wasn’t very good to stop for zebras so were just pulling off when Wayne spotted 3 cheetahs lying less than 10m from the road completely in the open; we couldn’t believe it. We quickly pulled over and sat watching them for around 5 hours. 

During this time we saw a lot of zebras and wildebeest walk past, occasionally one would get too close; or on one occasion, a wildebeest literally sniffed the cheetahs heads so they chased after them.

A couple of times the cheetahs saw a wildebeest calf or zebra foal that took their fancy and they would crouch down ready to chase it, but they never managed to catch anything. We were amazed by the sheer large amount of game walking straight past them. If the wind was in the favour of the herbivores then they would get a sniff of the cheetahs and stop, change direction before soon forgetting and walking past them again. There were hundreds and hundreds of zebras and wildebeest, as there was almost a constant procession of them walking past all day – I’ve never seen anything like it. Vultures and jackals also arrived, probably hoping for a snack!

 One of the cheetahs kept calling, as if they were missing a fourth member, but he didn’t turn up. After about 5 hours of watching them my bladder couldn’t hold on anymore so we left to go to the picnic spot to relieve ourselves just 3kn away. We then returned to the cheetahs and thankfully there were only a couple of cars there so we managed to park and view them without any problems. After about 10 minutes and very large troop of baboons came through and as soon as they spotted the cheetahs they chased them away, over the road and down towards the river. 

Thankfully, they stopped just in front of a tree and when the baboons didn’t follow them they rested. We watched them for a further 15 minutes or so before they walked off down to the river and out of sight.

We were so pleased with our sightings today – around 30 lions and 3 cheetahs – not bad! We now didn’t have time to drive to Skukuza before heading to Lower Sabie as originally planned so we just drove straight down the H10 to Lower Sabie. Along the way we spotted giraffes, steenbok, impala, and a large herd of buffalo which included lots of calves. We also saw them fighting with each other and slipping and falling on the road when they ran across it too fast. 

We saw several very large herds of elephants, totalling around 30 members each. It was funny seeing them amongst all the dried grass which is typically what you think about when describing the African savannah.

We also passed a large herd of 20+ kudu beside the road and then another of 10+, as well as one lone waterbuck.

We crossed the river by Lower Sabie Dam and saw elephant, hippos and impala. We had now arrived at Lower Sabie. As there was still over 1 hour before we had to be in camp we decided to sit at Sunset Dam, just 30 seconds from camp before heading in for the evening. Here we watched the animals interact as many hippos fought each other; I assume they were just practise fights,

We also watched a large group of storks sleeping and 2 different herds of elephants came to drink and the second herd also took it in turns to have a mud bath.

There was also a troop of baboons causing mayhem as they jumped on the cars, fought one another and general caused trouble as baboons usually do.