On a recent CVa21 Grand Explorer tour, Carina was rewarded handsomely for her patience in Ethosa... Everyone wants to see cats when they are on a game drive, but people don’t realise that they are not the easiest animals to find. On our trip in Etosha we were surprised by not only 1, but 4 of these feline friends of ours.
We arrived in Etosha National Park for an afternoon game drive and within 5 minutes we spotted 2 elephants at a waterhole. We decided to drive on a little gravel loop back to the main road. Just before we reached the tar road we saw another vehicle standing next to the road.
We couldn’t see anything so we asked these guys what they were looking at and they told us they had seen a cheetah. This caused a lot of excitement in our group. We looked in the direction they was pointing and finally found her sitting under a tree, far in the bushes. She was very difficult to see and at first, it was only me and my co-guide that could spot her as she was sitting still in the shade, and she was very well camouflaged. We waited a while before she started walking. We waited a little longer to see what she would do, when she changed direction and started heading towards the road. Her progress was slow progress as it was hot. She would walk a little bit then stand and wait in a shady spot before continuing on her way.
What we weren’t expecting was that when she reached an open area, 2 cubs suddenly followed her out into the open. They continued on their path and crossed the road behind our vehicle, and that was when another surprise came, when a 3rd cub followed them across the road. What a moment that was! The sighting kept getting better, when the cubs decided to lay down and play with each other in the middle of the road. They then attempted to climb a low hanging branch in a nearby tree. But then mom walked off again over the hill and just as quickly as they appeared, they all disappeared again.
Nature will always have a surprise for you if you are prepared to wait.