January 3, 2012 12:00pm by David Farrar

Sandibe Wildlife

This is a hammerhead, for obvious reasons

Another colourful feathered friend

We heard the lion roar from around 100 metres away, otherwise would not have known it was there. At one point he stood up and stared at us which was unnerving.

But then he went back to the customary lion position

A typical landscape.

Some Marabou storks

Yay we spotted a cheetah – the last of the big cats I had to see. Not as large or strong as the others, but very fast. The collar is for some research programme.

She got joined by her son who had been unsuccessfully trying to hunt prey.

So mum consoled him with a good hug and kiss.

Also came across a group of five lions. Three of them here.

And the other two here.

It’s dark but this is another jackal

A frog we almost ran over

And a hyena out at night – their normal hunting time. Of course their idea of hunting is normally to scavenge.

I’m not normally a big bird watcher but I can’t get enough of the variety they have here

A Kudu staring out at us

A hippo moving alongside

And another up ahead

In an ideal world the camera would also be a dictaphone so I could record down the names as I get told them.

Some tsessebe, another species of antelope

This is the second day at Sandibe. We had been driving around three hours and I needed a bush toilet break. The guide said that we were only 30 minutes from where he planned to have the morning tea, so I agreed to hold off until then. However as we got to the planned spot for morning tea, we found to our surprise the five lions from yesterday were there. This was 20 kms away from where we saw them yesterday. As you can imagine I had to hold on for another 20 minutes or so, as me marking out the lions’ sleeping place could be a bad idea.

They got quite playful with each other.

Lots of licking and pawing

But their idea of a friendly nibble is not one I’d like to try

This is one of the many crossings the landcruiser makes through slightly flooded areas. This is the wake from the vehicle. Sometimes the water gets close to coming in over the sides.