Adventures of a Wandering Thirtysomething

After a victorious night of seeing both the elusive leopard AND an alpha lion patrolling his territory, we awoke the next morning with a slight sense of uncertainty about how to deal with our emotional state. How could we still stay emotionally engaged with the experience, regardless of what we saw or didn't see, after having such unbelievable encounters the night before?

But with a long day ahead of possibilities, we chose to focus on gratitude. Grateful for what we experienced, but proactively grateful for whatever the day would unfold to us and insistent that we would maintain our same sense of awe and wonder at any of the incredible creatures here.

We piled into the jeep as the sun began to rise and set off for one of the main clearings near our camp where animals typically congregate. As we headed down the road, our guide pointed out the tracks of Bhubese, the male lion we had seen the night prior. A few moments later, he pointed once again. Near Bhubese's tracks were another set of fresh tracks.

They belonged to a cheetah.

After the previous night, the chances of our luck in spotting a cheetah seemed close to zero, but it was  nearing the cheetah's hunting time and, hell, there's always a chance. As we neared the clearing, we readied our cameras and binoculars just in case. We began slowly circling around and, within mere minutes, Calvet spotted the cheetah lying at the base of a tree.

As we crept closer and closer in the vehicle, the sun slowly rising behind us, the beautiful spots and coloring of the cheetah came into focus. He humored us for a bit, but then crept down into the grasses beside the tree to hide from view. Undeterred, we circled around behind the tree and there he was, no more than 30 feet in front of us, putting on quite a house-cat-like show of yawning, rolling around on his back and stretching.

Unconcerned, he began walking toward the main clearing toward the herds. All signs of a possible hunt were on.

We followed behind and beside from a safe distance, watching as he walked to the next tree and hopped up on the tree's resident termite hill to get a good look over the clearing and spot his potential prey. Jackals, clearly the obnoxious, yappy chihuahuas of the forest, followed behind the cheetah barking out to their fellow den mates to join them as they were about to get in on the spoils of the hunt and essentially alerting every animal within the vicinity.

The cheetah pressed on, stopping at a new tree and termite hill every 50 yards or so to get another look out on the clearing. The jackals were relentless, barking at every move the cheetah made. The herds caught wind, with the impala swiftly and silently filing their way out of the clearing while the wildebeests assembled and piled up on top of a hill, all facing the cheetah and snorting loudly in its direction as if to challenge. A lone ostrich, either totally stupid and oblivious or overly confident in its disinterest to the cheetah, mosied on its merry way.

After 30 minutes or so of watching and waiting, it was clear the cheetah was going to take its time in finding its next meal, so we parted ways, sending prayers of thanks up to the Africa big cat gods for one of the most incredible 24-hour periods of animal sightings ever. If this trip gets any more incredible, we are never coming home.