Unfortunately, it did not rain so the drive was quite dusty and the herd was about 1 ½ hours away. I had worked out with Ken to spend the entire day driving, which meant I would eat breakfast and lunch in the bush. We would start at 6am and come back to camp around 7pm. Since I have become an expert at holding my urine to avoid using a squat toilet at school, I knew that one day in the bush would be a piece of cake.

Soon as we left, we ran into zebras and giraffes. Then we discovered a cheetah with 2 tiny cubs. When cheetah cubs are first born they have tufts of white hair on their backs, which they keep for a while. It is a protection from other predators because the white hair on their back from a distance makes them resemble a honey badger. Honey badgers are known for being tough, fierce fighters and most predators like hyenas and even lions will avoid tangling with them because they inflict serious damage. They are super small, but pack a super wallop. Honey badgers will break into a beehive to eat the honey, get covered in bees, and then roll around till all the bees are dead, and then go back to the hive and eat all the honey. They can be bitten by a poisonous snake, go into a coma for an hour, and then wake up and be just fine – they are super strong. So if the cubs are mistaken for a honey badger due to the white hair on their backs, they will be just fine.

Now back to the saga of the cheetah with her 2 cubs. When we saw them, the mother was calling and looking around. Ken immediately could tell by the call, which sounds like a high-pitched bird call, that she was distressed and looking for more cubs. He figured they were probably lost or left behind and eaten by a predator. The poor, mother cheetah was very nervous and peering about. The two cubs, on the other hand, were the exact opposite. They were frolicking about and oblivious to their mom’s growing anxiety. Then all of a sudden, the mother started crouching low, arching her back, and looking like she was ready to fight. We were worried that a hyena was nearby because we had seen them earlier. Then from a distance a male cheetah appeared. He must have heard her calls and thought it was time for a little AM nooky. As he approached them, she became more relaxed. As he got closer, he must have realized she was a single mom with cubs and was no longer interested. He strolled past her and kept going. Then she returned to her usually anxious self – nervously calling and looking about. Then she took off running. We followed her and then a miracle happened…she found her other 2 cubs. The family was reunited and trotted off into the sunset.

We continued on and saw some hyenas eating a baby wildebeest. One was carrying the pelvis and hind leg portion, which was still covered in bloody meat and skin. Then we saw vultures feasting on dead wildebeest carcasses. They were ripping the body apart, fighting with each other, and battling other predatory birds like the caribou stork for beakfuls of meat. We saw 3 different versions of this vulture feeding frenzy. The 2nd one was the grossest by far. The vultures has come across an old wildebeest that must have died from old age because his body was intact. The vultures beaks are not strong enough to rip open the thick skin so they attack areas that have thinner skin. So they had pecked out the eyeballs, started ripping at the flesh behind the forelegs because it is thinner skin in this area. One managed to poke a hole in the soft part of the belly and the smell of stomach gasses filled the air. Then another one started pecking and digging through the anal canal trying to get to the intestines and guts. Suddenly the air became putrid with the aroma of feces and death. Their cackling and hooting was so creepy sounding that it made my skin crawl. I was extremely pleased to leave this dank view and continue with the drive.

We drove on a sat with the wildebeest for hours driving about. I saw one give birth and when she stood the placenta was still dangling between her legs. The newborn calf was still wet and wobbly, but within minutes he could walk and soon run.
We started driving towards camp and ran into some sleeping lions and a leopard in a tree. Apparently, they lions had chased the leopard into the tree. He was on a high branch with his tail swinging below. He was stuck there for fear the lions would kill him if he dared to come down. The lions were dead to the world. We sat there for an hour hoping the leopard would quietly leave the safety of the tree and scamper off before the lions realized he had escaped. Unfortunately, we were far from camp and all cars have to be out by 6:30 – 7 at the latest. So we hot-tailed it out of there,

Closer to camp we saw more sleeping lions, which I was able to get a quick photo of on the run. We made it back to camp by 7pm.