Introducing Team African Wild Cat

The morning game drive is just as fruitful as last night’s and we see bat-eared foxes and the enormous springbok herd before spotting four cheetah.

Unusually, it is a coalition of 4 males and we are first on the scene so we have them to ourselves for a while. A springbok has seem them too, and keeps edging forward as if to get close enough to be sure of what he has seen, before running off to join the herd.
















There is a jackal tailing the cheetah, no doubt hoping for handouts; we watch the cheetah as they scent-mark trees and roll in the sand. Vehicles begin to arrive, including Carol’s group. We follow the cheetah as they walk languorously through the landscape, before crossing the road and disappearing over the top of a dune. Sue reveals the design on today’s top – it’s a cheetah!

We leave for a waterhole and on the way see oryx, various raptors and the wildebeest again. The wind is beginning to gust strongly and when we return to camp Mike is concerned that it will blow down the gazebos. Cooking is hampered by having to tether the gazebo so breakfast is rather late.

Today’s photography lesson is editing with Lightroom and I’m keen to learn but feeling the effects of the heat, a few nights of sleep deprivation and some very early mornings. I keep falling asleep so I’m relieved that Denise is filming it as I will need to recap later. Later, we walk across the border to Namibia but the ranger’s office has told us that the shop is closed because it’s Sunday so we don’t go any further than the immigration office. The staff there seem bemused that we don’t want to enter the country. We pick up some leaflets and I examine a box of what looks like cartons of sweets but turns out to be complimentary condoms.

The evening game drive is extremely eventful. The wind has dropped but there’s a storm approaching, bringing dramatic clouds and unusual light. We see some giraffe, with their necks comically emerging from bushes, the springbok herd and a bird with a pink breast and blue tail, then the four cheetahs from the morning drive with the jackal still on their tail. Louise’s sunglasses blow off her head as we’re driving along and we have to go back to retrieve them. We see more giraffe and oryx, dramatically silhouetted on the top of red sand dunes. There are more bat eared foxes and then some oryx fighting; a giraffe crosses the road with a stately gait - the light is beginning to go. Half a rainbow appears and it begins to rain a little.

Then we see something sitting in the road ahead of our vehicle – it’s an African Wild Cat! It walks slowly off the road and climbs a small bush, then comes down again and walks in front of the truck. I’m at the back and can’t really see it, but I realise that it is looking off to the left and when I follow its gaze there’s another wild cat. It joins the first and they cross over to the right of us, rubbing noses and behaving exactly like domestic cats, before melting into the undergrowth. Even Bobby-Jo is excited, this is a very rare sighting! Finally we have a team name - we are Team African Wild Cat.

The drive still has more to give and in the torchlight we see scrub hares and bat eared foxes on the way back to camp, then two more African Wild Cats, although these are less obliging. Back at camp, Mike tells us that a genet tried to steal the pork chops he was preparing for dinner and shows us where to find it in the lower branches of a tree. Sue and Ray have also seen bat eared foxes in the campsite.

During the night I hear a sound that I think might be a lion roaring – it’s confirmed when I hear Bobby-Jo say “lion” from her tent tent. I think about waking Denise but can’t be sure she would want her sleep disturbed, or that the lion will roar again after I wake her.