An epic safari for the cheetah obsessed around those fabulous Namiri Plains in the Eastern serengeti ; Cubs, cubs and Cubs ............ Oh yes lots, lots more!!! (Part 2 of safari April 2022)

[pault]

Haha this is massive @madaboutcheetah Must be one of your most cheetah heavy trip reports yet - and that’s saying something. Love it - carry on!

 

 

On 4/19/2022 at 9:34 AM, madaboutcheetah said:

How you been @pault- I had an epic trip .......... @Sangeetais working on a return for us for next year as we speak!!!! 

Oh man, everything is different now! Life turned upside down. But we’re certainly much, much luckier than many. Will be planning a trip again soon, but have to see my Mum in the UK first (and take her to Berlin for reasons only my sister truly understands - something to do with Mum needing to use an airline voucher she got). Logistics of that trip are turning out to be trickier than any Africa trip - flights canceling, changing everywhere, differing vaccination requirements, availability in hotels coming and going daily! Completely unreliable estimates of security queue times running as high as four hours (just no!). And of course a good chance I’ll test positive when I get back to Thailand and have to isolate - hoping hard that I can do that from home.

 

Africa will be a breeze to organise by comparison - just tell someone what you want and sit back and wait for the costing and suggestions to arrive. Heaven. Not as many flight choices left though. Thailand practically closed down for ages and a number of the airlines have not made it back. 

 

Yes, fine!  

[kilopascal]

Can't wait for an @paultAfrica trip report. Really missed those.

Edited April 24, 2022 by kilopascal

[madaboutcheetah]

Thank you all for your interest in this report and all the kind comments ..... Much appreciated!!!   I've been slow with the photo editing - alas, stuck with the joys of work

 

Today's instalment feature two young males that we saw around Semetu kopjes area (not to be confused with the coalition males that frequent Cub valley) ...... One of them is so lazy the other does all the work (no he's not injured) ........ More to come when i edit photos (a sublime Kill sequence) 

[madaboutcheetah]

For all the cheetah images, I'm happy with this one ....... Rosy Throated Longclaw..... 

[marg]

@madaboutcheetahHow fortunate you were to have such wonderful cheetah sightings!

[Zubbie15]

Lovely set of photos Hari @madaboutcheetah! 

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks a lot @marg @Zubbie15

Today's instalment ........... "Pooka" moving her cubs to safety.  I'm told she is approximately 9 years old and possibly her 4th litter that the research project is aware of ...... She has apparently raised many cubs to adulthood.  We think 5 cubs ......  Let's hope she is successful with this litter as well.  We saw her one other morning on the look out from one of the Kopjes around Gol ..... So, I'm really hoping she is Super Mum.  

 

 

[madaboutcheetah]

I've got to get my customary migration in the BG cheetah shot ....... Looks like a very young recently dispersed female.

[Zim Girl]

Lovely sequence of pictures of mum carrying the cub!

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks @Zim Girl

 

Next segment ...... A cheetah mum with her 3 cubs hung around the long grass not far from Soit le matonyi.  So, they were always easy to find ..... she's an excellent hunter using that long grass in the area to her advantage whacking wildebeest calves at will.  The area got hammered by unseasonal rains through Feb/ March and hence the Soit area had the long grass. This was also an easy go to sighting for afternoon drives as it was very close to camp ...... 

[Atdahl]

Wow, amazing cheetah photos!  Love the cub shots!

 

Alan

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks so much @Atdahl

 

Early one morning back around Gol Kopjes .... We bumped into these prime good looking Male Lions .... We were kind of interested in waiting for them to get up and move = the one guy looks really intriguing

Alas, they were staring intently at something ...... Moinga with his scanning finds yet another cheetah who seems to have seen the male Lions also and here she is sneaking off into the Gol morning .......  Alas, we didn't wait for the Lions.

[madaboutcheetah]

Our first sighting of Helen with the two cubs (one adopted) ......  that same morning in Gol

[madaboutcheetah]

Still the same morning ...... A young male cheetah trying his luck with some gazelle.  He seemed inexperienced so we didn't really hang about .....

 

A serval is always a good find??!? 

[madaboutcheetah]

Stil the same morning ...... 

One more picture of the same serval.

 

As we leave Gol yet another cheetah.......  we see Pooka on top of a kopje (or we think it's her) ...... hopefully the cubs she relocated are safe and she's out hunting as she needs to!! 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by madaboutcheetah

[madaboutcheetah]

 A feel good story ...... After lunch, we went towards cub valley where we found a female cheetah who seemed to be actively calling out for her cubs ....... She took us on a long trek all over the place clearly on the look out!!!

 

Lo and Behold towards dusk she managed to re-unite with what looks like her only surviving cub a male cub ........  Perhaps they got split up when she was actively hunting earlier in the day??  all's well that ends well...

[Kitsafari]

i couldn't "like" your photos yesterday and then ST kicked me out. but it's working today! yay. love that series of Pooka carrying her tiny cubs!

superb serval shots.

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks @Kitsafari- yes, ST kicked me out yesterday also 

[Biko]

Such a joy to see your beautiful cheetah pictures @madaboutcheetah

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks a lot @Biko

 

We leave the Cheetah mum and her reunion party to head back to camp ........ 

 

When we reach Soit Le Motonyi we notice a couple of Namiri vehicles.  Ah is Mamma namiri back??  This is my 4th trip to Namiri and I haven't been lucky with Momma Namiri.  

 

We find her on Soit looking down at the honeymoon couple Lions (one of the Pride males of the Zebra kopjes pride) ...... these photos are extremely high ISO.  Believe me, it was almost pitch dark so we left her with the promise to try to find her again the next day.  Hmmmm did she appear to be lactating.  Cubs possibly???  

 

[madaboutcheetah]

This, that and the other ..... What a pleasure it is to travel again without Pre-departure Covid swabs etc etc.,

 

Last April we had to waste a complete morning to make the trip to Seronera to do a swab (no there was no option to get a nurse to come to Namriri then) ........... We didn't need a swab to return to India.  Air Suvidha online forms was easily done online using in-camp WIFI and was able to print it out in the office in camp.

 

Arrival into Tanzania ..... We took the Air Kenya from Nairobi Wilson to Kilimanjaro.  They did take forever to check the Covid vaccine certificate etc etc., but all was easy.........  

[Atravelynn]

Thanks for sharing the Super Mum shots and all the rest!

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks a lot @Atravelynn

 

In today's episode ........  The next morning we went right away first thing to Soit le Motonyi to check for Momma Namiri - we found the entire Zebra kopjes pride all over the joint.  Obviously she was hiding well or quit the scene.  In hindsight you can see two pictures where one of the young lions carry something that looks like a leopard cub in it's mouth????  We saw them playing around with sticks and debris and stuff - we only zoomed into the photo later on.  We didn't go closer for an inspection as i was just keen to head towards all the cheetah now that Momma namiri wasn't to be seen.

 

We spent maybe a short while with the pride and left them to head towards the various cheetah families as we would get into good light soon (yes, i was antsy to leave) ......... Later on in the morning i met a safari talk member who was also staying at Namiri and asked me if i was "Hari" ..... The fact that we were Indian and guided by Moinga called for a wild guess I suppose.  Anyway, they witnessed the entire pride surround Soit with Momma Namiri trying hard to defend her cub/s...... We met them heading towards Gol kopjes as we were finishing up our cheetah morning!! 

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by madaboutcheetah

[madaboutcheetah]

I will get to editing the cheetah photos from that morning later ........ Fast forward to the afternoon.... where we did find Momma Namiri on Soit - but, she just looked apprehensive and wasn't too active. There was no calling for cubs; searching for them or any other activityove a little and did get these images.  

Edited May 7, 2022 by madaboutcheetah

[Atravelynn]

Really gorgeous setting for the leopard shots.