Open Writing

We entered the Kruger Park through the Numbi Gate when it opened at 6am. I had met a member of the old Transvaal Nature Department some months previous to our visit. She was born and grew up in the Nelspruit area. Her Dad had told her that everything comes to Transport Dam sooner or later.

We were booked in that evening at Lower Sabie Camp. We knew that the reason for the Park rule that one must stay in one's vehicle was twofold. There were many predators about and the animals did not expect you to break the profile of your vehicle in any way, especially by getting out. Obeying this rule enabled us to come much closer to the animals. Unlike the animals in some private game farms, they did not fear man because they are liable to be shot.

It was dry and the wheaten coloured grass was very tall. We approached a fork in the gravel road. To the left a fork veered off to the parking area,out of sight some 200 metres away. To the right the road continued for about a kilometre to the borehole windmill pump.

Suddenly I saw it, a cheetah walking slowly towards us along the windmill road. This was our first cheetah sighting. Just as suddenly, behind the lead cheetah, there appeared another cheetah, then another, and another. The four cheetahs walked towards us, staying on the road, then turned down to the parking area. We followed them.

They took up a position on a small antheap at the side of the road. We parked by them, in prime position. The dozen cars parked near the water soon repositioned around us.

During the next few hours one or other of the younger cheetahs chased Impala as they came wandering by, but there was kill. When the four of them were on the anthill it looked like Castle Cheetah. Their ears, heads, necks and shoulders formed the towers. The spots were the windows. The antheap itself appeared to be spotted.

Several days later, at an "Own Risk" viewing sight, I was chatting to some other visitors and told them of our sighting of a Castle Cheetah. They also been there. During the lunch-hour the cheetahs killed two impala in amongst the parked cars. Oh dear! Never leave the castle!

We normally have plenty of sketching stops when virtually the whole animal kingdom seems to come and visit us. Other vehicles pass by, their occupants apparently not seeing anything. Our stops seem to add up to being in the right position at the right time. For instance, at the roadside in mopane bush country north of Shingwedzi we saw a Redcrested Korhaan. Suddenly, with head and beak pointed to the sky, its long throat and breast started to pulsate, making an increasingly loud clucking noise which faded away in a series of whees. This call was repeated at minute intervals, and he kept it up for an hour. This was a mating call, but we did not see his mate.

Late one afternoon we passed the turn-off to a dam, A car with three young men in it turned towards the dam. That evening over a communal braai I met those fellows. They asked if had been driving a bright red new car. I confirmed that I had. They had been in the dam parking area only a few minutes when two leopards took two impala.

You can't win them all.