(17) Phinda

Gooood Morning Phinda! 

Thulani (left) and Dumi (right) getting started on our early morning drive!  It was pretty chilly that morning so you can see how bundled up Thulani is!  

Baby Nyala....

Oh heeeey!  

This guy was a little weary of us so he made a run for it...

It is just SO beautiful here!  

HOLY SMOKES!!  CHEETAHS in the WILD!!  AND 2 cubs!  Dumi thinks they are about 6 or 7 months old already so they will start learning to hunt soon!

Momma is keeping an eye out for Hyena...I didn't realize that Hyena are the only predators of the cheetah that will hunt and kill their cubs for food.  Lions, leopards and other big cats will kill cheetah cubs to keep their competition down so they won't eat them.  So sad anything would want to hurt these little guys!

Streeeeeetch!

Coast is clear so Momma can take it easy for a little while :)

Man these guys are adorable!  

We went around to the side of them so we could get another look!  Look how big their feet are already!  

Chillin...

We left the cheetahs so they could get some sleep before they started hunting...Then we came across this old man giraffe!  Dumi said that he has gotten into quite a few fights with other giraffes because he looks so beat up.  He has a lot of scars (like the big one on his neck)

His left ear is pretty beat up :/

Female Nyala....

We drove around for a long time while Dumi and Thulani were tracking wild dog tracks!  It was pretty cool to see how excited they got about it!  Dumi said it's very rare to see wild dog because they travel very long distances which means they aren't around for long either.  On our way we saw these two cheetah brothers!!  They just gorged themselves so their bellies are HUGE!  This one is going to the bathroom...now you've seen a cheetah going potty ;)

See how big his stomach is!  

Here is his brother, who also stuffed his furry little face!  He didn't get up the entire time we were watching them! 

A better angle of their full bellies!  

They definitely had a good meal!  

Doesn't he just look so miserable?!  Poor thing is SO full!



The Wildebeest (apparently part of the "Ugly 5").  He was scoping us out and followed us for a little while.  

This might be the closest we will come to seeing a Leopard on this trip!  Dumi and Thulani have tracked them a couple times, but it's pretty hard to find them!

Our morning stop for coffee/tea and biscuits...

Getting ready to head out again!  We essentially got a private tour that day since the family that we share the truck with weren't getting into Phinda until the evening!  

We kept tracking the wild dog but we found the spot where they had dug out of the reserve under the fence!  Such a bummer!!  Luckily we saw some more lions to make up for that!  Dumi said these two are sisters and are about 18 months old so they have been pushed out of their pride for a little while to learn how to hunt on their own and then they will eventually go back.

Here is the other sister...

We thought we were heading back to the lodge for some breakfast but we ended up stopping in the bush for a nice treat!!  They set up breakfast outside!  

LOVED eating outside!!  The only problem was that a gecko decided to crawl up my pants while I was sitting at the table!  Umm YES - I FREAKED OUT!  1. In Texas, if something is crawling up your pants, its either a scorpion OR a snake. I felt the little bugger making its way up my leg so I thought it was a snake!  South African geckos are not standard American sized geckos by the way - they are a little bigger!  

I thought I was going to have to Stop, Drop (my pants) and Run!  Thankfully, I jumped up (and practically threw my chair back), did a wiggle dance in the middle of breakfast and finally pulled up my pant leg far enough and pulled him out!  Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck after that!  Thank goodness they had a mimosa ready for me :)

After the game drives, we have some time to just relax before lunch and then our afternoon drive.  I just wanted to put up some photos of our "hut" if you will.  You are by no means roughing it out here!

The view of our porch from inside the room.  It's nice to open up the screens on either side and get a cool cross breeze.