We had a 0545 wake up call and tea tray, with a shower following at 0600 and breakfast at 0630....porridge again by special request! These timings enabled us to be away by 0700 on an all day game drive to the Ndutu area....which is about 3 hours to the north.
What a day - it was packed with interesting sightings and it started as we left the camp with a giraffe, quickly followed by an augur buzzard sitting on a termite mound ( its head was muddy so guess it had been sticking it inside), then not one but two honey badgers - we had great fun following one as he snuffled through the vegetation before going down his burrow - today's picture - this was a first for us and great to see. Next was two cheetah walking up onto the plain and sending the animals off in all directions, followed by more cute bat eared foxes and two black backed jackals. As we drove through the herds we could see some very damp wobbly wildebeest who had clearly been born in the last few minutes but none were actually being born. Indeed in one herd there were 5 that were just out of the box - great maternal timing! Next we saw a hyena cooling itself by lying in a muddy pool - it and its mate close by were so fat,from a recent meal, they could hardly move. Not far away was a really chilled golden jackal cleaning itself and basking in the sun. The air was clear on the plains and there was a strong drying warm to hot wind so we made sure we drank plenty (last orders from Alex) to ensure we didn't dehydrate. We then saw 3 cheetahs ( mother and two youngsters) on a kill - a Thompson's gazelle was their mid morning snack. Next came a special moment as two legs were seen emerging from a wildebeest - she lay down, stood up and a head was out then half a body and with a swing of her hips a new calf was jettisoned to the ground. As we drove closer to see the newborn she nudged it to get up and within seconds the young calf was on its feet and taking its first wobbly gambling steps behind its mother.....and after a few nose dives, which I filmed, it was off.
Our next find was another mother and two young cheetah, albeit they looked well fed they were in stalking mode and we watched as the mother pounced on an abandoned wildebeest calf which she then passed to her offspring for 'kill training'. I thought several times that they had dispatched it as they seemed to have the right suffocating neck hold but clearly their bite was not strong enough as the young wildebeest kept bobbing its head up and occasionally standing up. Mother cheetah wasn't watching she was facing away - we dont know how it ended as we left after 15 -20 minutes but I am sure its fate was sealed. As we drove through Ndutu marsh we saw a lovely maned male lion under a tree and after lunch, overlooking the marsh but under a tree much further away, we found 5 females relaxing under a tree on the opposite side of the marsh. Up on the plain we found 2 very full male cheetahs lying in the shade - close by was another abandoned baby wildebeest - every-time it bleated they raised their heads but were too full to investigate further. We last saw it walking down the hill towards a herd on the opposite side - it may have made it as the trucks looking at the cheetahs obscured their view of it - lets hope it was reunited with its mum!
We started our journey back south with sighting a herd of elephant including two large males who came and gave the jeep the once over before passing very closely by and heading into the bush.
A little further on Mdebe stopped the jeep as he felt a mechanical problem - the front near side shock absorber had gone - as it would take a while to fix we decanted into one of the jeeps with the German group in - they had luckily stopped to help - and made our way back to camp. As we were approaching camp we saw John and Dania who were off to get fly camp ready for a one night stay by one family in the German group - so we were able to say our goodbyes and wave them on their way.
When we got back it was 6 ish and besides showering, sadly, we had to pack as this was our last night -luckily it didn't take too long.....and it was off for our last dinner....we were now joined by two American ladies who we had seen at some of our earlier afternoon animal sightings.