End of a long day

[MonikaC]

Sunset on the termite mound. One of these cubs is the one who had the insecticide bottle a day or 2 later.

 

[Ben Egbert]

All that's missing here is a bottle of beer. Cats really know how to relax.

 

[JimFox]

This is a really cool scene Monika! What a unique chance to see that lion relaxing like that.

How far away are you? What kind of vehicle are you in?

 

[MonikaC]

All that's missing here is a bottle of beer. Cats really know how to relax.

Haha!

 

[MonikaC]

This is a really cool scene Monika! What a unique chance to see that lion relaxing like that.

How far away are you? What kind of vehicle are you in?

We were in a Toyota LandCruiser outfitted for safari. For that one, we were probably 20-30' away. For some of the nursing shots, 12-15' (I haven't posted those yet, I don't think). It's quite extraordinary how unconcerned the cats are by vehicles. For the parting shot of the leopard, there were upwards of a dozen vehicles circling the tree she was in.

 

[AlanLichty]

I have to echo Ben's comment about cats - they can be really serious about relaxing

Interesting that they are less disturbed by people in a vehicle rather than on foot.

 

[Leslie Hunter]

Very nice.

 

[JimFox]

We were in a Toyota LandCruiser outfitted for safari. For that one, we were probably 20-30' away. For some of the nursing shots, 12-15' (I haven't posted those yet, I don't think). It's quite extraordinary how unconcerned the cats are by vehicles. For the parting shot of the leopard, there were upwards of a dozen vehicles circling the tree she was in.
View attachment 17089

How interesting. I wonder if Toyota's are less expensive in Africa then they are here? How many people were in each vehicle?

 

[MonikaC]

How interesting. I wonder if Toyota's are less expensive in Africa then they are here? How many people were in each vehicle?

Some tours just had 1 passenger. We had 4, all on the same side of the vehicle so that we would all get about the same shot & not miss it while waiting for the driver to turn the other way. You could cram in 7. Some had open but canopied tops, so one could stand & shoot from a higher vantage point to either side (good for the tall grass but not so good if a lower view point was wanted). One company had 10 vehicles & they were all in pursuit of 3 male lions who were hunting. That number of vehicles scared off the game, so there was no hunt that morning. I guess most started out with LandRovers, but the Cruisers turned out to be better vehicles. Ping, our guide, is going to replace the wood rails with ones that can be raised/lowered & I think he's either going to put gimbals on them or maybe stick with sand bags. Some of the Cruisers were more than 10 years old, missing a lot of the instrumentation, but they keep on trundling. Top speed allowed on the reserve is 30 kph, but they have to be able to get through some pretty deep mud & do river crossings. The newer, fancier ones had snorkels.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Very nice, Monika.