A few days ago, enroute to the Vuyani Safari Lodge from the staff village, our general manager Craig ran into a cheetah mother, near the dry river bed, with its cubs. The cubs are about 2 years old, so they are about to set off on their own.

The cheetahs were very relaxed, just the mother being a little careful. What a delight! This was the first cheetah sighting last week, and things only got better. By the end of the week, three different cheetah mothers had been seen. Just 4 years ago we knew that there were cheetahs on the reserve, due to tracks, but none had ever seen one. We now see them regularly each month, and it is an incredible pleasure to be seeing them do so well. It is definitely good to not “overstuff” the reserve with lions, so that there is plenty of habitat for the truly rare cats such as the cheetah.

OK, enough talking, here the photos! They are a little blurry, as Craig took them with his Blackberry phone camera, but still decent. They were very close. Craig: get yourself a Nokia Lumia 920 with a decent camera on! 😉