Walking with a Cheetah

I began this Mungari adventure with the story of taking the Pangolin for a walk. To end this trip, we got to walk with a cheetah….literally!!

The adventure started early on Sunday morning when Tamar approached me and said that when the satellite imaging came thru, one of the cheetahs was on the edge of the floodplain and that we could drive there to see it!!

Did we want to go????

YES PLEASE!!!

We climbed into the back of Bredger’s Land Rover and headed to the selected area. As we got closer, Tamar guided Bredger and then climbed on top of the cab to get a better reading…..

This particular antenna is a smaller version of the one that she used in the helicopter.

We drove some more and she isolated him to a small clump of palmettos. Bredger kept circling the trees and eventually, we caught sight of him…..

We kept nudging him and he move a bit further into view….

Then Tamar asked the wonderful question…..do you want to go walk out there with him??

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!

When we answered in the affirmative, she told us to quietly walk at an angle to him and enjoy watching him close up.

As we walked off, Bredger gave us confidence by saying “God speed….”

It was the coolest thing to walk so close to him when he was in the wild.

Eventually he got tired of us ogling him and he took off one last time….

HOW COOL WAS THAT!!!

Tamar explained why it was safe for us to do this….. Cheetahs use their speed to hunt, coming up on the animal from behind and bowling it over and to the ground when it catches up to it. They do not like to approach an animal head-on!! So, unless we started running away from it, we were perfectly safe!!

As we returned to camp, the final sunset put a wonderful closure on our time in Coutada 11, in the Maramao complex of Mozambique……

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Portrait of a Palmetto

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my position in the truck is in the back, with my head over the cab. While this leaves me open to all sorts of disasters, it also means I have a GREAT view of the world as we travel.

On our early morning adventure, I started enjoying the Palmetto trees, particularly in the “golden hour” light…..

THEN, I started looking at the curve that forms when you look at the leaf from the side…..

Do you see a paper-pieced quilt or is it just me????

Next, I noticed the “angel” type wings that you see when you look at it head on…..

Then I started looking at how they overlap in the trees…..

….and then at the tree as a whole……

Wouldn’t it be fun to play with something like this…..

Now, let’s be honest….

I am not SUPER excited about the paper-piecing process so this particular design will probably NEVER materialize, but it sure was fun to think about for a couple of hours as we drove thru the flood plain of Coutada 11!!!

So….if this tickles your fancy……PLEASE….be my guest!!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

TAG…..you’re it!!

A few days back, I wrote about the Pangolin reintroduction project that Zambeze Delta Safari has undertaken, and I introduced you to their FIRST Pangolin.

They plan to release him soon and need him to be tagged so that they can follow him to learn more about where he goes on the property and what he does.

Friday was dubbed “Pangolin tagging day” and we were thrilled to be there!!

These are the two tags….one is Satelite and the other is VHF……

In my mind, they look awfully big for the little guy but I was reminded that he is only about half-grown right now so he will grow into them!!

Then there were the tools…..

YIKES….poor little guy. This looks like a bad dentist’s office!!

They brought him out in his crate and we all oohed and aahed!!…..

….and then the work began!!

Willem set him on the “operating box”……

…and Tamar covered his head with a towel to help him relax in the dark…..

The trackers were being placed at the base of his tail….ie where it attaches to his body. Doing that means that his range of movement will not be affected at all.

Once a decision was made as to which scale they would work on…..

….Rye went to work with his drill. Remember that the scales are much like really thick fingernails so he would not be feeling any of this!!

A spoon handle was placed under the scale……

And Rye drilled thru the scale until he hit the spoon….

The result…..a PERFECT hole!!

A flat disc with a bolt soldered to it was placed underneath the scale, with the bolt sticking up thru the hole…..

Then the tracker was placed on top of the bolt……

….and tightened with a ratchet wrench…..

One down….one to go!!

The second tracker was quickly fitted and the “surgery” was over!!

When they took him for his evening walk, they were thrilled to see that he didn’t act any differently from before the trackers were attached.

I have NO idea how they figured out this process but it worked without a hitch, and I can’t wait to get reports of this little guy wandering in the Marromeu complex of Mozambique!!

I know that I am so blessed to get to witness events such as these and I hope that you enjoy them too!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!