The story behind the
Cheetah Photo
18th August 2005

In my 30 years of visiting the Kruger park I have only had fleeting glimpses of the elusive cheetah.  There are only about 120 pairs in the Park, so if you happen to get a good sighting you are extremely lucky, this time my luck changed and I got lucky!

We decided to go to the Transport dam on the Pretoriuskop road. As we approached the dam we saw quite a few cars parked there which was unusual. We managed to find a spot and were surprised to see a cheetah moving through the grass.

The cheetah moved to it's mate and lay down, still a bit far off for a decent photo

Off to our left was a herd of impala and the cheetah started to become interested

They started to move towards the herd of impala, coming closer to where we were. I started to take photos, hoping for a good position.

And then, the cheetah stood on a rock right next to the road and I was ready for it. It remained steady for about 10 seconds and I managed to get four photos before it moved off....

....across the road right in front of us and into the grass....

....where it gave a brief backward glance before disappearing in the grass.