Before we went to bed that night, Super said we would leave early in the morning and to bring lots of film.  We were on our way before six having had a light breakfast.  We headed into the park and saw something very exciting when it was barely light.  This was the first cheetah seen at San Camp in over a year.  Super was so pleased!  He could hardly wait to tell Gara and the camp owners, who were arriving later in the day.

Then we hurried on to see Wendy.  Wendy was studying a meerkat family and had been sitting with them very early in the morning for three weeks, habituating them to her.  She had gotten them to accept baby scorpions from tweezers.

Because we were people like her, they didn't seem to mind us either.  We were able to photograph them from quite close.  This guy did hog the best spot a lot though!  That shadow is my head.

I had no idea that meerkats were so small !!  So I was even more fascinated than I expected.  We had never seen meerkats before so it was thrilling to be able to mix right in with them.  The first one we saw just peeked up.  Is that adorable or what!!

Then he finally came all the way out.

And then he did what we all picture meerkats doing.

Here is a view of the area they were in.  We watched for a couple of hours and I did use a lot of film.  Each one was cuter than the other.  I will send several letters showing some of their behaviors.  You will be sick of them by the time I'm done.