Today started off the same as all the other days so I’ll just skip writing about that every day. Wake-up was at 5:30, the morning game drive started at 6:00. We talked with the guide about going to see if we could find the Leopard again this morning, while it was likely going to be active, so we headed out to look, and on the way we came upon a lioness that was hunting. She was crouched in some tall grass, holding very still, and locked on a male impala that was about 200 feet away. As we sat there, we realized there was a second female lion a little deeper in the bushes on the other side of us, also locked in on the impala. We sat very still and stayed quiet and waited to see what might happen. I shot a number of photos, just waiting to see if she took off after him. He knew danger was near though and was holding just as still as they were, like he wasn’t sure what to do. At one point he turned and slowly walked in the opposite direction, but it was like he was afraid to turn his back on them, and he would turn around again to make sure they weren’t coming.
This stand-off seemed to last a long time, but it was maybe
only 10 minutes or so I bet, and then the lions seemed to relax and started to
look around, like she decided she wasn’t hungry enough to try to chase him down
when he suddenly took off running. She called out to her partner and then they
both got up and started to head in the other direction.
Our driver decided instead of following them, we should head
out and find the leopard and let the two lions get back to hunting somewhere
else.
It didn’t take long before we found the leopard and spent
some time photographing her. She was on the move so there was a lot of us moving
to get ahead of her, and waiting for her to walk towards us. It was amazing how
the guides seemed to know exactly where she would go as a few times we seemed
to drive in the wrong direction, only to stop and wait and she would
reappear. They really do know these animals
and their habits, after years of watching them. At one point he drove us way down the road and
up this steep hill, and then came to a stop and was just listening for her,
when suddenly she hopped up on a tree stump in front of us and seemed to pose
there for a while. It was amazing and the light was perfect, and if I didn’t
know better, I’d bet he had trained her to do that. LOL
I can’t wait to look at these photos and hope I didn’t mess
them up. They will probably be the best shots of the trip! The whole encounter
had everyone excited, and it took a while to get over what we just saw. We took some deep breaths and went on to see
what else we could find, as the leopard wandered off into an area where we
wanted to just let her be now.
We went into a new area and came across a young Eagle that
was feeling adventurous and witnessed it trying to take down a Steenbock. The Steenbock
was way too fast for it and looked too big to me for it to manage, but another guide
said they can and do manage to do that from time to time. We watched a couple
of attempts, but this Eagle just didn’t have the skills yet.
It was time to head back to camp for lunch and along the way
we saw a number of birds and pretty good group of wildebeest.
There was an elephant at the watering hole during lunch
which was fun to sit and watch as we ate. It just feels so strange that these
animals just come and go as they please, and it’s normal everyday stuff for the
people that live here. I can’t imagine what that would be like to see every day,
but I don’t think it would ever get old.
The afternoon game
drive was filled with more Giraffe, Zebra, Birds, and then a report of 3 male
lions that were brothers, that had wandered back into the area. We went off to
find them and when we came across them, the three were laying in the shade,
resting. It was getting late and cooling
off, so our guide said we should wait because they would be getting active
soon. Turns out he was right again. Shortly after he said that all three seemed
to wake up at the same time, and then greeted each other by nuzzling each other
and almost making it look like they were in a football huddle and calling the
next play. One of them suddenly didn’t like what was going on and let out a
small road and swept at his siblings, and then the three split up again and
laid down a few feet apart from each other. They didn’t go all the way back to sleep, but
didn’t stay all that active and since it was getting to be too dark to
photograph them any longer, we headed back to camp for dinner.
I find myself thinking we won’t beat what we saw the day
before, but yet, every new day seems to just get better. It was a long,
exciting day today, and time to call it a night.
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