The road from marker 20 to marker 21 was in a shocking state with some major washaways and I doubt it would have been possible to make that section without a high-rise vehicle, so we spent most of the time trying to plot a route and not looking in the bush, therefore I was relieved when we arrived at marker 21, but just around the corner we came face to face with a monster bull elephant who was walking down the middle of the road towards us.
I hit the brakes to assess the situation, but the Cow was going off.
“REVERSE! REVERSE!”
“Reverse to where? This is the only way back to camp unless we turn around and drive all the way back the same way, but then time is an issue as it’s a much longer route!”
The bull then started to trot towards us and he was showing signs of “I’m going to trash your car if you don’t move”, so I started to reverse.
I then looked in my rear-view mirror and Sasquatch and Hawkeyes were in the process of doing a rapid 3 point turn and then they took off up the road in the direction we came from.
The bull continue towards us with aggression, so I reversed back up the road and also did a quick 3 point turn before he could reach us.
We had planned to be back in camp at 6:30pm again because even though the “gate closing time” was 7pm, we find it a waste of time after dark without the proper spotlight setup that game vehicles have, but we had an extra half an hour to play with. I frantically put Mpila camp into the Garmin to see if we would actually have the time to make it back to camp and the arrival time indicated was 6:45pm.
I then wanted to hide out from the elephant at the marker 21 intersection with the hope that he would walk past us, but that would take awhile as the ellie was still about 500m up the road, so we eventually decided to continue back to camp via the same roads and we had to navigate our way back through the semi 4x4 course to marker 20.
Once we arrived at marker 20 the walkie talkie went and Hawkeyes blurted out.
“Remember the large breeding herd of ellies were just up the road!”
This again set the Cow off as she had forgotten about the breeding herd who were still on both sides of the road and in the road, but I slowly moved through the herd with Sasquatch close behind me and the ellies were cool, so the Cow recovered.
We arrived back at viewpoint 17 after 6pm and it was already getting dark so it was a strange feeling as there were no other cars around. I didn’t stop at the viewpoint due to the time issues, but just as we dropped into the dip on the other side of the viewpoint the clan let rip.
“CHEETAH!”
The cheetah from earlier in the afternoon was cruising around on a bank opposite the road and then it headed straight for the viewpoint, so I knew if we turned and went back to the viewpoint it would come straight past us, but I was nervous of the time constraint so we continued on towards camp.
By 6:30pm it was pitch dark already, so I had my vehicle lights on and we had given up looking for animals in the bush.
Around 800m from the camp entrance the Cow and I noticed a strange shape in the road up ahead and as the car lights hit the shape, I hit the brakes and all hell broke loose in our car.
“LEOPARD! LEOPARD!”
The Cow grabbed the walkie talkie and shrieked into it.
“LEOPARD!”
A leopard sighting at Imfolozi is a very rare event and not expected, especially since we were just outside camp, so I completely lost my marbles.
“CAMERA! MOVE IT! CAMERA!”
“It’s moving ………. WTF……... CAMERA!”
“S#*t, the camera still has the 150-500mm lens on it……. You won’t get pics in the dark!.........S#*t!”
The leopard then moved off the road and out of the car lights, so tensions increased.
Albert fortunately had used her pip and had packed a small torch in the car just in case we arrived back after dark, so she started to shine into the bush and quickly lit up a leopard’s face staring back at us, but then the camera wouldn’t focus or fire, so a few more tantrums followed. The Cow then took over the torch so Albert could try and get a pic, but she was also battling. The leopard didn’t fancy the torch and the Cow didn’t want to shine in the leopard’s eyes, however the camera wouldn’t focus without the torch directly on the leopard.
“Shine on the leopard, so that this useless thing can focus!”
“What about the eyes!”
“Just shine quickly on her chest!”
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The leopard didn’t like the torch and started to move again, but parallel to the road, so I slapped the car in reverse, but the car started beeping and farting out warnings and the Cow let rip.
“Sasquatch! You going to hit his car!”
“I’m reversing, the leopard is moving!”
“STOP, you going to hit his car!” “STOP!”
We had seen no cars on the road for the last hour, but now out of the blue, a car had arrived and stopped directly behind Sasquatch. The new arrival had no idea what was going on and wasn’t joining the dots with regards to the reverse lights on our cars, so Sasquatch tried to explain out his window that it’s a leopard and they must reverse, but the dots still weren’t getting joined.
I knew that each second was critical to maintain visibility of the leopard, so I quickly went forward and angled my reverse mission so that I could squeeze through the gap between the cars and the bush. Seconds later we picked up on the leopard again and she was still mobile close to the road, so more panicked blurred photo attempts followed, but she suddenly paused and I managed 1 last rear-view pic as she ducked under a log to hide.
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I wanted to switch off, sit quietly in the dark and wait for her to come out again since she was very close to us, but it was now 6:55pm, so we had no choice but to head 800m up the road to camp. I later realised that any of us could have used our cell phones to take a pic as the leopard was close enough for that and cell phones are less neurotic about light and focusing.
We arrived at our unit jabbering our heads off since this was a rare lucky sighting for Imfolozi and if it wasn’t for the faulty bull elephant blocking the road earlier, we wouldn’t have been 800m outside camp at the correct time to see the leopard.
We then also realised that this was the 1st leopard that Sasquatch had ever seen and he was surprised at the size because he thought they were smaller cats. This was a large female, but much smaller than a male, so I’m hoping that he can get to see a male leopard in KNP later this year.
A week after this trip someone filmed a leopard walking through Mpila camp from unit number 6, so one must be careful walking around after dark.
Later that evening after the braai another bushpig arrived to terrorize us outside and any attempt at a photograph resulted in a charge from the pig and a charge from us into the unit to hide behind the door, but we eventually got some pics as the pig calmed down.
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To be continued 
They do look totally relaxed and also love the birdies
bricks at the braai there! 
