Both lion went to sleep and sleeping lions can become boring quickly so I started up to leave, but the car of young dudes also started up, so I waited for them to pull off and then followed.
About 500m down the road the Cow said “I don’t think those guys even spotted the lion as they were looking the wrong way the entire time we were in the loop”
About 500m further the young dudes stopped to look at some waterbuck in the riverbed and Hawkeyes plus Bushpig started chirping “Ask them Dad”, but I think they had a hidden agenda; however I pulled up next to them and chirped “Did you guys see the lion back there on the rocks”
I got blank surprised faces for 5 seconds and then the one said “@#%, NO”, so I informed them that the lion were still sleeping on the rocks next to the dirt loop they were just parked in, so they thanked us, turned and I watched them charging down the road back to Lubyelubye in my mirror and then we all packed up laughing.
The rest of the H4-1/H12 produced more of the usual animals, but we only stopped for pics of an SBS and a Bateleur.
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As we neared the area where the leopard cubs had been around a few days earlier I started to plot as numerous people we know had been trying plenty times a day since and nobody had seen them. Just before the S36 turnoff from the H1-2 there’s a little dirt loop coming off the H1-2 called the S84 which joins up with the S36 after 2km, virtually at the H1-2/S36 junction, so we decided to take that little dirt loop.
As we neared a little drainage line halfway down the S84 we spotted a car stopped so slowed next to them and they informed us that they had seen what they thought was a leopard cub in the bush but now couldn’t see it, so I reversed and pulled in behind them and we all started searching on the right hand side in the bush.
After 5 minutes of searching every bush with binoculars I was sure we weren’t going to be lucky, but that changed in seconds as the rats and the Cow frantically started whispering
“THERE!” “Oh Wow”
I was about to lose it “What, where!” but immediately spotted that the Cow and rats where looking out the left hand side of the car and almost straight down.
There have been a few sightings in the past which have caused Brown clan “brain tilt” and this was one of them, because sitting in the grass right next to the road and opposite my front left wheel was a tiny leopard cub and for 5 seconds we all just sat still in disbelief. The cub had ducked through a drain under the road, hence was now on the left hand side.
Suddenly pics came to mind
“@#%, take pics!”
It was now chaos with the rats all fighting over 1 window in the back and I was begging the Cow to use my camera instead of her point and shoot
“I can’t use your camera!”
“But it’s much better!”
“NO!”
The Cow was frantically juggling her point and shoot with a video camera and I was losing my marbles because I could only photograph through the window of the car which had me plotting to jump on the Cow’s lap, but that probably would have resulted in a flatty to the ear, so the window was the only option.
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