Episode 19 What mum wants, she gets
It was a quiet and cloudy afternoon in Kruger, even though we had a long morning drive, we decided that the weather allowed for an early afternoon drive. Sis wasn’t in the mood, so we dropped her off at Sabie Park and then were on our way again. Nothing rushed us so we decided to drive the H11-.H1-2->H12->S30->S128->Lower Sabie->H1-4->H11. The road was also quiet only giving us a bit of general game and then a big breeding herd of ellies, where we had some stupid humans opening their kombi door and hanging out. During all this driving we had a conversation about what would be your best leopard sighting or what do you prefer if you see a leopard: chilling in a tree or walking in or next to the road…
Well, as I love sitting and enjoying my sighting I prefer having a leopard snoozing in a tree, then I park normally away from the traffic chaos and sit with him for hours, they normally don’t sit still for long and you get to see them at different angles.
But NOOO, not mum, she said that she wants a leopard to walk up to us, right next to her door allowing her to almost touch him and then let us follow him down the road.
I said that I hate having them in the road as they normally disappear as soon as they appear. It doesn’t allow for great kiekies and you can’t enjoy the sighting. But little did I know. We turn on the S30 and trundle down the road…
Turning down every loop and enjoying the view, until we came to a dip in the road and then I saw two cars facing our way and one putting out their hand showing me to stop. I braked immediately not knowing for what when mum shouted and pointed in the grass about 2m from the cars. I couldn’t believe our luck and started taking kiekies. The female leopard walked toward the other two cars, then she smelled the grass and decided to sit looking every now and then at us.
Then it decided to walk our way, don’t know why it changed direction but I was glad about that. She did exactly what mum wanted as she was walking up on my side then walked across the road in front of my car and then passed next to my mums window close enough that she could touch it, exactly how she wanted to have her sighting.
We quickly turned around and at a distance of about 50-60m followed her giving her space. She walked in the road for about 500m stopping eve4ry now and then to smell the grass and she even went in hunt mode and then thought against it. I drove on the right hand side of the road as she was walking in the left side so that if a car would come from behind they would have a great view. UNTIL an arse came with his Jeep and taking kiekies through his windscreen drove up to her, chasing her in the bushes. EISH! It is just infuriating and sad to see that some people don’t know how to behave around a sighting. At least we had a great sighting for half an hour.
To be continued…
