29th Lower Sabie continued
It wasn’t a leopard sighting worth getting excited about as it was deep in thick bush and a “flat cat”, so I wanted to get through the gang of cars, but there was just no way through and my patience was starting to get extended again, therefore I reversed around 100m down the road to a shady spot where we were alone, switched off and waited for a gap to appear in the traffic jam.
Around 5 minutes later a gangster boon troop came charging along and they were heading through the bush in a direct line towards where the leopard had been so I started chirping that they would chase the leopard which would maybe clear the traffic jam, however minutes past and nothing happened much to my frustration.
5 minutes later I had entered into “daydream mode” to avoid a blood pressure moment due to the traffic jam and while staring for no particular reason into the bush next to the car I spotted a head peaking over the bank and then the penny dropped.
“LEOPARD! #$^#*, camera!”
A 100m up the road the traffic jam hadn’t moved so obviously nobody had picked up that the leopard had moved off, but she was now standing on the bank looking down at us.
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The leopard spent a few seconds checking us out, which was fortunate as it gave us time to get organized with the cameras and then she started down to the road to cross.
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A second after the above pic was taken things changed as an old hardly roadworthy car full of staff and their relatives or friends had hooted their way through the traffic jam and were approaching at speed and nearly hit the leopard, so I lost it.
“Hey! Watch the leopard, you chop!!”
I got blank stares and they just continued on. I don’t think they even spotted the leopard, but it had gotten a massive skrik and took off at full pace across the road and disappeared down into the riverbed.
A few of the gang parked up the road had seen the leopard sprint across the road so they also came charging forward, which fortunately opened a gap in the traffic jam, so we continued on.
Next up was a kite with its kill, a shy monitor lizard in a tree which turned into a mission to photograph, then some boons relaxing and a fat or pregnant steenbok next to Sunset dam.
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We parked off at Sunset dam for half an hour just watching the locals and then headed back to camp. We then decided to not go out again as everybody was still sick of the car, so I started an early braai.
To be continued