Africa Wild

You really do have amazing luck with spotting leopards....it just makes me wonder how many we have driven past without noticing!

Bad luck with the neighours...that is a problem with the EH5 huts!

The mating lions have someone spying on them

Another leopard x 2 day

The pic of the leopard drinking right in front of the camera is amazing

Strange that the booking people did not put the "terrorists" next to each other This lack of interest in the visitors' wellbeing bothers me

BC

Some excellent sightings to kick start your trip
And the leopard luck as always! I don't know how you guys do it

Shame about the terrorists in camp... one of the downsides of school holidays I guess.

Thanks RP, Alf, Mel, Flutts, Lisbeth and PJL for checking this episode out and commenting

RP, thanks for finding that female tusker story I see my old pic from 2010 is there

22nd Lower Sabie

The Rats loved the wild dog sighting from the previous day and wanted to head back that direction, but the Cow and I both knew that the chances of finding the dogs in the same area again was slim, however we were keen to see if her nervous leopard had actually made a kill after we left, so we all agreed to drive down the H4-2.

Once again some of the early morning car gang ducked down the H10 and others stopped around 1km later at the “mating” lion couple who needed a boost or less distraction from the hippos.


We snuck off from the lion gang after a few pics as we had the Cow’s nervous leopard on the mind, but another car with caravan attached followed us which gave me the mutters; however the leopard wasn’t around so I lost interest in the other car until some hyena interceptors stopped us again.


The hyena eyed us out for a few minutes and then decided to cruise off into the bush so we continued on.

I was seriously surprised a few km past the S130 northern entrance as the wild dogs were in the road again in almost exactly the same spot we had seen them the previous day.

This time our wild dog sighting turned rather busy fairly quickly as the caravan towing guy was waving his hands behind me and wanted to get past, so we moved right over and then OSV’s and other visitors started arriving at pace from the Croc Bridge side so it must have been a very quiet morning that side.

We had a brief chat and all agreed that we should take a few more pics of the junior dogs, turn and head back towards Lower Sabie before we were parked in.


The drive back towards Lower Sabie produced a few new ellies, giraffe and another hyena cruised across the road.

Just past Lower Sabie we hit a mini “cat” run and first up was a male lion cruising next to the road.

He was on my side of the road and just popped out the bush therefore I was frantically trying to reverse and take pics, so I was flapping out instructions.

“Hold the steering wheel, watch out behind us, TURN, @#%*”


The lion decided that it looked more peaceful on the bank below and cruised off to lie in the sun which was probably fortunate because we were about to end up in a thorn bush.


Around 500m later we found a few cars stopped and a leopard was cruising along in the riverbed, so the excitement escalated again.

A moving leopard is a mission when a few cars are involved and this leopard was moving in and out the bush just below the riverbank, so I was instantly trying to predict where he would pop up next each time he disappeared behind reeds or bush, but it can get hectic and tense if many cars are trying to do the same thing.

Just before the leopard entered thick bush I spotted him suddenly take a diagonal turn towards the road and Bushpig sitting behind me confirmed the same thing, however the bush on the riverbank was extremely dense and the leopard disappeared.

I continued on in reverse trying to estimate where he would pop out the bush and another guy had picked up on the same thing so we slowly continued down the road together while the rest of the cars stayed where the thick bush starts.

Around 100m later the other driver indicated that the leopard was on the way out, so I reversed to create a gap between our cars and switched off just as he popped out the grass.


The Cow started jabbering “Sausage” after a name the Rats gave a fat leopard that likes to hang around the Lubyelubye area, so the Rats started jabbering “Sausage” also, but “Sausage” has distinctive markings on his face and this wasn’t him.


To be continued

The doggie pretending to bite have some very pointed teeth

He might not be "Sausage" but he sure is big and fat ...and not nervous

Wow what a morning again

Not bad, and all sightings close by!

Ja, a big boy that leopard!

It is a nice thing that the doggies don't care two hoots about traffic, hey BC?