Episode 8 HAPPY NEW YEAR
The morning of 1 January 2015 started like every other, woke up at 4:00, after my shower, woke up mum and the snotties. We got to Kruger Gate by 4:45 and were waiting like every other morning for it to open at 5:30. Whilst waiting and chatting to other early arrivals we heard vervets going ballistic at the reception on the other side of the bridge. The time eventually came for the gate to open and as we stopped in front of the reception we were given a warning about a leopard that was seen in a tree right next to reception and then ran into the bushes next to the parking area. Mum got our day permits, the kids stayed in the car and I curiously wandered around looking for the leopard. Thinking that it is most likely gone but still walking on the other side of the cars scanning the bushes, I tell a women standing next to the bushes that she must just be careful as they saw a leopard walking into the bushes earlier. She immediately jumps into her car and I keep on walking, at the end of the row of cars I turned around and walked back to the car still looking into the bushes. That is when I saw the spots, exactly in the bushes right next to were the women were standing. I get such a groot skrik that I just ran to the car and scream leopard… The leopard I think also got the fright of her life so she ran off but not too far, we reversed and got one fleeting look of the leopard before she disappeared further into the bushes.
It was a great way to start a new year and we were pumped full of adrenaline that we knew that it will be an eventful day. We decided to do the S65 and after 1.7km we almost had an accident as mum saw lion right next to the road behind a bush and as she screamed lion I swerved into the bushes… eish… the lion checked us out and thought nothing about our strange behaviour and went on sleeping again. We were ecstatic, we were about 20 minutes with him alone when the other cars arrived and soon there were a roadblock. All I wanted was a few facial shots and then I will go on my merry way so we waited, stopping at a spot that was still prime but allowing others to have a great view as well.
We waited another 15 minutes and then he stood up giving us a bit of a show…
Satisfied with the sighting we moved on, leaving the rest to get their full of Mr. Lion. We did our drive then were back at home by 12:00.
I climbed into my car at 15:00 for my afternoon drive and decided to check out if the lion was still on the S65. I knew I had a lot of time and nowhere to go so I took my merry time driving, stopping for everything and anything. A few cars sped past me and I had no idea what was waiting for me, until I got to a moerse roadblock. I took out my binos and saw in a tree about 150m from the road, a leopard sleeping with no worries in the world. It was in the open so everybody had a great view, I spent about an hour with him and then he jumped out of the tree and disappeared.
Everybody dispersed but I drove up and down a few times and still saw nothing. I was 500m from the S65 so I decided to go check out if the lion is still on his spot. I got near spot we found him that morning and saw just more cars. The ‘lions’ this time, there were a second male which we didn’t see that morning, were lying flat and I just thought that I didn’t want to wait around all these cars for a spot to see a tail/ear/stomach… I turned around and were lucky enough to see the one sit straight and yawn before he flapped down again. I wanted to do the S4 and then S3 back to the gate but when I got to the S1 I saw another roadblock towards the H11 and ofcourse I had to check it out.
The leopard that jumped out of the previous tree, actually walked about 200m towards the S65 and jumped into a tree right next to the road. I got lucky and had a prime spot right next to the leopard, I was informed that this was Vin Diesel and I enjoyed watching him for another hour…
Some other visitors weren’t behaving, sitting on the windows and shouting at him, as people reprimanded him, he showed them signs and other vulgar body language. It didn’t even take 5 minutes of this crude behaviour and then Vin decided he had enough and jumped out of the tree, again disappearing. I saw that there were 30 minutes left and I had 8km to drive back to the gate so I took my time, getting a hyena sighting as well. That afternoon it took me 3 and a half hours to drive 18km and there were animals everywhere… this was definitely the best way to start my 2015…
To be continued…
Heksie
after finnishing my current TR to get some old pics gathering cobwebs on my PC.
RP
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Pity about faulty people 