Well after the first week back I can truly say that I am dumbstruck by the quality of all my sightings! Guests are smiling, I am smiling and this all makes the next drive all the more exciting. I am just stuck asking myself, "How the hell could I top all this?"
Well let me tell you....
I was told that my next group of guests were actually past employees of Sabi Sabi and that Mike was actually a ranger some 23 years ago...now that always leads to a bit of apprehension as you know you have a veteran bush fundi on the vehicle and you have to entertain them some how. The other lot were all new to the safari experience so we had a hugely diverse group to please. Fortunately Mike and Gill were completely chilled and turned out to be amazing people, they also loved birds which is a passion of mine.
The first drive started of really relaxed and and we started the drive with a beautiful rhino bull that had just been for a mud bath, and a nice lizzard buzzard. The rest of the drive was enjoyable but quiet with no undue pressure on me to show them anything outrageous.
However the next night the outrageous happened...we went into a leopard sighting after enjoying our sundowners and after about 5 minutes in the sighting she started hunting some impala. We waited patiently as she stalked past the nose of our vehicle towards the unwary impala, when suddenly she broke into a full sprint straight past her initial target. One of the other vehicle said he could hear one of her cubs screaming and she was obviously off to save it. We all charged after her, trying to keep up with her...and as we got closer we could all hear the cub screaming madly and we were sure something had it. "It must be a python" my tracker, Solly, said cause only pythons take that long to kill their prey. She had now crossed the river and we had to make our way round but by the time we got the other side the screaming had stopped. We were all apprehensive about the outcome and were desperately searching for the leopard but there was not a sight or sound of anything around us. Then eventually we saw the mother with a baby duiker in her mouth...it had been the unlucky victim of the python and not the cub, and she had gone and stolen the snakes hard won prize! Back she went in the same direction from which she had come with the small antelope in her mouth.
Again we had to go all the way round the river to relocate her as we knew that she was taking the meat back to her babies. When we found her again she began to contact call for the cubs which didn't hesitate to come out fromthe thick bush and steal the duiker from its mothers jaws. The other cub spent about 5 minutes thanking the mother for the meal with nuzzling and head rubs before the mother moved off to hunt again. We left her to her hunt and made our way back to the lodge in silence just trying to wrap our heads around what we had just witnessed.
The next night we again found our favourite leopard on the hunt again. After we had left her the night before she had made a kill but it was quickly stolen by a hungry hyena and she was left protecting her cubs from its greedy jaws. So as we followed her again, she had a great opportunity to make a kill but didn't take the last step as her prey was just out of reach. After an hour and a half of watching the stalking we noticed that there was a young male leopard also hunting the same group of impala and was completely oblivious to the presence of the female. The hunt turned out to be unsuccessful for both but watching these two cats hunting side by side was quite a sight.
Eventually our luck had to run out and for the last three drives have been quiet on the cat front but we have enjoyed some spectacular rhino, lion and buffalo sightings. Now with all new guests on the vehicle it will be interesting to see if our luck changes for the good again!
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