Leopard in a tree

On our first morning drive, Adam our tracker found a Leopard in a tree with its recent kill. She was so camouflaged even our Ranger had trouble spotting her. Adam seems to have some sort of magical tracking powers. Once we got it all sorted out, we watched her for quite a while. It is unbelievable how these animals blend in – a Lion can be 10 feet away, or a Leopard above you and you don’t know they are there.

Later, we went to a small lake that serves as a popular watering hole, found another Leopard (much more visible) in a tree and proceeded to wait for her to make a move on some Impala. She never took her chance, but in the process we watched herds of Impala, a few rambunctious Wildebeest, a family of Warthogs and several Hippos.

We were actually trying to get some photos of an eagle, when in the distance through the trees we started to see large black shapes and dust; first a few, then a few dozen, then a herd of several hundred Water Buffalo arrived on the scene. It was amazing to see them fill the landscape as well as a good part of the lake. The other animals filtered back after the Water Buffalo were settled and the Hippos raised their profile to establish their territory in the center of the lake.

After re-grouping and having another delicious lunch, we headed back out. Besides seeing many more beautiful animals and birds, we left the Land Rover to walk over to a large tree and see a very large, beautiful Python. Rob climbed right up to look for more and came down with some recently-shed snakeskin.

At night coming back we saw the cutest Scops Owl.