FABULOUS Leopard Hills

DAY 1

Leopard Hills was the last stop on safari for us. Our first night there, there were only eight of us and we all hit it off pretty quickly. We had some lunch and before heading out on safari, I had to try this outdoor shower. When else do you get to shower, outdoors, in the African bush?! It was really nice. I looked out to the watering hole and there were a few Kudoo, just staring at me with there big ears pointed straight up.

At 4:00, we loaded into the range rover and off we went! Gary was our ranger and Ronald (Ronny) was our tracker. The first thing we came across was a giant giraffe bone. Gary got out and handed it to us, so we could feel how heavy it was. We then pulled into the watering hole area that the lodge overlooks. This is where I found out that Gary was also a photographer, so he was giving us great tips on how to shoot and use the lighting. We saw two male waterbuck playing around and a brand new baby impala who was very curious about an Egyptian goose. The impala would cautiously approach the goose, the goose would hiss at it and the impala would clumsily run back to his herd. We drove on, to the banks of another watering hole full of hippos! We got pretty close to them and they were very active...wrestling and rolling around in the

water. We watched them for a good 20 minutes. When we left them, we came across, two, adult male lions. They were beautiful and HUGE!! Again, not very active, but I could have watched them all day. They were so majestic and it felt like a privilege to be in their presence. We hit another watering hole for our sun downers, which was also full of hippos and tons of baby hippos. It was so funny to see them all wit their eyes and ears just above the water, watching us very closely. Ronny pulled out some drinks and snacks and exclaimed "The bar is open!"

As it got dark and we headed back to camp, we got a call that one of the other rangers had found a Puff Adder (venomous snake) and was holding it for everyone to see. So, we booked it over there and sure enough, there was this guide, with a disgusting snake on a stick. He let him go and we were on our way back to camp. That night, we had a delicious dinner, with our ranger and hit the sack early.

DAY 2

Today was exciting before we even left the lodge! We had our morning coffee and Gary told us he would meet us down at the truck whenever we were ready. The two other couples got to the vehicle before us. When we got down there Gary asked us if we had seen the Leopard that was at our front door! Apparently, this leopard frequents the lodge pretty regularly. A couple of months ago, they found her on the treadmill in the gym!

Our first mission was to find her. We assumed that she had already left and we went down to the watering hole to see if we could catch her coming back down. There was no sign of her. We continued to look in other places and then got the call on the radio that she was actually on our deck and at the pool!

No worries, we moved on and soon found another leopard who was hunting and who was also very pregnant. We watched her for a while, slowly sneaking up on a herd of impala. She was very stealth! She moved through the bush and finally made her way onto a termite mound so she could get a better view. We were hoping to see some action, but she was too patient for us, so we moved on.

Our next sighting was bizarre and apparently, very rare. Neither our guide or tracker had seen it before. A Martial Eagle had killed a Guinea fowl and was trying to move it. The Eagle had the large bird on the ground, with one talon dug into it and was dragging it to a safer place where he could eat it. He flew a short distance with it, up onto a fallen branch and began to eat it...starting with the eyes. We watched for a while, got some good shots and moved on. Gary (our ranger) is going to submit some of hi shots to an African wildlife magazine.

We had some coffee and headed back to the lodge where we rested up before our evening drive.

The evening drive started with a massive rhino, chowing down on some grass and seemingly unaware that we were there.

We moved on to find a large herd of elephant. There was a young male there who was very curious about us. He came up very close to us and then backed up. I guess he decided that he didn´t like us because he started shaking his head and flaring his ears. He would pretend to charge us and then back up. At one point, Gary moved the car forward to "charge" him. This really made him mad. He ran off and then ran back, trumpeting and shaking his head. We started to drive off and he would chase us. Then, we would stop and start the whole routine over again. He was hilarious!! Then, we moved over by an adult male who displayed similar behavior, which was quite a bit more intimidating!

That night, we also enjoyed the rare sighting of a zebra and came across some buffalo, after dark, that Ronny found because he could smell them. On our way home, Ronny also managed to spot a python in complete darkness! We stopped to check him out and fortunately, he was more scared of us then we were of him.

Another delicious dinner with some great conversation, and we were off to bed!