Walking safari and leopard

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Start the day at 5:45 with breakfast before our morning walk, which is the alternative to a game drive. The wildlife are immune to vehicles, it seems, but on foot they are instantly alert and weary and so we cannot get as close. But the experience of a walking safari is to explore the more subtle aspects of the park; we inspect termite mounds, identify poos and footprints, stop to listen to the birds and collect beautiful flowers and seed pods.

It’s still incredibly hot and after walking for 3 hours we have a break by a lagoon and the waiter sets up a campfire to boil water for tea and coffee - served in proper china cups - got to keep up the luxury safari standards!

Siesta time. I’ve soaked my shirt in cold water and it’s really effective to cool. It’s not so bad really, sitting outside my chalet there’s a nice breeze, and of course the distracting view -

A hippo just left the water and is lumbering on the banks to get some grass. Can’t see any crocs today. A couple of smaller giraffes are making their way to towards the two giraffes that have been standing in the banks for the whole day (I wonder why). I recognise the bull giraffe by its darker markings. The pace of life is slow; I feel like I could come back in a few hours and nothing will have changed. On that note, I think I’ll sleep for a bit.

Night Drive
Starts uneventfully. About 7:30 we get a flat tire and alight the vehicle. I’d pretty much fallen asleep so it was good to stretch my legs. Though we’re stuck while the tyre’s being changed, we seemed to have stopped in a wildlife deadzone so no risk of being eaten while we loitered around.

Afterwards though was incredible! We spotted a leopard and followed it as it made its way closer to the Impalas and Puku on the open plains. They were already alert which was probably how the guide found the leopard in the first place - listening for their warning calls. I don’t know if we hindered the hunt by shining a great big beam of light at the leopard (the spotter did switch to infrared light which is meant to be undetectable), but it continued to stalk the antelopes while we watched. It appeared to be taking advantage of our presence by moving under cover of our vehicle noise; when we stopped it too stopped, when we went forward it moved forward with us. We continued that way for about 30 minutes, periodically turning on the spotlight to monitor progress but mainly listening intently in the dark. Alas a kill was not on the cards. Scupperred by the arrival of hyenas in the end - no point for the leopard to make a kill under these circumstances as its kill would have likely been taken. So it sunk away unsuccessful.

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