Day 8 - PM drive

After tea it was back in the trucks for the evening game drive.

Not too far outside the camp our tracker, the guy who sits on the seat mounted on the hood of the truck, saw these tracks on the road.

The cats were out.

It wasn't long before the radio came alive.

A leopard had been found and it wasn't either of the ones we had seen the previous evening.

But, there were already three trucks on site so we would have to wait. Abel put our name on the list and when someone else left we would get to go see.

While we were waiting we drove around looking for more game.

I saw something move a ways off. It looked like impala running. Abel sped down the road and turned in their direction. The tracker directed him off the road. They had been running from something. They apparently have very keen senses.

Then the tracker saw it. A solitary cheetah ahead in the brush.

We drove right up next to it. He was no longer hunting...it was obvious by the size of his belly he had gotten his fill.

We followed the cheetah as he walked along marking his territory. Perfectly content and not the least bit concerned about the humans. Then our opportunity came to visit the leopard. We guided another truck to the cheetah so they could follow it and keep tabs on his location.


The leopard was perched in a tree.

We hadn't been told it was sitting with its kill.

We pulled right up underneath it. The others could not get this close because the leopard was on Djuma property and on Djuma property only Djuma trucks can leave the road.

This was another young female. She caught herself a duiker and pulled it up into the tree to keep the scavengers (and other cats) from fighting her for it.

She must have expended a great deal of energy chasing this antelope down.

It wasn't long after we arrived, as the sun was setting, that she curled up with her kill and took a little nap.

An amazing sight to see.

Later we watched as she plucked the hair from the duiker in preparation for tearing into it and having a little meal.

Unfortunately we were already late for our evening meal...again.

So, we left her to enjoy her evening in the tree, certain we would see her in exactly the same place the next morning.

Oh yeah, we also saw some giraffe and a bush baby this evening.