The Magic of Africa......
Seeing our First Leopard in a Tree is Like A Dream Come True !
Many people travel to Africa and never see the illusive leopard. The first one we saw was in Zimbabwe in 2000, at dusk and it was gone before you could snap your fingers. The safari guide at that time had never seen one before.
We since have seen several on other trips, but always fleeting.
On this safari, we have had the amazing experience of observing them at some length. Amazing, to us, to get to do so.
On the road to Satara, we were not disappointed by the wildlife we saw. We had been entertained by herds of elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, watebuck, buffalo, baboons and vervet monkey while we were at Letaba. We also saw crocodile, hyenas along the fence at camp, banded mongoos, wart hogs and wildebeest.
Once on the road to Satara and while staying at Satara we saw the "Big Five"; on one day we saw the Big Five in less than twelve hours! Small bit of trivia--There are also the "Little Five"-lion ant, leopard tortoise, buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, rhino beetle. We have seen two of them, the buffalo weaver and the elephant shrew. Another editorial comment--It is good to enjoy the wildlife that you see and not be disappointed if you do not see "the big five" every day. Some of these animals are very hard to see and diferent parts of the park are better for some animals than others. We would remind ourselves sometimes when we didn't seem to be seeing much.
On the road to Satara, we came up on a vehicle that was stopped on the side of the road. Using our method of slowing to see what direction people in stopped vehicle were looking and then starting to look six feet ata a time. Looking, looking and then I had to start laughing; there was a leopard up in a tree. This is one of those things you hope to see, leopard in the tree with his kill draped over the branch. There was no kill but it was apparent he was on the lookout for some movement and ready to hunt. We got to watch him for a good while before he came down out of the tree and went off in the bush to hunt.
We drove on a little further and saw two rhinos. They were white rhinos and grazed fairly close to the car and then back out again. They are always so interesting to watch because of their prehistoric appearance.
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