Botswana by Cathy
Cathy Allden says...
I flew with Qantas and did a two week safari with World Journeys and & Beyond, experiencing what was one of the most fascinating feeding scenes I've ever witnessed.
Not only did we meet leopards, lions and lizards but also herd of elephants, warthogs, buffalo, giraffes, gazelle, hippos, zebra, ostriches, hornbills and of course the lovely lilac breasted roller.
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May 2010
We are staying at Nxabega Lodge in Botswana’s amazing Okavango Delta. It’s been a 5am start, jumping into the Landrover and after a short while, our tracker has picked up a leopard trail. We follow this trail through the bush and then find an adult female on top of a termite mound. Trying to get a little closer, we saw her hunting for impala, crouched and catching the scent of her prey. Unfortunately, our vehicle then promptly got stuck in two massive holes created by aardvarks, and while our driver and tracker winched us out, we lost sight of it.
We continued on the game drive but came back to same spot later on. Where the impala had been, we saw a drag mark in the sand, following this drag mark our tracker pointing in the right direction. We saw paw prints in the sand over the top of our earlier tyre marks, so we knew the leopard had been there.
Following the drag marks into low sage bush, we stopped our vehicle, and tried to remain very quiet, listening for the leopard. We saw the impala kill to our right, but there was no sign of the leopard. Then suddenly, she reappeared, coming back to the kill. Normally leopards drag their kill into a tree for safekeeping, but her meal was on the ground this time.
Our tracker was shocked; but he explained that this meant that the leopard didn’t feel threatened, there were obviously no hyenas in the area to compete for the kill. For 20mins we watched her eat from just 5 metres away. It was an amazing feeling – we felt that we had earned the right to be there after our guides had so skilfully tracked her.
We felt like we’d been privy to a real African adventure!