30 April - 1 May

This evening’s drive both Jaces and I pursed leopard with an unrelenting vengeance. The cats had managed to avoid us until now. But, to be honest with wild dogs in the area and the Styx pride available on tap we’ve been somewhat distracted!

For the better part of two hours we searched roads and drainage lines, followed tracks in narrow gullies and responded to every single alarm call in our vicinity.
It was only after sundowners and with a little help that our goal was realized.
With great fortune the sound of leopards mating drew all and sundry like moths to a flame and at the end of the rainbow; Mvula and Thandi. Romance in the air they continued what they had started weeks ago!

Though our sighting thereof was somewhat restricted, it mattered not as the guests in the vehicle all shared an air accomplishment.

The morning air was blanketed in a shroud of mist, granting the environment an eerie quality and an element of mystery.
The first creatures encountered were wildebeest on an open plain and followed by the huge elephant bull spoken about in a recent blog.
It was great to see him again, this time walking down the road with an arrogance that only a bull in musth can conquer.
We followed him for ages as he sauntered along, practically oblivious to our presence save for one heart-stopping moment when he returned from a short soirée with a Torchwood tree where our vehicle perchance happened to be directly in his path.
This time we stood our ground and it was he that turned and opted to lope around us, but make no mistake, no-one took a single breath until his steady gaze moved from us and on to the path ahead.

Aside from a bounty of general game we later found a small breeding herd of buffalo and just before returning home, we responded to the Styx pride who just the night before had killed two buffalo cows not twenty meters apart.
The mere fact that they successfully brought down two buffalo alongside one another lends credence to the origin of their name.

For those of you that do not know the name Styx stems from ancient Greek mythology. The river Styx formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld or more simply put, the boundary between the land of the living and the dead.
The relativity of the pride’s name is a testament to their hunting prowess.