Exhilarating drives awaited us as we headed out the
afternoon for a good time in the bush.
We headed west in search of lions. We
headed towards the hyena den and found only one adult female lazing around the
den. We enjoyed her company but she didn’t seem to care much about ours.
We
also found a side striped jackal doing the same as the hyena, relaxing on Arathusa
airstrip. This omnivore was lying out in the open allowing us to see her true beauty.
The light faded quick as we headed to find the lions, unfortunately we had to
abandon our search as we could not use our spotlight to find them as the cubs
were with the pride. 
We headed back towards the camp, and as lady luck was on
our side we bumped into a leopard! It was one of Karula’s cubs named Kunauma
(skittish) he was far south of us but we sat patiently watching him meander
about in a uncertain direction, luckily he started to move north towards us, as
he approached us a scrub hare popped out of the long grass and the hunt was on!
The scrub hare ran towards the road and straight north, we thought it was it
for the sighting, and then suddenly the scrub hare came flying out of the grass
with a leopard short behind him. The scrub hare saw safety under our vehicle as
it ran right underneath us, but the leopard did not lose focus as it bolted
right past the vehicle, the scrub hare was lucky as the leopard gave up the
chase as the hare ran for its life! Great end for the day.
This morning was no short
coming, our plan was to go back and search for those lions but as we sat and
watched the sun rise over Chitwa dam we heard some good news! Wild dogs were
waiting for us just north of where we were!
We headed over and twelve dogs were
sleeping along Gowrie main! We were excited to see the rare dogs but we weren’t
the only ones! As the dogs were a very special sighting everyone came to the
east to view these amazing hunters as they were sleeping out in the open. After
we enjoyed our time with the dogs we left so someone else could have their
turn. A
nd for us this was perfect, as Bernard went tracing leopard! He found
the culprit of the tracks he was following and we made our way to have a look.
It was Umvula!
And he was not alone; Shadow was with him constantly rubbing up
against him to entice him to mate! He was reluctant as he courted her several
times as we sat there. It was a n amazing sighting and quite a rare act to see!
With all the commotion another in-experienced male leopard showed his face;
Bauti! Luckily he noticed the large male and left as quick as he can!
Exhilarating morning it was indeed! Hoping to get the chance to find those
lions!
Jaces Bornman
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