Leopard love...eventually

Driving through the Serengeti is very much like driving though the Discovery channel...all of these amazing moments are occurring around you, oblivious to the fact that you are even there. It is what I imagine 3-D/IMAX movie producers are desperately trying to achieve; you, the viewer surrounded by the action that continues to transpire as if you weren't pointing 50+ camera lens at it. The animals of the Serengeti truly are the ultimate performers.

Fred, who I credit as being the best game driver of all time, was taking us out on our second official game drive with the hope of fulfilling Kerrie's long held dream to see a leopard in the wild. (Realistically here every drive, or even walk to the loo seems to be some sort of a wildlife experience) Reports had come in that the elusive cat was spotted not too far from our present location. Kerrie's excitement grew exponentially as we raced to the scene...I was expecting to find a graceful cat spread out on a log next to the road, photogenically yawning for me. What we found was a huge spotted cat awkwardly sprawled in the upper branches of a tree, limbs dangling down, while the carcass of a Thompson gazelle, not too far away, also up the tree, was slowly dripping the last bit of his blood onto the ground below. The cat, with a bulging stomach and a satisfied grin was fast asleep.

I took the requisite 100 or so photos and that sat patiently waiting to move on - apparently the only one in my jeep that was unimpressed by a sleeping cat. Instead I sat dumbfounded at the reaction of my jeep mates and the other safari goers who had shown up at the scene...you would have thought we discovered a unicorn by their reactions of utter awe. I mean really - it is a sleeping cat. I used to have one of those; her name was T-Cat and she was a Himalayan (long haired Siamese) who used to sleep awkwardly, a lot. I do think that hauling the dead gazelle up the tree was an impressive move, the most T-Cat ever did was kill a mouse and drop it at my feet, so I'll give the spotted African feline points for that. But it was not enough to hold my attention for the time we spent there...especially since I could see more safari jeeps starting to bunch up about 1/2 mile away...there was something new and interesting to see!!!

After an eternity we left the leopard and proceed to head towards the crowd - only to get stopped suddenly by a GIANT African elephant that decided to cross the road. The astonishingly graceful GIANT ambled across the road, posed for a few photos and then continued on his way, truly indifferent to everything around him. It was a surreal reason to pause before continuing on our way to what appeared to be the 'main attraction', judging by all the vehicles.

At one point I counted 18 vehicles gathered around a lone acacia tree with 2 lionesses and 3 cubs relaxing at the base. As with everything else, these African icons seemed bored by the attention. It was cute to watch the cubs play with each other, nag their mothers...and then participate in the cat classic of napping. I became more enthralled by the behaviour of the people in the 18 safari vehicles...some patiently waiting their turn while others tried to coax their driver into angling for a better view, cutting off the tolerant rule-abiding trucks. It was complete chaos. The most dastardly of the bunch was a group of dark green vehicles from "Leopard Tours" - stay away from them.

Remember how I said Fred was great...well this is why. He knows animals. I don't know if it's some sort of African connection or just years of studying their behaviour but Fred seems to just know when to take us somewhere in time to see a show. We pulled out of the chaos of the lion family and returned to the leopard. I internally groaned when we pulled up to the familiar tree and stared at the sprawled cat.

Then, as if Fred radioed over to the giant cat, she roused herself and put on as much of a show as I think leopards are capable of. She strutted up and down on the branch, sniffed her gazelle, gave us a yawn and a stretch and then rolled back over to return to nap. It was a brief, fleeting moment of feline activity…but it turned out it was all I needed to join the thrives of African Safari goers and too, fall in awe of the leopard.