It’s Not a Zoo but sometimes it feels like one!

Some game drives are fairly quite but there are some that can blow your mind. At Impodimo these game drives are frequent. There is one however, that stands out. It started out like any ordinary afternoon drive with goal of finding the elusive leopard. We had a starting point; fresh tracks we found in the morning looked very promising. The tracks were roughly 20 minutes from camp so we didn’t have too much time to waste. We made a bee line straight for the tracks. We were only 15 minutes From camp when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye I slowed down to take a second look. It took a moment to register that I was looking at male cheetah 20 meters off road. He was heading into the bush. We followed him off road As he casually meandered through the bush.

After following for 15 minutes the bush erupted in front of him as a scrub hare broke cover from his day time hiding place. The cheetah did what comes naturally to all predators. He accelerated from a walk to a blinding pace (they can reach110 km/h) in seconds. The scrub hare is no match for the cheetah in a straight line but the hare is agile and attempted throw the cheetah off by dodging in between the trees and bushes. The hare saw the vehicle and tried to use the vehicle to loose the lightening quick predator. There is something magical about seeing a cheetah at full flight. It is truly a surreal moment. A few seconds later the cheetah reached out and tripped the scrub hare. The oxygen starved hare died quickly in the strangle hold of the cheetah. We watched him for a total of 45 minutes as he finished eating.
We started to move off towards the tracks we had found earlier. We passed a small water hole. My tracker, Patrick, threw out his hand to call us to a halt, he had spotted fresh tracks. We analyzed the tracks and saw they were fresh leopard tracks coming to the water and then leaving in the same way. We followed them for 300m when Patrick froze and pointed to a huge murula tree with a black spot in its upper branches. I could not make out what the spot was but I would never doubt the master tracker’s eyes. We returned to the vehicle and went off road back to the tree. As we approached we could see the leopard repositioning her kill (an Impala). As we approached we recognised the female as a very relaxed young animal we know very well. We positioned ourselves under the tree about 7 meters from the kill and watched her feed on the carcass as the sun was setting behind us. Thirty minutes or so later she come down the tree and walked past 2 meters from the vehicle. There was a stunned silence from my guests all of them taking in the moment. We left for a sundowner where everyone argued about which sighting was better the guests all agreed to disagree and we packed up to make our way home.

The vehicle was buzzing as we made our way home with Patrick using the spot light to find nocturnal game. We were 15 minutes from home when Patrick spotted our 2 dominant male lion’s, Ditaba and Sepedi, at a waterhole having a drink. We followed them off road and they lead us straight to a giraffe kill that they had made the previous night. They lay down next to the carcass. I positioned the Land Rover 5m from the lions. After a few moments they decided to let the whole reserve know where they were. The Ditaba male started calling with his brother echoing his calls. From 5m a lions call will go right through you, you will feel the deep base of the call in your chest. The true power of these mighty beasts is displayed in all its glory in these moments.

At this point we decided it could not get any better and moved back to the lodge to discuss the evenings drive around the fire until late into the night. There are other drives similar to these but that’s another story. Its true Madikwe is no zoo, it is so much better!