My girlfriend's first Leopard
By Heath Ashcroft
After more than 5 years of going out together, my girlfriend Kristy finally persuaded me that we should take our holidays in Africa this year.
As I travel to Africa often for work we usually holiday elsewhere in the world. But after deep thought (over a beer) and serious negotiation (over 10 beers) we decided to travel there in September/October 2008.
Our safari started in Uganda and would finish in Tanzania via Kenya. Everything was going great guns and she was falling in love with Africa as I had many years before when I travelled there for the first time.
A great bonus for me was that we were seeing many things in Africa that I had not encountered before in 9 years of working for Acacia.
These included being surrounded by a troop of chimps in Kabale, seeing a baby gorilla suckling from its mother in Bwindi, seeing full grown lions sleeping lazily in the fork of a tree in Queen Elizabeth National Park, swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar and being charged repeatedly by a stumbling baby elephant in the Serengeti.
If I have leant anything from visiting Africa repeatedly for work over the years, is that it never fails to surprise you.
However, we were in the Serengeti, the last of 8 game parks on our safari and I was a wee bit nervous.
Not because we were camping out in the wilds that night, but because it was Kristy's last chance to see leopard.
The elusive leopard, an animal I love and hate in equal measure. Love because of it power and elusiveness, hate because of the disappointment I know it can bring when not spotted!
It took me several years and game parks before I spotted my first leopard (at Lake Nakuru), but I kept this to myself and hoped that nature would be kind to us.
On entering the park proper the first big predator we come across was Lion, boldly surveying his kingdom on top of a kopjie (rocky outcrop). This was a good start! Shortly afterwards we came across cheetah, just visible 500 or so metres away.
Hey I thought, we are on a roll! And low and behold, less than an hour later we spotted Kristy's first leopard AND it was in a tree!!
But the leopard had company; a Thompsons Gazelle was lifeless, hanging daintily from the slim branches of a young Acacia tree the leopard had appropriated.
I honestly do not know which was better, the sight of the leopard with its kill or the look of astonishment on Kristy's face! We were happy sitting there, absorbing the magnificent spectacle in front of us, letting time drift away, and as other vehicles moved away, we got close and closer to natures reward.
East Africans have a saying, which is quite apt for all of Africa, 'Pole Pole' which means 'Slowly Slowly' in Swahili.
Our patience was rewarded. Late October in the Serengeti brings short and sharp afternoon showers. As the late afternoon wind started to pick up you could see the leopard getting agitated, surveying the landscape for predators and a safer, sturdier place to stow its bounty.
Then Boom! Thunder belted and heavy rain descended. In a flash the leopard picked the antelope up by the scruff of the neck, hurtled down the tree and started dragging its prey towards a nearby kopjie, a 100 or so meters away. The muscles from its neck and shoulders boldged and were magnified by the drops of rain swimming down its spotted skin.
In another feat of immense strength, the now drenched lifeless carcass was dragged 10 - 15 metres up an immense Acacia tree, where finally both predator and prey came to rest under its protective canopy.
I glanced at Kristy nonchalantly as if I had seen this all before, but secretly Africa had surprised me once again.