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Guest Sandra Reynolds' shares her writing competition entry based on her trip to South Africa in October 2022.
“So far, so good?”
Our guide Denis’s understated signal that it was time to move on from viewing this magnificent Leopard drooped over his Impala kill high up on a Marula tree branch.
“We’ll return tomorrow morning; he won’t have gone far! With a half-eaten Impala to protect and a very swollen belly, that Leopard is going nowhere!”
He was right! The next morning, there he was, still in the tree, different branch though, but with the added spectacle of a Spotted Hyena who fancied the leg of Impala should it drop and just a few metres away a lovely female Leopard, either after the kill, a mate or maybe both!
I like to think we were watching a romance blossom as they sized each other up from across the drainage ditch. With cameras whirring and the vehicle manoeuvring, we were all hoping to catch THAT photo. Sadly, they declined and resolutely stayed either side of the ditch. Meanwhile the hyena skulked under the tree, still expecting a leg of Impala for lunch.
“So far, so good?”
“You’ll never tire of watching Lions” I was told before the trip. “It’s the most memorable experience”. It certainly was! Leaving Satara Camp shortly after the sun had risen, we headed along the S100 road. In that gorgeous light of the sunrise, we saw them. The Sweni pride; fourteen beautiful Lions sleeping right by the side of the road. Our vehicle slowed and stopped. We were so close. For the next hour we watched. One by one they woke, yawned, stretched and then gave each other a loving nuzzle as if to say, “good morning!”. Three younger ones pretended to stalk each other, eventually slumping to the ground, lying all over each other in a heap. They sauntered across the road in front of us, unaware of, or disinterested in our presence. Suddenly, and ominously their attention turned to a single wildebeest in the distance, grazing and unaware. The change in their manner was instant, they were on a mission. Two went left, two or three went right and where the others went, I have no idea, but within a minute they were all gone, lost in the scrub, no sign, no movement, nothing. We were lucky to have seen them, but was the wildebeest lucky? I don’t know. “So far, so good?”
Our tour is named “Just Cats!” yet this is the Kruger National Park: South Africa’s Crown Jewel! So, it was so much more than just cats, and I have the checklist to prove it! We saw a Giant Kingfisher with a fish, a Yellow-billed Stork balancing on a Crocodile, a Rhino scent marking, Hippos wallowing, Zebra crossing the road, Giraffe galloping, and Kudu just being elegant. We came across a huge herd of menacing Buffalo; and of course, we saw Elephants! Actually, we heard them before seeing them, as they smashed their way through the thicket. We saw eagles and owls, Secretarybirds and vultures, hornbills and bee-eaters but to everyone’s dismay no Purple-breasted Roller.
“So far, so good?” Yes, definitely!
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