Leopards Are Like Buses

On the road again at 5:30am this morning with today's mission being to find the elusive leopard, the last of our big 5.

However, it wasn't long before we saw a small group of elephants coming out of the bush, heading diagonally from our right and looking to cross the road. Although the group was small the elephants were anything but, they looked very intimidating. One of the group stopped to wave her trunk at us for 30 seconds until an even larger male came from the same direction.

Then we finally found a female leopard, who at first wasn't too keen on our presence, so we swung around in a semicircular detour through the bush, taking us in the direction she was heading and waited for her. The video shows her pausing before coming out into the open towards us, but eventually strode right past us with only a muted growl.

At 12:30 we had a really entertaining bush survival lesson from our tracker. Who showed us how to find water (including extracting water from fresh elephant dung), to make fire from wood and a stick, create a shelter, make string from a sisal leaf and make a snare to catch guinea fowl.

Armed with our new found knowledge and the threat of them leaving us out there overnight we set off on our 4pm drive. First we visited a 16 strong pride of lions. Which felt fine while they were laying down but as they started walking off in ones or twos I couldn't stop looking round, just to be on the safe side.

Shortly afterwards our tracker found some fresh leopard droppings on the road and within a few minutes of off-roading he spotted her. Despite being very well camouflaged in the undergrowth, it was literally a needle in a haystack, but they really knew what they were doing. We stayed with her for around 20 mins, she was totally relaxed and if anything seemed to be posing for the cameras. It really was the most magical experience.Leer más