September 2013 - Leopard Hills

Day 1

Our Leopard Hills experience started when we were greeted by Hugo, our ranger, at the air strip. My wife Sarah and I had flown in on the small Fed Air plane along with Sandy, a Canadian woman, and her son Trevor. We didn’t know quite what was in store for us at this stage or that we would be spending a lot of the next few days with Hugo and fellow air passengers.

On arriving at Leopard Hills we were greeted by the friendly staff, who made us feel most welcome. We were given drinks and then shown to our suite. We had seen photos of the suites prior to our arrival, but in reality they exceeded our expectations and the views were breathtaking.

After settling in we headed back to the main building to meeting up and set off on for our first game drive. Hugo, and Eric our tracker, took us out for the evening drive and so our adventure began. Hugo asked us whether there was anything in particular we wanted to see and they went to work finding us something interesting. Luck was upon us and it wasn’t long before we were given the chance to see two leopards mating within a few feet of our Land Rover. It was a surreal experience being so close to these magnificent creatures.

We stayed in this spot for about twenty minutes, and then moved on when another vehicle arrived. One of the big differences about a private reserve is the number of vehicles, they have a rule of a maximum of three at a sighting, but I think this was just about the only time we had to move on because of this.

As we continued on our drive we bumped into a few zebra before heading to a river bed area to stop for a sundowner. This is when Eric opens the bar and offers you a drink and selection of snacks. We got to stretch our legs, slightly nervously, not knowing what might be lurking nearby.

By the time we started to head back to the lodge the sun was coming down, but that didn’t stop Eric spotting the first of our lions, one of the Selati coalition. It wasn’t long before one of his brothers joined him and we heard and felt the mighty bellows as they called out to a third brother somewhere in the darkness, quite an experience.

That evening we dined as a group in the main building along with Hugo, Sandy and Trevor. The meal was fantastic and we really enjoyed the company, discussing the days events and getting to know either other.

Day 2

The 5:30am wake up was always going to be a struggle, but it was soon forgotten as we drove off on the Land Rover with blankets and hot water bottles to ward off the chilly morning air. The sun was soon up and it wasn’t long before Eric spotted some tracks leading down the road, he walked on ahead and stopped a hundred yards away having sighted two of the Selati lions again. This time the light was better for our photographs and although they seemed somewhat subdued like they had just woken up they were happy to pose for us.

Our next sighting was another leopard. This time on its own, waiting by a termite mound for something to kill. Unfortunately for both of us, no warthogs appeared, but we did see a hyena wander past and for a moment we thought we might see some action.

We moved on and headed for an area to stop for a morning drink. Once again Eric pulls all the stops out with his special coffee, hot chocolate, Amarula and muffins to keep us going.

The next encounter was with a white rhino. These are impressive beasts up close and luckily we found this one in a fairly open area.

We were nearly back at Leopard Hills when we stumbled upon this elephant strolling along on his own. Only our second drive and we were up to four out of the big five already. Just the buffalo left to see.

After a great breakfast back at the lodge we decided to try out the spa facilities, both enjoying excellent massages. Time flies at Leopard Hills and despite the great suites, you don’t have hours to spend enjoying the deck and the views so it wasn’t long before we were back in the main building enjoying lunch overlooking the watering hole. The timing was perfect as an elephant came down to bathe and keep us entertained.

Later that afternoon we headed out for the evening drive, this time there were six of us as we were joined by a German couple. Anyone that has been on a safari will know that the impala is not the hardest animal to find, but they often run off before you can grab a good shot of them.

Our first big sighting was a large herd of elephants, including a number of young calves. We watched these guys for a while and had a close encounter as we left when one of the mothers got over protective.

That evening we enjoyed the Boma dinner outside around the fire with the soundtrack of bellowing lions nearby. Once again the staff were all superb and friendly and the food and drink excellent.

Day 3

A few drinks and a slightly later night had, but when 5:30am came again we couldn’t wait to get out there. Our first experience was a fast chase through the trees after some wild dogs, too fast for photos, but we caught up with them again and one stood still long enough for a snap.

Next was one of my favourite sightings, a rhino with a young calf. At first they were concealed by the trees, but we were in for a treat as they crossed the track right in front of us.

Our next encounter was the closest we got to witnessing a kill. Vultures, a hyena and a leopard with the remains of an impala up a tree.

Elephants graced us again as we were returning to the lodge, a large herd chomping away on the trees by the site of the road, including this young calf.

On the evening drive we all decided to head for a pride of lions that had been seen in the north. I think this was our favourite experience of our time at Leopard Hills. We drove along a dried up sandy river bed and eventually got to the pride of lions, consisting of three females and six cubs.

The females headed off just as we arrived, as they went to find something to kill for dinner. The cubs played around right in front of us as the sun came down.

One of my favourite photos was when this cub sat on his own on this rock.

Hugo did a great job of positioning the Land Rover, which included some handy off road driving skills and some excitable swearing from the female passengers, but we all managed to stay in the vehicle!

Eric came good on his Big File promise and found us our buffalo, a herd of about twenty, including these two butting heads.

We stopped again for sundowners and as we sipped on our gin and tonics Eric told us stories of being charged by buffalo.

Day 4

Our last morning started the same as the two before it with a spectacular orange sky and the expectation of another drive.

We spent some time tracking a leopard and also some drag marks left by hyenas and their kill.

We actually left Eric for about twenty minutes while he tracked on foot, and thankfully found him again unharmed. We then worked our way towards the hyena’s den.

We found two adults with two excitable puppies, happy to perform for us.

Our final experience was to get out of the Land Rover and track a giraffe on foot through the trees. Hugo told us not to run if something came towards us, but my wife said she couldn’t make any promises. Unfortunately the giraffe was quite skittish and kept running away as we got close.

We arrived back at Leopard Hills for the final time, sad it was over, but still on a high from all we had seen and done. Hugo and Eric were fantastic, knowledgable and entertaining, and the service from all the staff back at base was exceptional and they made us feel like old friends. I’m sure most people leave Leopard Hills wanting to go back and we were no different in that regard and we cannot wait to get that chance.

A big thank you to all at Leopard Hills.

August has yet again been another astonishing month for sightings. It seems with the August winds comes an early Spring, as the heat is already upon us.

The Ximhungwe pride only spent about a week in the South. During that time they made two Zebra kills, one of which was close to the Hyena den site, and were soon chased off that kill by the clan. For the rest of the month they were seen high up in the north, hanging around in the riverbeds.

The Othawas, especially the cubs have been providing us with amazing sightings. All of them are doing extremely well. On one occasion a Selati Male even babysat the cubs while the Females went hunting. With the Females making quite a lot of kills, the cubs are getting some good experience with opening up of the carcasses. The cubs are getting bigger each day.

The four Selati brothers were seen all over the West this month. On one occasion they had killed a Buffalo close to the Sand River. They however did not spend too much time together. A couple of them were also seen mating with one of the Othawa Females.

The beautiful Dayone male, being dominant in the greater part of our traversing area, always gives us awesome sightings for the fact that he is almost always up and doing something. We had him hunting in front of the vehicle and also doing his normal territorial marking as he walks along the roads. He was also quite the ladies’ man over the last couple of weeks as we saw him mating first with Metsi then Hlaba Nkunzi and then the Dam3 Female.

Kashane spent most of his time in the East, and was only seen a couple of times in the West. He is bearing a scar on his face, which is probably from a fight with another Male Leopard.

The Tai Dam Male was seen a few times up North of the River. He is looking good and filling out nicely to become a big Male and definitely a huge force to be reckoned with for other Male Leopards in the North.

The Ravenscourt Youngster was seen a few times deep into the Western Sector. After losing his mother a few months ago he is coping on his own and in good condition. He had a bit of interaction with one of the Selati males, and was seen up in a tree one morning with the Selati Male still under the tree where he found refuge. In true fashion of his mother’s behaviour he is very relaxed, and let’s hope he finds a spot to establish a territory in our traversing area.

Nyeleti wasn’t seen spending too much time in the Western Sector this month.

The beautiful Thlangisa, one of Mambiri’s cubs, use to reside in the area around Camp, but after getting pressure from her sister Metsi and the Dam 3 Female, she pushed North of the River into an unclaimed area. This is unfortunately not the best area for us to always find her, but when we find this relaxed girl it is always a treat as she is living up to her name, that means “The Playful One”. She is also heavily pregnant at this stage, so in the near future we might see some small spotted creatures in the North.

The Dam 3 Female is one of our less relaxed Leopards in the area, but over the last couple of years she has relaxed enough so that we can get a decent glimpse of her, and this month we had a rare sight of her drinking water in a rock pool right next to the vehicle, giving us chance to even observe that she is lactating.

Metsi being her usual elusive self only showed herself to us a few times this month, one of the times being when she was mating with Dayone. We have had glimpses of her cub that is doing just fine, but sadly a bit shy due to the fact that she has not had too much exposure to our vehicles.

Hlaba Nkunzi gave us amazing viewing time of her and the cub as per usual, but she stunned us by leaving her Eleven month old cub alone for almost a week to mate with the Dayone. Fortunately she then returned to the cub that was patiently waiting on her mom’s return.

We are in the very fortunate position that for the last month, the Wild Dogs were almost seen on a daily basis due to the fact that this is the denning season for them, and they have chosen a safe den site in means of an old abandoned termite mound witch the Alpha Female chose and then excavated to be a fitting home for the puppies. We have up until now seen Seven pups out of the den. The Female can have between 1 and 15 pups in a litter.

We have had some amazing sightings of the Hyenas with great interaction between them, Lion and Leopard, showing us how good they are at manipulating a situation to benefit out of it by usually running away with a prized piece of meat. The den site is also still active and is giving us good viewing of the different aged cubs being bold enough to come and play right next to the vehicle.