Zambia - The quest for the Leopard

Day 2

After a much needed sleep, it was up again at 05:30 for coffee, on the road by 06:00. As we neared the park I asked Willy if he could find us lions, with cubs and a kill. I didn't want much. Willy took it in his stride and off we went. It soon became obvious that Willy was actually tracking a lion. We could see the tracks in the sand as he went this way and that, back and forth following the trail. At one point I was convinced that I had seen a leopard hiding in a tree and screamed "Stop", but I wouldn't tell anyone why. It was only after looking through the binoculars that I could see the "head" was actually part of the branch and the "legs" were nothing more than plant life. Suitably embarrassed, we drove on.

About an hour later we stopped to look at some grazing buffalo. I'm happily snapping away, when Willy spots a zebra lying on its side under a bush. Lion kill perhaps? As we got closer, Willy spotted the lion. A magnificent male sitting about twenty feet away from his kill. We edged closer, my heart pounding. It's a good job my lens is image stabilized, that's for sure. Man we were close. He was huge. It's amazing how big a lion looks when there isn't a fence between you and him. With only a few feet separating us I was concerned that the noise of my cameras would upset him. If he got upset, I'm sure he could have covered the distance between us quicker than Willy could have started the car. But Willy had read the situation and had never put us in danger. He knew the lion had spent most of the night feeding and was now just lazing around out of the sun. Willy took us around the other side of the bush the zebra was under. That's when we saw the damage. Suffice to say there wasn't much left of the stomach. Willy had found me a lion with a kill, what a star.

As we drove away Willy said "Next". Well there was only one thing that was ever going to top that, a leopard. We drove around some more, saw lots of game but no leopard. He was going to be difficult to spot during the day.

After brunch it was time to transfer to the first of my bush camps. There are four of them, Luwi, Nsolo, Mchenja, and Kakuli. All are located within different areas of the park itself. We were being driven to Luwi, but would walk between the others. Keith and Barbara were still with me and we endured a couple of hours of hot sun, tsetse flies and bumpy roads. On arrival at Luwi, we were greeted by Greta, the camp hostess and the staff. Cold, wet towels and colder drinks were waiting for us and it was very welcomed. A chance to relax and freshen up before our first walk in the bush.

Walking gives you a completely different view of the park. I certainly felt out of place, like I didn't belong. This was animal country, and I was in their territory. It is very difficult to see game on foot, they can sense your arrival and will disappear long before you get there. Even elephants and giraffe and very difficult to see at a distance. When walking you are accompanied by a guide and an armed scout. At Luwi, Aubrey was the guide and Isaac was the scout. Isaac had been working in the park for nearly fifty years and was very knowledgeable. I was to meet his son, also called Isaac, at the next camp a couple of days later. Aubrey was fantastic. He never stopped talking. Telling us about everything that he saw. Identifying tracks and droppings, bird calls, trees, plants, even knowing what animal had been grazing on a particular tree by the way in which the tree had been devoured. I have discovered that elephants are messy eaters, ripping huge branches off of the tree and throwing them around when they have eaten all the leaves.

It had been a long day, so the walk was short. We had to be back before sunset anyway, you can't walk in the dark.

My first night sleeping in the bush is an experience I will never forget. I wasn't scared exactly, but I was very nervous. Everything sounds so much louder at night. The hippos had come up from the lagoon to graze and were making a hell of a row. Elephants were plodding around camp as well. I heard a lot of crashing noises coming from the kitchen area. I later found out that a hyena had paid us a visit. It's amazing how quickly you get used to it, as you will discover later.