On one such disappearing tail act, having not seen the tail as the rest of my family had, I was mocked mercilessly. Upon becoming upset my family created the much said, "Leopard, Leopard, Leopard" saying to epitomize occassions where I missed out on something important. This missing the leopard tail has haunted me to this day!
For readers doubting the taunting ability of my family, do not contact them in order to hear their side of the story. There is none and they will in fact life about any such happenings. To them and this memory I dedicate this blog.
Every day before heading off on our afternoon jaunts we check the masts at both Dibatana Camp and Dog Camp to check if any of the collared predators are around. We picked up Chellak, a male leopard, a short distance from Dog camp. Rio (Dibatana guide) and I sent off in the direction of the strongest beep. Eventually the beep goes directly off into the bush at a 90 degree angle from the road. From here we start bush waking. About 15m into the bush Rio stops the Land Cruiser, which I am perched on top of. He asks me what I see. I start scanning every tree and bush around us but see nothing. See if you can spot what Rio saw in the following photo...
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| Spotttt the.... |
How did you do? Sprawled out among the leaves of the small branch is none other than Chellak. He gazes at us for a few moments before returning to his afternoon snooze. His recently filled belly hangs off the side of the branch. Rio and I get comfortable on top of the Land Cruiser to watch this beautiful specimen nap. Before long two vehicles from the community run Tented Camp located on the same concession spot us and come over to find out what is capturing out avid attention. The American tourists become overly excited once seeing what we have seen and start clicking wildly with their cameras. Chellak decides he isnt showing his good side and decends to a lower branch lying in the afternoon sun. The following shots ensue...
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| Life is tough for Chellak. |
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| Does the light bring out the colour in my eyes? |
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| Cleaning up after what was obviously a large meal... |
Surely the family that is in question gets a chance to tell the TRUE story of 'Leopard' 'Leopard' Leopard'?
ReplyDeleteIt goes something like this:
On one of our annual family holidays to Kruger, the 'kids' decide that we would be 'wasting our time' going for yet ANOTHER afternoon drive on such a hot day! They would rather stay behind and swim in the cool inviting pool at the Berg-en-dal camp. But they encouraged us to beetle off and waste our time, if thats what we wanted...mock, mock!
So we did go off and left the dear children to their swim, in the cool inviting camp pool.
We had a delightful afternoon's drive, seeiing all sorts of reasonably common game (we enjoyed seeing any game - big or small). As usual we left our return trip a bit late and as the sun was going down, not far from the camp, we saw this amazing sight. A beautiful dark male leopard dropped from the branches of a tree onto the road.. right there in front of us!! Wow, what a sight. We quickly stopped and switched off the engine so as not to scare him away. He was fairly nervous of us (who wouldn't be) and moved off the road into the grass on the verge, peeping at us through the grass. We enjoyed the most wonderful few minutes with this creature, with no other tourists in sight. He eventually ambled off into the thick bush when he realised we were not a threat.
So... off we trundled back to camp, a little late I might add.
The 'kids' wanted to know why we were so late? Where upon we both chorused "Leopard, Leoplard, Leopard!"
Needless to say, when they realised we were not joking,they were so, so fed up with us for seeing a leopard which was high up on our wish-list.
We continued to taunt them for the rest of the holiday. Contantly saying the 'L' word - just to make our point (as parents do).
So that is the true story.
Now you know why Robyn calls this article what she does. Its pay back time in a BIG way.
Im sure it started way before that...that was from our last trip to Kruger!! That saying started when I was still little. See I knew the true story wouldnt me told.
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