Tip of a tail - by Jules Shenton
Hello all,
Much excitement that evening. Before the guests left on the afternoon drive, the baboons were moving into the trees above the chalets. Hmmm… We remembered what had happened last time they were there. Henry was clapping, whistling and shouting to try to get them to move out.
I saw the guests off and walked back to the chitenje. Henry was down on the lawn doing his baboon chasing routine when we heard the baboons screaming. The vehicle had just left camp heading towards Lion Plain, when about 50 meters down the road, a leopard had ambushed the baboons and killed one right in front of the vehicle, then dragged it up into a tree.
A game drive that was spent about 50 meters from camp, as the guests decided to stay with the leopard till the end, and then drove back in. Total drive distance: 100 meters.
On another night, I was waiting outside the kitchen for our guests to return from their game drive, with all the torches ready to be handed out.
It was really dark that night. I saw the vehicle’s lights in the near distance; I switched some of the torches on. This apparently deterred this leopard that was just about to walk through the camp. As the vehicle turned into the driveway, its headlights lit up the leopard walking across the path, and now heading towards my chalet.
It was beautiful to see it silhouetted against the lights.
Till later,
Debbie
