The Solitary Cat of the Desert

Only people who have spent time with the elusive spotted cat, the leopard, know that any encounter is so emotionally powerful you are physically rocked by the pull on your heartstrings!

During our last trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park we had to privilege to spot the same leopard on more than one occasion - come on, let’s go!

Any safari goer knows that when there is a bunch of cars ahead it is a good sign, so when we arrived at Kij Kij waterhole surrounded by other vehicles the excitement was palpable. We excitedly searched the area expecting to spot lions as we had seen a pride there earlier in our trip but after a few minutes we spotted NOTHING! Confused, we decided to look in the same direction as their binoculars and cameras, and that is when we saw a small dot on the top of a distant dune.

More cars started to arrive so I made the decision to leave the waterhole and head further up the road that would technically take me closer to the dune, as I felt that whatever the animal was it was unlikely to come down to drink with all the commotion.

I parked opposite the dune and lifted my 500mm lens to try and identify the animal and as soon as it focussed I excitedly shouted leopard to my wife! It was active and was slowly making it’s way down the dune so I quickly decided to go and tell our friends who were still at the waterhole. I assume I managed to stay calm as when I arrived and rolled down my window and whispered “leopard” to my friends they just stared at me with unbelieving eyes.

I told them not to show any excitement and to just pull off casually so as not to attract the attention of all the other cars. I waited a full minute before following suit. Over the next 15 minutes the leopard slowly made it’s way down the dune - we had positioned our cars perfectly with windows down and trigger fingers on the shutter button of our cameras.

I was so lost in the moment that I found myself whispering out loud - something to the tune of “just a little more my spotted beauty”!

It was a young male and over the next 5 minutes he granted us numerous photo opportunities as he walked parallel to our car before crossing over the road - I managed to capture this moment forever!

A few days later we were heading down South from Nossob toward Twee Riveren when we once again spotted a few cars in the same general area. We were still on a high after seeing 3 spotted hyenas close to Melkvlei picnic spot when we stopped and asked a gentleman what had been spotted. He excitedly confirmed that there was a leopard in the area - we could not believe our luck!

It was the same young male leopard who was sleeping next to the road - I told my wife that he would move soon as the shade was disappearing, so we switched off and waited. I could not believe my prediction had come true as the leopard got up and moved into the shade of a nearby tree - I wish my other predictions, like the winning lotto numbers, would come true as easily!

We are very conscious around viewing time at sightings so we left to give other cars an opportunity to capture their own shot of a lifetime!

Our next trip is around the corner so stay tuned!

Till next time…