"Did you see the leopard, Mike?" Eddie is looking at me and smiling. At first I am confused.
"You mean in Savuti? Yes, yes, of course I saw it. " I say.
"This morning. " He smiles even more broadly. "Did you see the leopard this morning?"
Now I understand. Eddie is givng me shit. We are sipping coffee under a rain tree, next to an enormous 12 foot termite mound that looks like a sandcastle on steroids. It is our 9:00 coffee break on the morning drive.The heat is just starting to build. We have been rolling in The Beast since 5:30 AM. Again I have been talking myself down for this drive. We have had more than our share of extraordinary sightings. As we drove along the river, I had settled into enjoying the scenery, the birds, and watery vistas with grazers like red lechwe and waterbuck. And I just may have nodded off. This is not an easy trick in a converted troop carrier, with no shocks, on a two rut road. Yes, I may have nodded off for a just a minute or two, and now Eddie wants to know if I saw the leopard. I explain to him that I was not sleeping, but simply listening intently. Eddie is enjoying himself immensely. He prefers to be called Edward, but all the other guides call him Eddie. I think I will call him Eddie today.
We climb back in The Beast and soon encounter a Drifters Safari truck. Ed converses briefly with their guide. "What have you seen Eddie, in the big bad bush?"
"Very quiet." Eddie replies. "What have you seen?"
"Nothing, we have had a vey relaxing drive."
We proceed up the same road that Drifters truck had just left, probably less than 1/4 km, when Cathy spots an African wildcat. He is in a hurry to leave the area, and we soon understand why. "Leopard." Edward whispers. We all scramble to see where he is looking. There. Sitting up, in front of the dead tree. About 150 yards. I barely have time to screw on the telephoto extender and get him focused before he slinks into the underbrush and disappears.
That afternoon, under a wet towel, I work on the journal. In the heat the Toshiba is giving me less than 70 minutes on a full charge. And charges are now two days apart. I am learning to write quickly. I finish The Green Hills of Africa and start on The Snows of Kilamanjaro.
On the afternoon drive we encounter a pride of lions. Three lionesses. Two juvenile males. One old lioness that can barely keep up with the others. Edward thinks that she is their mother, and does not have long to live. They are sleeping and drinking by the bank of the river.
They have a kill in the tall grass nearby, and two of the lions move throught the grass to finish it. We cannot identify what it was. We spend until sunset watching, taping, and photographing their behavior. We were the second on the scene. Before we leave there are six trucks in the immediate area.
Two Views of the Same Scene
At sunset the lions start to move along the road and follow an elephant for a few minutes. The elephant notices, and the lions change direction.
Return to Journal
Index by date or
turn the page for the =========>
Index by date 
