Each game drive is different and there are some that can blow your mind. At Kapama these game drives are frequent. There is one however, that stands out. It started out like any ordinary afternoon drive with goal of finding the elusive leopard. We had a starting point; fresh tracks we found in the morning looked very promising. The tracks were roughly 20 minutes from camp so we didn’t have too much time to waste. We made a bee line straight for the tracks. We were only 15 minutes from camp when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye I slowed down to take a second look. It took a moment to register that I was looking at female leopard 20 meters off road. She was heading into the bush. We followed her off road as she casually meandered through the bush. She noticed something in the distance, a breading herd of impala she went into stalking mode and slowly nudged her way forward, everything was in her favour. She stopped and went ‘flat cat’ and waited for the impala to come to her. It took about half an hour for the oblivious impala to be two meters from her, and everyone thought “this is it” and I still go to bed and wonder why she didn’t take down an impala its just one of those things you can’t explain, but an awesome thing to witness. The impala didn’t even know she was there, after the impala had passed she got up and moved off with us still holding our breaths!

By: Rob – River Lodge Ranger