Out on a leopard adventure with Ian and Ben

Its a typical autumn Saturday morning with clear blue skies and myriads of colours as we travelled north through the spectacular Waterberg bushveldt region. Ian Appleyard, a financial manager with Credit Suisse Investment Bank, London, flew out from Heathrow on Friday night - with his son, Ben, for an inspection visit to LL. They picked me up just outside Pretoria and we chatted up a storm like old friends from vastly different worlds, but with the "bush virus" as a common driver, creating excitement and anticipation as we crossed the Zanzibar border 4 hours later.

Once again Zanzibar did its reputation justice as the most quiet and friendliest border post in the world and as we crossed through the Limpopo, with the running water tugging at the wheels over the low bridge, releasing us onto the first island in no-mans-land between SA and Botswana, you could sense the bush adventure adrenaline pumping in Ian and Ben's veins.

The Botswana border side, which is not computerised took slightly longer as we completed the necessary forms and paid the "tourist levies" of road and groceries tax. Ten minutes later Lipadi hill welcomed us on the largest privately owned conservation reserve in Botswana. Congo waited next to the main road to meet us with the Cruiser and guided us through the acacia veldt down to River Camp, where Boima and the ladies received us in true LL hospitality style.

As usual the view over the river cascading down in front of Lodge Sehudi was simply breathtaking and we had to just stare for a while and let it sink in - we are at "Lipadi" (my mother's home). Soon the afternoon Botswana sun, dancing on our faces, reminded us of the Land Cruiser waiting and we grabbed a good dose of biltong, beer and water to hit the road with Petros.

What a character - this Petros. With many years of experience up in Chobe, Petros is simply a walking encyclopedia of bush knowledge and as we headed towards Lipadi hill, he filled us in on the latest activity and sightings on the Reserve. Of course forever stopping at an interesting bush, bird or rutting impala ram to share his knowledge freely, much to the delight of Ben who is like a sponge soaking it all up.

I won't dare to describe the view from Lipadi hill. Only those of you who have been there will understand what I am talking about. Suffice to say this is the place where you find peace and if it was not for the sudden drop of the African sun, we would have still been there.

So back at Sehudi lodge the campfire was already inviting us to its cosy atmosphere under the bright Milky Way. Nancy did her magic with the salad and I waxed up a pasta/beef potjie in no time, which went down smoothly with a bottle of red wine. The travel lag hit Ian and Ben soon afterwards and we reclined to our dens of luxury.

It was a family of warthog that first greeted Ian and myself on our early morning jog along the river bank. A few bushbuck, waterbuck and impalas later, Ian agreed that trail running at LL spoils you for those boring city runs back home. That morning we set out to explore the river in more detail. We heard the elusive hippos who kept hiding behind the islands, enjoyed a variety of bird life, notably the White Backed Vultures surfing the thermal currents and the stately Goliath heron fishing at the weir.

But it was the 3pm afternoon drive that presented a theater of wildlife adventures we never anticipated. As we left camp towards Charly's lodge, we noted two bushbuck on the opposite island near the water - then a movement - a log - in the river - a croc - grab the binocs - a 4 meter crocodile making its way towards the bushbuck - they drew back - probably just in time - the monster passed!

We made our way through the mopanie veldt past Mbusi, inspected the Wilderness tented camp, sighting most of the antelope species, kudu, wildebeest, impala, zebra, a few red hartbeest.

But it was on the road heading north to the plains that we saw the catlike figure in the distance - Petros excitingly pointing out the leopard! A young female which curiously eyed us from about 4 meters away behind some mopanies as we came closer. She moved away a bit and we tried to follow her with our eyes as dusk started settling over the veldt. We lost her for a moment, moved forward and then spotted her again - further away - or was it - no it was another leopard! This time a young male. Then we noticed both of them simultaneously - what a sighting! My first leopard sighting at LL in 4 years!

Some 30 minutes later we crossed the plains and played hide and seek with one of the young aardwolf puppies, now fully grown. Soon we saw another one running off in the distance. As we left this amazing scene towards Kirkia camp in the Wild Seringa forest, we were surprised by a huge puff-adder, crossing the road, slowly moving towards what should have already been its warm burrow for the coming winter's hibernation.

By now we were joking with Ben that he is the luckiest 13 year old boy in the whole of Britain and wondered what he would conjure up next. That night, while having a "braai" with some juicy steaks, we felt content with another hard, but good day in Africa!

Monday was wild dog day and Israel proudly introduced us to the wild dog puppies (now fully grown at 11 months) at the boma. They were as energetic as always and Israel pointed out the male with the light coat as the one emerging as the leader now. The plan is to have them uniting with an alpha male and female by August.

We had one more surprise before we hit the road back to civilisation. We met Koos next to the road and he told us that they have spotted elephant near Island lodge in the southwestern corner. We made our way there quickly and soon found ourselves surrounded by a herd of about 50 elephant on the river bank!

Ian and Ben, thanks for a great week-end and welcome on board with the LL family! May you enjoy many more of these authentic African experiences with Beth and the rest of the family on our farm in Africa!

Jacques
June 2009