From Helen (Ms Understood)& Jerry, Jan and Fred, and Linda and Ron - at Leopard Hills Lodge, Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sorry we haven't posted as we are having too much fun and seeing so many things.

Tintswalo was our first stop and Fritz and Simon our Ranger/Tracker team. The first afternoon after we arrived we found a mother leopard and two cubs walking through tall grasses. Since they can go off road here, we followed them for at least 30 minutes and saw the mother leopard kill a small bird and give it to one of the cubs. Lions are hard to find at Tintswalo as the only pride in the area is composed of 6 male lions who have banded together and have run all the other prides away. We did finally see two of them with a female the last day. At Tintswalo we saw lots of herd animals, i.e. cape buffalo (we saw two large herds that they got us right into the middle of as they went around us), wildebeasts, zebras (which are now called Quaco (sp?) because they are really a breed thought to be extinct), impallas, water bucks, nyalas, bushbucks, and of course elephants. We were the only people there and we had our own private lodge! We enjoyed the people, the food, and the game.

We are now at Leopard Hills and the sightings have been amazing. First afternoon - THE DOGS - we arrived in late afternoon at the den in an old aardvark next with several adult dogs just laying around. Some other adults came back and got the pups out of the den. There are eight 7-month old pups and we got to see a lot of interaction between the pups and the adults and the pups and pups. Then we went to a dry river bed where it was reported a pride of lions were eating on a buffalo. Poor buffalo had been maimed by a honey badger, gotten sick and finally been killed by the rangers. They left the buffalo in the river bed where the lions had been eating on it for 4 days (it smelled rank, at best). While we were watching, it became quite dark and our tracker saw some eyes coming down the bank and thought we might have a hyenea - but NO, IT WAS A VERY LARGE CROCKODILE!!!

Two of the younger lionesses decided to check it out. One got close to the tail and the Crock took exception to its curosity, opened its mouth and gave a loud hiss. The lion jumped back and thought again about this new intruder. But she didn't give up...she came back and gave the crock a swat in the face, like a cat would do to a mouse. The Crock didn't like that but only opened his mouth and hissed again and the lion decided that was enough. Raymond, our ranger, was so excited but we were not in a place where his radio worked and so he couldn't tell anyone until we got out of the river bed. He says this was a special event!! Linda got video of both encounters and hopefully they will be posted soon on the Leopard Hills blog.

We have seen several leopards, we saw an entire pride of lions, three females, two cubs and one mail, with their early morning kill. Raymond was so happy to find it since we spent time last evening trying to fine one of the mothers and clubs. We were first to the site and it was great. We got to see some interaction between the large male, i.e. he wouldn't let the female eat and as we approached the female jumped out of the brush and scared Jan badly. Linda assured her it was about the food, not us!

We have also since Rhino, giraffes, antelope, nyalas, water buck, but not as many as at Tintswalo. They tell us there are so many cats, ie lions and leopards, that the large animals have been killed or have moved out.

They had a fire here right before we came and Unit 1 burned to the ground, but they were able to contain the fire to only that unit. Jan and Fred were supposed to be in that unit, so now they are in a tent...just joking!

We all really love this place and we are getting ready to go on the afternoon drive now!