On to the Safari:

After gathering in Johannesburg and taking the quick trip to Federal Air, LEOPARDS stuffed two Caravans to the gills. Some were spotting large game from the windows; others were snoozing or passing the time on our way to Chitwa Chitwa. The camp mascot is the giraffe; the camp name itself is in honor of a longtime resident bull giraffe. Every time he passed, a sound best described as "Chitwa Chitwa" eminated from those creaky knee joints.

Our game drive staff and luggage folks whisked us away to our new home away from home. Chitwa Chitwa is remarkable for a unique mix of individual room decor. Shade management is better here than any other camp I've visited. Public areas offer ample shade, and a huge lake supports hippos, yellow billed storks, African fish eagles, crocodiles, African spoonbill storks, Egyptian geese, water buck, nyala, yellow and red hornbills and a few itinerant species (more on this later). The outside dining area is completely shaded with thatch roofing as breezes flow through the space. The deck space is beautiful, spacious and our camera pros photographed the latest and greatest developments along the banks of "Lake Chitwa Chitwa" - where the men are beautiful, the women are strong and the animal action is above average.

We settled in for lunch as Ngaire and Ken took photos of each room, followed by un-"pack and play" of safari life. Tristan, Reckson, Hali (pronouned Harley) and Surprise led us on game drives, and what a store of surprises they had for us. Open seating was the order of the camp, and we all enjoyed getting to know each ranger. Day one's highlights ranged from the large (breeding herds of elephants, a lone rhino who posed perfectly for our photos) to the uniquely small (a pearl spotted owlet). All well and good, but we need some Big Ranger Action. Crackle .. Shagan language .. crackle .. "Copy" and off we speed. Hmmm ... Lion? Leopard? We knew something really good was nearby. It turned out to be a giant sundowner fest. Everyone could compare notes .. some seeing one type of animal, others picking up on something else .. and enjoying the opportunity to be sharing friendship, drinks and snacks as the sun settled in for the night. The stars gradually took over the night sky as we returned to camp.

We had made a solemn pact .. no going back to your rooms or changing clothes for dinner. We hoofed it straight to the bar and swapped stories until the tom-tom drum announced our dinner. Table for 22, please! It was great fun.

Safari on Steriods

The next morning, we straggled in for a quick coffee and compared notes on our first night in the bush, fueled by Big Game wishes and Malarone dreams. Note: check a watch FIRST when one thinks one has heard the ranger knock on the door to ascertain it's not a Malarone fueled moment. If it's not 5 am, it's not time to get up. The day's game drive was taken up with finding 2 .. count 'em 2 .. leopards who were playing the mating game. Theres nothing serene or sweet about this behavior. The female harasses the male with side swipes and the occasional smack in the face until either he mates or smacks her back. Mating definitely involves growls and bites on the neck. The path to these leopards was fraught with trees, grasses and hang on to your roll bar moments. The sighting was well worth it .. and we wish all the best for the happy couple when the stork arrives with leopard cubs.

After a return to camp and breakfast and/or lunch, we returned to our game drives. The leopards had moved a short distance, and everyone got to see the leopards who had missed them in the morning. More mating leopards! WOO HOO! Dinner was our boma night .. certainly the best I've experienced in Africa. All of us wore a native African cloth over our clothes, and the setting was simply magical.

On our second day, we observed more terrific wild life sightings. No lion, but all the rest of the big five were ticked on our species checklists. The afternoon drive featured nursing young elephants near the water hole, elephants splashing in the water hole, a gorgeous male leopard surveying the hunting terrain on a termite mound .. incredible! We found another rhino and then moved on towards the camp to end the day. Surprise got a real surprise .. saying "but we're HERE" on the radio and quickly reversed course. We got the last slot on a CHEETAH sighting at sunset. Four .. count 'em four .. cheetahs had arrived. They moved onto territory without traversing rights, but not before 2 of our four vehicles had enjoyed a quick sighting.

Next morning, we were off on a cheetah hunt. They kindly crossed back on Chitwa Chitwa property and took their time to scope the landscape for prey from the top of termite mound. Hmm .. possible breakfast prey were in their sights. They took off down the hill with us in pursuit. Sure enough, they landed an impala.

It's one thing to want to be there for a kill .. it's altogether another thing to have it happen. Three of the cheetahs aggressively started at the rear of the impala and worked their way forward. Unfortunately, the suffocation throat hold had only stunned the impala. It passed away fairly quickly thereafter, but not before a gruesome few moments and a lot of gruesome noise. We left the sighting and headed off to heed the call of another set of leopards mating. Along the way, a few other camp vehicles passed by on their way to the cheetah kill.

This second sighting was in a much clearer location. The female wasted no time smacking the male across the face to get busy and attend to her needs. He snarled, mated and shook off the whole process by taking a short walk before falling over in a heap. This scene repeated a few more times before we left for coffee and muffins.

Half of the group left on the morning flight to King's Camp, while the other half had lunch at Chitwa Chitwa before heading out to the airstrip.

Welcome to Beautiful Downtown Timbavati

We were all reassembled at King's Camp by the 3:30 evening game drive.

Patrick and tracker Albert were on the hunt for less than 20 minutes when we came across the two new lion bossmen in the Timbavati. The bigger of the two tips the scales at 261 Kg (about 572 lbs)! Albert had helped with a research effort (one of the two had a radio collar that was getting much too tight as he grew; it needed to be loosened for his safety). The paw of the larger lion was as large as Albert's face. Ahem .. pay your respects as there are new sheriffs in town, lionesses.

After that amazing sighting, we enjoyed a large elephant herd and a very rare sighting of a baboon spider (that's a taratula for the US audience) before a lovely dinner.

The next day, we rolled up to another incredible safari moment: leopardess Tumbela had nailed an impala overnight, dragged it up a tree and was chomping away whilst two hyenas patiently circled for scraps underneath her feeding. The lighting was decent and many good pictures are going home with the LEOPARD guests. We also came across the southern ground hornbill .. an endangered bird who we saw on the wing before they disappeared into long grass. All in all, another wonderful day drive on safari.

Our company is starting to lose enthusiasm for the 'eat or go hungry' mentality of the bush. Lunch attendance is slowly declining as more of us hit the 'food coma' wall after breakfast.

This afternoon we found Tumbela, who had also hit the 'food coma' wall panting in the grass and doing her best to lift her head to look at the incoming range rovers. She gave it up and flopped over for a well deserved digestion session in the waning light of day. The hyena den after Mom returned to very young cubs and a couple of older ones who are about 9 months of age was our final sighting of the day. It was a fascinating sighting. We went on a rhino trek to no avail, but others spotted the rhino. I hope that's on our agenda for tomorrow.

Pleasure, No. 7