UNBELIEVABLE!! This afternoon’s game drive at Djuma was beyond belief. We met our ranger, Graham, who reminded Gail and me of Crocodile Dundee. He had that weathered, outdoor look and a somewhat twisted sense of humor that was quite appealing. It began somewhat slowly. Early on, we saw warthogs, which Graham called “oinkers.” We also saw an “active” hyena den, but there was no activity at the time.

Then we went in search of an elusive leopard and her cubs (who are several months old) and two lions, which we never saw. However we did see more Cape buffalo and zebra. Of course, we saw impala. When it became clear that we weren’t going to find the leopard or the lions, Graham took us to see a pride of 9 lions—4 adults and 5 youngsters. The cubs were romping around and the mothers and grandmother were slowly getting more active.

When they went into the bush, Graham tried to figure where they’d come out of the higher foliage, and we started driving around. As we were driving, we spotted a leopard in a tree—that’s right Ron and Linda and Richard and Lori—a leopard in a tree, and that was just the beginning. Just before another group came to see the leopard, she came down from the tree and also went into the higher bush.

So Graham went back to tracking the pride of lions. We came across one of the adults, and another group started following her. But Graham stopped to listen and heard the rest of the group in the distance and followed the sound.

We went off-road toward the sounds and came across one of the most spectacular sights imaginable. One of the lions had a kill up in a tree and was feeding on it. First of all, lions don’t normally go up in trees and clearly it was a stolen kill of a leopard’s. Moments later it turned out that the leopard was actually still in the tree and “trapped” higher up on a branch. And, the rest of the pride was at the base of the tree waiting for something to happen. (Graham assured us that lions all knew the leopard was up there and the leopard surely knew where all the lions were, including the one eating his kill.)

This scene continued and we watched it mesmerized. The lion is munching on the impala—not much of it was left—balanced on a tree branch and it looked like any moment she would either drop the leftovers and the lions down below would have a food fight, or she would lose her balance and fall out of the tree with the remains of the kill.

Meanwhile, the leopard was higher up and at one point essentially standing with his rear paws on one branch and his front paws on a higher branch, and he held this position for about 30 minutes! At the same time, the both the adult lions and the cubs would periodically try to join the first lion up the tree, but each time they would quickly give up the climb.

Finally, after much maneuvering, the lion brought down the remaining head portion of the kill, including the horns—sorry for the somewhat gruesome detail but that’s life in the bush—and went to chomp on it some more, and it was clear that none of the other lions would interfere with her. There were some remains of the impala hanging from the tree, but we didn’t see any cat try to go after them. The leopard meanwhile was able to relax somewhat and perch more comfortably on a branch.

And that’s where we left things. Two leopard in two trees in the span of 30 minutes with the second one accompanied by a lion eating the leopard’s kill while trapping the leopard. All the action had commentary by Graham with great stories and obvious affection for the animals.

What a beginning! Ken just gave me a quick lesson on how he posts pictures, and he actually posted the pictures below. The first leopard is the one we saw in the tree by itself. The others are from the crazy scene with the leopard, lion, and the impala kill. They are all Ken's photos as my night phots are not nearly as good. Enjoy.