The way of the bush

 As a guide, it is basically your job to make peoples hopes and dreams come true. When international clients stay at a game lodge they have some high expectations of both what animals they would like to see and of their great and knowledgeable guide that will lead them on this adventure into the African wilderness.

So over the past few days mother nature has had different plans and drives have been a bit quiet, with us having only a handful of good sightings, namely a couple of elephants, some giraffe and zebra and last night i managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat and spot a snake in a tree in complete darkness surprising not only the guests but myself too. This however wasn't enough to distract us from the fact that we needed to see some cats...

A large giraffe bull crosses an open area at a waterhole.

The snake last night, a male boomslang

The big cats are iconic in Africa and a must on all the guests wishlists and I have to admit I was feeling the pressure. This morning was the guests last drive with us and after 2 days of desperate searching I was hoping that the new day would bring change. The beginning of drive started out the same way my previous days had ended with nothing being seen, no tracks or signs to point us in a direction. Then a call came through on the radio that a camp manager had seen 2 lions at their lodge waterhole in the southern section of our reserve. It was a long drive but for lions it was so worth it. However as luck would have it, on arrival at the water...no lions and rocky terrain made it impossible to see where they went. I could not believe it and was really out of ideas on how to save my guest's experience. Its at times like this that you wish you could flick a switch and animals would appear. Thinking the best action would be a coffee stop and hope that things improved we stopped at a scenic dam to warm up and hope for the best. 

Then it happened, the radio crackled and the voice on the other end uttered the words "male leopard". We quickly packed up our coffee and piled on the car and rushed off to go claim our prize. As we got going I rounded a corner and headed into a drainage crossing, only to find 2 buffalo bulls standing in the dry river bed looking at us. SCORE!!! a new species for our guests!! We stayed with them for a bit before they disappeared into a dense thicket and we continued or drive to the leopard.

The 2 buffalo bulls, they chose a nice setting I must say.

Due to our buffalo sighting we were at the back of the line to see the leopard, but the tortoise wins the race at the end of the day and by the time we got there we were alone with the leopard and could spend some good quality time with this elusive beauty for as long as we wanted.

The leopard was Chavaluthu, probably the biggest star of Balule at the moment. He is extremely relaxed with the game drive vehicles and we watched as he put on a huge show for us. He was waiting outside a warthog burrow, he could obviously hear the pigs in their hole and it was just a case of waiting for them to leave and he would make his move. What he didn't count on was them not leaving, instead they stayed under and Chavaluthu stalked around the termite mound inspecting then waiting at each possible exit hole. It gave us great photo opportunities as he lay in just about any pose that you could imagine from a leopard. 

Always alert he reacted to any little sound even when leaves blew in the wind.

Ready to pounce at any moment, the concentration and patience displayed by the leopard was remarkable.

Chavaluthu looking more and more impressive each time i see him.

Laying in wait at the entrance to the warthog burrow.

So Chavaluthu saved the day and the guests left overjoyed with this morning's memories. It goes to show that you never really know what is going to happen out there and things can change in an instant. That is the way of the bush. This afternoon I had a new set of guests, first time safari goers and we managed to see the leopard again, no blood, sweat and tears, some people just have all the luck. Lets hope it continues for a while.

Chavaluthu this afternoon, still on the look out for a meal.

We left him as he dosed off on top of another termite mound.

Photography and written by: Greg McCall-Peat