Zambia Safari Diary - Day Ten

Kaingo to Tena Tena

We were still very conscious that, although we had experienced a few half-decent glimpses, we were still short of the expected abundance of leopard sightings. Previous visits had provided no shortage of these, and indeed other guests in the same camps as ourselves had reported many sightings on their own game drives. However ‘Kaingo’ means ‘leopard’, and this proved to be a good omen.

Full English and a Leopard
No sooner had we finished our (very excellent ‘Full English’) breakfast than we spotted a leopard across the river, walking slowly along the opposite bank, and were able to view its stately progress for several minutes. It was a truly beautiful sight, as it strolled along by the edge of the river, its tail lifted high (with a wonderful circular curve at the top) to tell the panicking guinea fowl that it wasn’t hunting.

Transfer with Sightings
Zambia PhotoAfter leaving Kaingo we drove through 2-3 km of the ebony grove, observing an attempted puku mating, giraffe, a red hornbill (camera icon), and numerous baboons by a lagoon (camera icon). Further sights included a long line of buffalo (camera icon), viewed along the horizon, lots of zebra
(camera icon), giraffe and a kudu (camera icon). However the ‘main event’ was a further leopard just sprawled out under a tree at the top of the river bank, in a very relaxed frame of mind (camera icon).

Arrival at Tena Tena
Tena Tena provided its customary warm greeting from Daudi. However we all experienced the problem that always emerges after a long stay in a small bush camp, with only the people who you know around you, in that the prospect of having to meet and talk with half a dozen new faces just overwhelms you (this is why it is essential to ’wind down’ through a final base camp like this, rather than heading straight from the remote bush to the airport).

Accordingly, after a somewhat taciturn lunch, we simply spent the afternoon lazily looking out over the (mainly dried-out) lagoon behind our tents (a comfortable sitting area is provided). In this way, rather than driving around to encounter the game, you just let it come to you – at its own pace. Over the course of the afternoon, puku, impala, baboons, warthog, bushbuck and, finally, four stately giraffe, made their steady way through the area.

A Leopard Kill
The late afternoon/evening game drive with Ross then provided the real climax to our safari. The first sighting was of crocodile lined up like waiting taxis on the far bank of the river, with baby hippo walking carefully between them. Then a group of ellies, with one asleep lying up against a tree, and one with a half-severed trunk – the victim of a snare several years previously. On drinking, this creature seemed able to draw the bottom portion up to meet the top, eliminating the gap. To top it off we were then mock-charged again – always quite an interesting experience! (camera icon)

During early evening a herd of impala dashed across the road ahead of us, hardly slowing as they encountered the broken, dried out ground to the side of the road, although, sadly, one was observed to have a broken front leg. Although it could keep up remarkably well at this pace, it days must have been seriously numbered, possibly by the grizzled old male lion that we saw lying in the grass nearby.

Then at sundowners we heard a cacophony of sound that turned out to be baboons which were ganging up to chase off a leopard. We were able to follow up on the incident, and soon saw the leopard determinedly making its way back, along a dried stream bed, to the impala kill that it had just made. We were able to drive right up to the edge of this stream bed, and watch the entire process of eating from start to finish. Leopards will always start at the soft rear of the antelope, steadily munching their way inwards, with quite surgical precision (in contrast to the more destructive piling in that a lion adopts).

By now it was quite dark, and we were watching solely by the illumination of our vehicle’s spotlight. Suddenly a hyena rocketed in, and the leopard leapt to safety on top of the bank right by the side of our vehicle (leopards, unlike lions, are solitary hunters and cannot risk injury in defending their prey from scavengers such as the hyena – which was almost the same size as the leopard). So fast did it happen that there was no sensation of the hyena running in, or of the leopard leaping away – just the instantaneous appearance of the hyena and the abrupt change of location on the part of the leopard. The hyena then snatched the foetus from the impala carcass and ran off with it, and the leopard was able to return to its kill. However the incident had obviously upset it, and it soon went off itself, with no attempt made to drag the remains into a tree, as it would normally do.

This proved to be the end of a wonderful day’s game viewing, during which our passion for leopard sightings had been amply fulfilled. Roast lamb for dinner!

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camp fire tales

On an earlier visit to Tena Tena a further amazing leopard sighting was made on an early morning game drive. This leopard had obviously attempted to cross the (very low) Luangwa river, but had failed to make it all the way across, being ‘treed’ by a number of crocodile on the stump of a dead tree about two-thirds the way across.

This magnificent beast was then trapped for the whole day, in the baking heat, on top of this stump (camera icon) unable to escape, with about a dozen evil looking crocodile waiting patiently for her to try, on all sides of the tree.

The penalty for making a mistake in the bush is that you die, and she clearly knew that she had made a mistake. Our final view of her, at the end of our evening game drive, was a highly charged and emotional moment, with not a few tears shed. The news was then brought back to us the following morning that she had gone – and fresh leopard tracks had been seen on the near bank! So it looks as though she made it.