Thursday, August 25, 2016

Nkupe Camp, Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe

We drove around this morning looking for wildlife – lions and wild dogs, especially. We briefly saw a single dog and a hyena but no lions. Lots of elephants, though:

We talked to some people who said there were lions just down the road, but couldn't find them.

We tried again in the evening and had more luck.

First there was a leopard on the ground, but you could barely see it through the grass:

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But when several cars showed up, it climbed into a very leafy tree and we couldn't see it. So, we moved on. About ½ hour later, we came across another leopard on the ground:

After a while, it moved back into the trees, so we went back to see about the first one. It had come out of the tree and was laying in the sun:

It then moved off, stalking some impala, without success. We lost sight of it, and went back to camp. On the way, the road was blocked by a pack of wild dogs:

It was a good evening. We've been told that leopards are fairly rare here, but we saw 2 within 30 minutes of each other.