BootsnAll Travel Blogs

wow!!!
its all happening here! I was bringing some of the students back from their shift during a 24hr water count, at about 1/2 past midnight when we spotted a leopard crossing the track in front of us! I pulled over next to the place we saw it, swithced off the engine and lights and pointed the spot light into the bush: lo and behold there’s a full grown wild Tuli leopard sitting about 10ft away from the Landie!!!….a Landie with no doors, no windows and no roof!!! the Leopard sat for a minute or so looking at us and then forgetting about us, basically, then wandered a few more feet away and stayed there for a while before wandering out of site into the bush!!!! AMAZING!!!! and curiously not scarey at all!
Then last Saturday we got another sighting of a leopard – a little further away but during the same transfer with the SAME people!!!..CRAZY!!! this time it was stalking along the bush just to the side of the road, we followed it along the road and then watched as it wandered backwards and forwards for a few minutes trying to figure us out I guess – got some pics of it this time, but not very good as it was too far away for the flash
Ive got to tell you – they are the most BEAUTIFUL animals!…very lithe and sleek and their coats are BEAUTIFUL

we’ve started getting Cheetah prints on the tracks here (mainly down the western ‘cutline’) so we hope to see one of them soon too!
oh, and we still regularly get charged by ellies etc

update 26th June Well, as I now get the keys to the Landie, I can drive folks around (well kind of: I get to drive the students up to meeting points with Stuart) its kind of entertaining as theres quite a few ellies around again now…we got charged the other day: firstly we got ambushed – an ellie had pushed a tree down over the road, we got out to try and move the tree but then the ellie appeared so we had to jump back in the landie and wait for it to disappear again. Then after driving another couple of hundred metres, I spotted a small ellie at the side of the road, eating a tree…it was too young to be on its own, so we hung about and waited. soon the Matriarch came thru the bush and was cutting off my escape route along the road, so as it approached I quickly drove off along the road, past it – at which point it trumpetted (so loudly that Stuart who was a good 1/4 mile away heard it) and gave chase. As we escaped we drove past teh rest of the herd which was hiding in the bushes where the young ‘un had been!!

lots of fun eh?

Ive been asked to help out at Tuli, so I’m back in Botswana again!!!

basically Charlie the co-ordinator has visa problems so in the short term, I’m working as student co-ordiantor in the camp

its nice to be back and see Stuart and Anna-lein again – nice group of students here too it seems (apart from the fact that theyre mostly giggly girls) Its interesting to see how much its changed here: much drier and less leaves etc on the bushes, but same old Tuli non the less. The ellies are just returning and theres loads of leopard prints (again) though nowts been seen (again!)

more info laterz

So, then end of my stay at Kwa Tuli is almost here: I leave for South Africa on Monday. Its been a great 6 weeks - lots of animals and some great people (including Trigger, I guess ;^)) the weather has ... [Continue reading this entry]