Best leopard siting....
....in the Okavango Delta, Botswana
On our trip to Botswana in 2019 we had and amazing last afternoon siting of a beautiful leopard in the Okavango Delta with our guide Ice. He had heard there was a leopard in the area so we headed down to the river to see if we could find it...
We were looking at the the hippos and buffalo across the water when we suddenly spotted her sleeping in the long grass. She was so well camouflaged, it would have been easy to drive within a few meters and not even realise she was there.
We sat and watched her sleeping for ages, just us, our guide Ice and one of the most beautiful big cats in the world...... This was where having our own private vehicle and driver was so lovely as he was as happy as we were to just sit and watch. A herd of elephants wandered past heading to the river for their afternoon drink and splash in the water. At one point she sat up for a bit turned around and then lay back down again. She was so relaxed. We were there for such a long time we saw the elephants return from their dip walking by on the other side of the leopard this time.
In the picture below she can just be seen in the bottom right hand corner, lifting her head to check out the noisy elephants just behind her. She was not bothered in the slightest, she just lifted her head had a quick look and lay back down once more....
A herd of elephants on the way to the river (above) and on their way back (below)
.... and then to our complete amazement she wandered right past the back of the jeep....I could have reached out and touched her (if I had wanted to lose my arm!!). It really was incredible to be so close to such an impressive and beautiful predator. Our patience had really paid off.....
Eventually our patience paid off as the leopard decided to get up and move away.
Leopard's are usually such illusive private creatures, we had seen them before, but usually only in the distance, we had never been so close to one.
She walked along the track for about 20 meters and then lay down again. I will never tire of looking at our photos of this amazing afternoon.
This really was the most exceptional experience that we will never forget.... and what is even more amazing is we were also about to see a pride of lions on our way back to camp.... (see our best lion siting!!)
