It is weird how the world works, particularly when it comes to friendship. It basically comes down to, somewhere, somehow in your life you meet someone, who you really get along with, and you just begin to do “stuff” together. This is something I have experienced in my life a lot, fortunately. But when this connection happens, and it is so immediate and sudden, it can lead to something special. In a post I wrote last week on Hylton Royden-Turner, I mentioned how a long standing guest, Ted Swindon brought his Godson along with him on a 9 day safari to Londolozi to view and photograph animals but mainly leopards. This is a small account of their stay here with us.
From the get go, myself and Ted had similar views, morals and passions. He has a thing for leopards and I could see his eyes light up at the mention of the word. Not only that, but photography is a huge passion as well. Ted arrived at Londolozi sporting a range of gear that would help us in many situations, even an 800 mm fixed lens for birds and portraits. After spending a very small amount of time with Ted, I began to understand and connect with him. He reminds me so much of my own father and I felt comfort in that. These 9 days were going to be a breeze. We had goals of course, but there was never pressure, we went out with a good attitude, come rain or shine, good light or cloudy skies. But positive and eager to search and explore. I remember Ted saying to me that one of his favourite drives was one where we drove to the southern boundary of the property and we saw almost nothing. He made the comment that he felt lost and couldn’t recognise anything. For him that was his happy place.
Now let’s get to the leopards. One of Ted’s favourite things out here, besides his photography, is the leopards, the individuals, the dynamics and their stories. He is in tune with what goes on and has been following the progression of the leopards of Londolozi and the generations for the past 8 years. When he visits, he tells stories of how he watched the Mashaba female as a cub, who we now view as an adult, territorial leopardess, mother and protector. He remembers the dominance of the Camp Pan male and his epic battle with 5:5 over the Sand River and he speaks of the Tugwaan Male (Shorty) who is now but a distant memory in these parts. A passion so strong it is hard to compete with.
Ted has this love affair with leopards, but he kept telling me how much he enjoys seeing new leopards, ones he has never seen before. Be it a new leopard in an area, a young cub or just a leopard who continues to elude him each visit. During his 9 night stay, we managed to find, view and photograph 13 individual leopards. Leopards mating, with kills in trees, climbing trees, avoiding hyenas, leopard cubs, new males pushing for undiscovered territory, old leopards he knows well and leopards he has heard of but never seen. Out of the 13 individual leopards we saw, 7 were completely new to him and we encountered them on more than 1 occasion. If I recall correctly, 25 different leopard sightings in 9 days. It was an incredible adventure that combined passion, hard work, enthusiasm and patience. We filled memory cards each day with images of all there is to offer here and we built a great relationship and will be friends for many years to come.
Here are some of the photographs I took during Ted’s stay with us. I hope you enjoy them.
The Nanga female peers up at vultures soaring overhead.
A hoisted kill witnessed on our first afternoon.
The Nanga female in the darkness of night.
Descending a tree out of her comfort zone.
The Tamboti young female rests in a leadwood after being robbed of a kill by lurking hyena.
Silhouettes of a young leopardess.
A beautiful African Scops owl in daylight hours.
Ever alert hyena.
A young duo of hyena peer inquisitively in our direction.
A cheetah in the fading light.
A new male on patrol.
A young cub of the Maliliwane female seeks refuge on a termite mound as her mother leaves to hunt.
Patience and beauty.
Leopards in the river.
A long sought after photograph of a leopard walking over a beautiful granite rock.
The Mashaba young female rest up on a termite mound above us.
Low angles of elephants drinking.
A morning with a herd of 800 buffalo.
A very young, and slightly burnt cub of the Ximpalapala female.
A new force, the Gowrie male protects his bounty.
The Piva young male making his presence known.
Ted and Hylton.
Written and Photographed by: Mike Sutherland
Beautiful images. Great blog
So many enviable wildlife sightings: 25 leopard sightings in 9 days and 13 leopards. My mind is on overload! Hylton and Ted were so lucky to see the legendary Dudley Riverbank female near the end of her remarkable life. She will not be around much longer. They were fortunate to see new legends in the making like Mashaba Young female, Tamboti Young female and Piva Young male. And some of the amazing leopards of Marthly like the Nanga (Moya) female, Gowrie (Lamula) male and the elusive Maliliwane (Kwatile, Mlowathi) female & cub. Just Wow!
Photos from last week and today were really excellent. The burnt Ximpalapala cub was a little heartbreaking, but I am so glad it survived the fire of a few weeks ago.
This was really an inspiring safari!
They r lovely , no lions ?
Beautiful pictures! I cannot stop looking at them. Makes planning a trip back to Londolozi easy! See you in 2015!
Awesome shots there my boy. Good to see your camera still works:)
Each morning I start work at my desk here at Rhino Africa in Cape Town I go onto this site and read the related article and soak up the beauty of all the wonderful photographs – it gives me inspiration to sell and it gives me so much pride to be South African and part of a country that holds such unique treasures!
Oh it is so heartbreaking to see that little Ximpalapala cub had been burnt in that terrible fire you had, but hope the burns recover well with not too much damage. Thank you Mike for these awesome pictures, once again you have excelled yourself. Now we wait for Ted to post some of those he has from the full memory cards!