There are some mornings in the bush where, no matter how many game drives you have been on, you return to camp wondering how it all possibly unfolded.
This was one of them.
Straight out of camp, we heard that the Makhatini Female Cheetah was resting on the northern end of the Londolozi airstrip. Wasting no time, Equalizer and I made our way there, arriving as the first light began to filter through the early morning mist. We sat quietly with her as the sun rose, appreciating the tranquillity of beginning our day with one of Londolozi’s less commonly seen predators.
Little did we know, she was merely the beginning.
The Makathini Female spotted on the northern end of the Londolozi airstrip, at first light.
Not long afterwards, an update came over the radio that the Ntsevu Pride was lying at the opposite end of the airstrip. With the cheetah showing little intention of moving, we left her resting and headed south, where the lions had begun walking west.
Photo courtesy of Jess Shillaw. Watching the Ntsevu Pride on the move.
We followed them for a short while before they disappeared off the road into a dense thicket of bushwillows. Shadrack Makhabela looped around to get another view and, moments later, his voice came over the radio with an update none of us expected: the Shingi Male leopard was less than 50 metres away, beneath an apple-leaf tree with an impala kill hoisted above him.
Equalizer and I could hardly believe it. One cat had quite literally led us to the next!
The Shingi Male stood alert at the base of the tree, staring towards the lions. Whether by sight or smell, the Ntsevu Pride soon began moving directly towards him. Sensing the approaching danger, the leopard quietly slipped away and disappeared out of sight.
What followed was almost an hour of watching the lions attempt to reach his carefully stashed meal (see video below). The eldest Ntsevu Lioness was particularly impressive, climbing higher than I expected, but eventually even she conceded defeat.
The eldest Ntsevu lioness, confidently trying to climb the tree. We watched with amazement as she tried her best, but she could only climb so high…
Eventually one of the young female lions followed suit, climbing to join the elder lioness in the fork of the tree. Realising they were pretty stuck in that position, they eventually awkwardly descended.
Knowing the Shingi Male would likely return once the coast was clear, we decided to wait.
Forty minutes later, almost on cue, he emerged from the thicket. In what felt like perfect déjà vu, we watched him climb effortlessly into the same tree (with considerably more elegance than the lions had managed earlier) and reclaim his meal.
After a most exhilarating morning’s chain of events, the morning ended with the Shingi Male satisfied atop the tree with his safely secured meal.
The last surviving cub of a litter of three, he is on the cusp of independence.
A cheetah at sunrise, lions on the move, and a leopard defending his hard-earned meal, all unfolding within roughly a kilometre of camp.
Mornings like these don’t happen often. Just when you think you know what a game drive might hold, the wilderness strings together a sequence of events that no amount of planning could ever recreate. We drove back to camp completely gobsmacked, reminded once again that some of the best mornings out here are the ones nature writes entirely for itself.
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