Elephant Plains: Elephants, Buffalo and Leopard ... Three of the big five on our first drive!
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From Brendon Cremer
Wow, our safari started today with all one could hope for.
After lunch and a briefing we were all eager to get going. We had heard that fresh leopard tracks had been seen earlier today.
We set off, intent on finding those leopard tracks and hopefully the leopard responsible for the prints.
Almost immediately we came across a large herd of elephants in excellent light and in the open. We delayed here ...
.... to take some super shots as they went about their lives, eating and wandering around close to our vehicles.
Then off we set again to find the leopard tracks. And there they were - clear prints! We followed the tracks with bated breath, hoping to see a leopard at any moment.
But we were interrupted again.
This time a large herd of buffalo crossed the road right in front of us. We stopped for this excellent opportunity to get some really good photographs, singly, in groups, in pairs, walking in the road and in the neighbouring bush. Once again the light was just perfect to give us the best possible opportunities.
So once again we set off after capturing our images, and once again we tried to track the elusive leopard.
We turned toward a local dam -
- the Serengeti Dam. And there he was - Tingana, the large dominant male in the area was heading to the dam. We accompanied him, delighted with the sighting.
At the dam Tingana seemed to answer every photographer's dreams. He lolled on the dam wall,
he looked around, he looked straight at us. He seemed to know exactly how to pose for the busy cameras trained on him.
The light was fading fast at this stage so out came the spotlights.
And Tingana obliged. Again he posed on the dam wall for some shots in the spotlights, then he stood up in a leisurely, lazy fashion and walked straight toward us.
Our cameras clicked nonstop as the beautiful creature sauntered lazily toward us, came alongside us and then slowly and somewhat haughtily disappeared into the darkening bush.
What a fabulous start to our latest safari ...
Everyone is keyed up and so excited to see what tomorrow can bring to equal this ...
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