I spent a lovely siesta lying here reading my book and watching a pair of dik-diks just off my veranda. I thought to myself “I haven’t taken a photo yet of a dik-dik, but they don’t stay still long enough.” Put a pin in that thought.
I also kept hearing a banging noise in the outdoor bathroom. More like an intermittent rat-a-tat. Curiosity finally got the better of me and I peeked through the tent flaps and found a bird hanging from the side of the mirror looking at himself, pecking the handsome looking bird in the looking glass. It was hilarious. And then a second bird showed up, the first flew off and the second did the same. I thought this was novel until I told Simon and he pointed to his much dented side mirror on the jeep, and it too had been pecked to death.
After a slice of carrot cake and another Stoney Tangawizi, we headed out on our game drive. The plan was much like last night’s, at 4:30 we’d drive the loop to look for lions and then just ahead of the golden hour we’d head back to Giza’s territory and look for her. Since the morning was a bust I think we all had big hopes for tonight.
The search for lions was a slog, unproductive and frustrating. Where the other guests had seen them this morning was quite a way’s away and deep into the thick of the overgrowth. We would make our way deeper in, somewhere in the vicinity of where their guide told Simon, and just keep plowing our way through thick bush hoping that at some point we’d look and see a pile of lions under one of these bushes. It went on. And on. And as we ducked and dodged bush branches and thorns, I think we were all growing weary. And with one eye on the clock, I saw our time in daylight rapidly coming to a close. In my head, I was writing a very different blog post for today. But I remembered too that on a game drive everything can change in an instant.
We made it back to Giza’s territory around 6:00. We drove a bit and went back up to the overlook, this time not for a sundowner but to survey the area with binoculars. We had a pretty good 180 view of her territory. It was that extra degree on the far right we didn’t have which we would soon find out was critical. The sun fell behind the horizon while we were standing up there and I actually said aloud “there goes our light.” I was bummed.
We descended and just started driving around where she’s most likely seen. Not even 10 minutes into this, Francis, our spotter, yelled to Simon who looked right and high up, and there on a rocky outcrop laid our heroine. Watching us as we were looking for her. Of course she was. In the rapidly fading light and about two stories up, she was reallly bumming me out. But through my super zoom, I saw her yawn. And I had hope. Cats don’t yawn and not get up. It’s rule number one. So suddenly I had hope.
We tried to guess where she’d come down and the path she’d follow, and position ourselves there so I’d have the head on shot (I am the only photographer in the vehicle). We sat there, unable to see her, for maybe 10 minutes. And Simon was impatient and moved us back so we could see her, but facing forward so we could quickly reposition if she moved. When she moved.
Suddenly she stood and started stalking something to our left and up further behind her. We lost sight of her entirely but the hunt must have been a bust because she changed course and headed down. And down. And directly along the path we predicted. Simon quickly moved the car in place and she deviated slightly so she was not coming straight on at us, but a little forward of us. No worries, this was still a better shot than last night.
We leap-frogged her a few times. Let her pass, moved ahead of her, let her pass, moved ahead. None of the shots were what I really wanted, but still better than last night. At one point, she changed course and came right at us, but did it sneakily from behind a bush so that by the time I saw her she was too close! I couldn’t take a photo, she was an arm’s length from me. All I could do was put the camera down and watch her as she passed under me, and out the other side.
On our last leap-frog ahead of her, she nearly caught up but then stopped. What I didn’t see that she did were three dik-diks just ahead of us. One was a baby. Suddenly, she made maybe three hops and snatched the baby. The parents scattered and Giza held firm. She’d caught dinner. Or at least a snack.
We crept up even with her as she stood, looking side to side and around her, as if trying to make a decision. Finally she continued in the direction she was heading and took the kill up a tree. Simon heard the male leopard huffing somewhere behind us, so we really hope she was able to eat before he got there to steal it from her.
The sunset at 6:44. We found her at 6:55. she came down from her perch at 7:14 and made her kill at 7:19. The course of our entire day changed in that 35 minutes. It was just such an adrenaline rush. And now I have my photo of a dik-dik.
What I think was most special about it was that we were alone, just Simon, Francis, the German girls and me. No other vehicles to get in our way. This was our sighting. It wasn’t the madness of a public park or even jockeying for position with other vehicles from our camp. Just us. And Giza the huntress.
Dinner tonight was a bush dinner around a campfire. The cooking staff had made dinner which was reheated over the campfire. I’ll be honest, I was still riding the high and vaguely remember a chick-pea stew of some sort, veggie stir fry and french fries. However I do remember my two celebratory gin and tonics and the tree tomato crumble for dessert, which was really amazing!
It was nice to sit and chat with the guides and Ron the camp manager. I learn a lot from talking to them and it’s nice to be with people again, face to face and having fun conversations.
My charter flight doesn’t leave until 10 tomorrow, so I get one more early morning game drive before we head to the airstrip. For now I’m going to try to hunker down and get some sleep.
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