Waking up the morning of the 3rd of August, the ground was covered with some very strange speckles on the ground, as though millions of tiny antlions had suddenly dug in. A closer inspection revealed something even more surprising: during the night, it had rained! This may be pretty normal in most parts of the world, but in northern Botswana in August, it happens as frequently as a total solar eclipse. The skies are normally perfectly empty of clouds for roughly six months, but the previous day had light grey clouds almost totally covering the sky. The drops were too well spread out to do more than evaporate on impact, so its still a long few months till the rains are expected again. They mysterious clouds disappeared that afternoon, replaced by the normal blue sky.
On the 5th of August, a leopard was spotted running from east to west along the West Road – very shy and skittish. We soon also came upon two lions at the main waterhole, who we thought would be disadvantaged by the lack of cover at the waterhole, and were unable to sneak up on unsuspecting prey. For some strange reason, the many springbok, impala, and wildebeest that were also there did not seem to notice the stalking lions, and it was only when an alert kudu made an alarm call, that everyone noticed the approaching lions.
Looking for the lions the next day, we were barely out of camp when four of them found us. The large male lion, in his prime, was trying to drive the sub adult male lion away from the female, and they ran off in the direction of the camp, but disappeared into the bush north east of the camp. Just after watching them, we came across fresh tracks of a leopard, and as the tracker and guide were examining the track, an eagle-eyed guest saw the leopard a little further along the road.
The very next day, the action was all at the camp waterhole, with early morning breakfast disrupted by the lions… the female was drinking at the waterhole, but the older male and the sub-adult were fighting in clouds of dust, as the older male tried again to deter the young male from the females presence. A spectacular sighting!