Africa 34:We Get Up Close and Personal with a Leopard.

Experienced guides will tell you that seeing animals on safari is a lot about luck.  It's about being in the right place at the right time.

Driving down the road in the Serengeti, one sees a lot of Acacia trees.  This one, however, was different.  In this one, a leopard happened to be sleeping. 

We had been by him several times, but decided to stop again before we had lunch.  I figured this was all we would see of him.

Suddenly, he jumped out of the tree and began walking toward us.

He came around the truck behind us.

Then stopped at the corner of our truck, looked up, and stared me right in the eye.  I've never experienced anything like it.

Suddenly, I was not part of the truck.  I could see him thinking about whether he should consider me prey, or not.

I was so taken by the experience that I did not think to take a picture of him until he turned away for a moment.

Then he walked right underneath me, looking up as he did.

We pulled ahead of him and got another shot of him coming toward us on his way to a puddle of water.

First, he drank from one side of the puddle.

Then, he went around to the other side...

And drank from there.

This is a video of him drinking, if you are interested.

After he finished drinking, he sat for a while.

Then he headed off into the field again on the opposite side of the road from which he came.

Our guides said that our group must be charmed because it is very uncommon to see a leopard like this in broad daylight.  We just happened to show up at the right time.

Next time, our charm holds.  We see a lion crossing the road.

Continue on to Post 35: We Happen Upon a Lion, by clicking here.