
The road that meanders along the Ngorongoro Crater rim is one that I’ve travelled more times than I can remember in my life. There are times I can recall being on a school trip to the crater and spending hours broken down, playing ‘sand castle’ games in the red soil while we waited to be rescued! I love this road, even though nowadays it’s quite hectic, because you climb up into the Ngorongoro highlands where the mist comes and goes in seconds and you can’t see more than a few metres into the dense forest on either side of the road. Although there are signs of wildlife in the form of tracks, faeces, and destruction, it’s incredibly rare to see anything in the flesh! If you’ve travelled it you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
On this particular day, we had left The Plantation Lodge in Karatu not long after dawn with quite the journey ahead of us as we headed for the Southern Serengeti Plains. Loduare Gate, entrance to Ngorongoro conservation area was fairly quiet so we passed through quickly. We decided against stopping at the popular viewpoint as it was so overcast there wasn’t much to see. As with all my safaris since my daughter, Willow was born in 2019, our convoy consisted of my safari Land Cruiser with the guests and Chris and my private Land Cruiser containing my entourage: Pallanjo, seasoned guide and trusted driver; Jackie and Gift, my two nannies and Willow and Chala, aged 2 years and 5 months respectively. My car, in the lead, slowed down to photograph the rising sun so Pallanjo overtook us to keep the engine going and the little ones sleeping (we’ve all been there, right!).
Suddenly, on the radio waves, came Pallanjo’s voice a few octaves higher than usual, as well as loud and full of excitement. “Come quickly, Hannah, come NOW, there’s a leopard, I repeat LEOPARD,” he said in Kiswahili. “On my way” was my response as I know how incredibly rare it is to see ANYTHING, let alone the most elusive of all cats, in this habitat. I explained to the guests that Pallanjo had seen a leopard, there was no point hiding it as we needed to catch up quickly. I expected the cat to be walking quickly along the road, due to disappear into the thickness of the forest at any moment (this is the only way I’d seen leopard in this environment in my 33 years of travelling this road, and even then it’s only happened twice).
It wasn’t long before I caught up to Pallanjo and he was leaning out of his window gesturing excitedly at the most impressive of trees. As my gaze followed his indication my eyes locked with the leopard and for a moment I forgot to breathe or tell the guests where it was. About halfway up the tree, sat this leopard, looking down at us, looking directly (it felt) at me. I grabbed my camera and took one “safety shot” through the windscreen in case he made a quick descent.
He didn’t. We opened the roof hatches and stood up and still, he stayed. It was the most breathtaking sight. Almost as if he had made a nest, or bed for himself on this branch. Perfectly posed, a beautiful male leopard in his prime. Flawless coat and a nice full belly. I snapped some images as the mist blew through changing the warmth and tone of the capture every few seconds. As I have mentioned, this is a busy road. The funny part is that people assumed we were broken down so they trundled on by without so much as a glance around.
After a while, the leopard stretched, got up and moved around the tree a little before descending (not so gracefully with his very full belly) into the thick greenness below. A master of elusive grace and resilience.
I feel infinitely lucky to have spent time with this particular leopard in this particular setting and to be on another safari with Pallanjo, a notorious leopard “spotter”. It was, no doubt, a once in a lifetime sighting for us all.