Well Spotted

The Sabi Sand Game Reserve is well-known for its brilliant leopard sightings. But how genuinely realistic is the hope of seeing one of these elusive felines?

The size of this plane is proportionate to the level of adventure that lies ahead, I muse as our aircraft flies over the brown winter landscape in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve. The smaller the plane, the greater the adventure. As if in confirmation, plumes of heat shake us with turbulence. Once we’ve steadied, I peer down through the windows and look for animals below. I see nothing but dry, stick-like trees on small koppies and sigh. It’s hard to imagine the countless animals – leopards among them, supposedly – purported to live below.

On the ground though, the outlook is more promising. Busy drooling over the lunch menu at Dulini River Lodge, we almost don’t notice the three giraffes that appear above the jackalberry trees. Their slow, lumbering gait draws them closer to the perennial Sand River that lies between us. A large kudu delicately picks his way along the bank to drink from the shallow pools and a troupe of baboons start to bark downstream. Staff hurry to check that windows and doors are closed against the opportunistic marauders. And then, elephants. The grey hulking shapes lumber towards us as we sit on the deck under the sausage tree, scarcely believing our luck. Twenty minutes into lunch and we needn’t even go on the afternoon game drive!

Game ranger Justin Hall is having none of that, though. Between him and host Ronnie-Ronnie Mdaka, we are pried from the cool shade where refreshments appear endlessly on silver trays and thrust into a quiet Land Rover that purrs in the afternoon sun.

“What would you like to see?” asked Justin.