We Tracked A Leopard On Foot _ Witnessed Breath-taking River Crossing- Virtual Safari #273

This virtual safari sees us enjoy some breathtaking moments with the Nkoveni female as we track and find her on foot. Then we watch her cross through the sand river multiple times, wading chest deep into the water. So this afternoon we're setting off on a bit of an endeavour to find the Nkoveni female. This morning some of the rangers had her go and collect her son and get down to the river right at Finfoot Crossing. She crossed through with the most incredible view. We've come up this afternoon, we can't find her but we know where her tracks are. The young male is just on the bank of the river over there. Recent barrier that side. And I'm with Geshum and Zeppel and we're going to follow the tracks here because we're pretty sure there's a carcass close by and so hopefully we get to see exactly where it is and get a view of her possibly crossing the river. So the ground's got pretty hard and difficult to see where the tracks go so Geshum's dropped down into the drainage line to see if there's any more tracks there. Zeppel and I are walking up on the ridge here to see if there's any tracks this side. A drag mark is exactly what we want it is so we have a feeling we're getting very close now. Right so we found the carcass and we heard her running away from us so at least we know where it is. However, this is one hell of a thick block with lots of drainage lines and everything in the way so I highly doubt we're going to be able to get a vehicle in here. But for now, what an exhilarating experience being on foot with these two very fine trackers and gentlemen. So following a drag mark like that, hearing a leopard running away, her dragging the carcass trying to get away from us, it's all a pretty awesome experience. So success, we've managed to get our vehicle in here albeit a pretty difficult journey in and a very limited view of her but at least we've managed to see her, at least we've found the carcass and what an exciting little adventure. So she has the carcass, she's very likely to finish it over the course of the evening and then cross back through the river to go and try and find her son. So we headed out at the crack of dawn and stationed ourselves in the exact spot where she had crossed through yesterday and our goal was to just sit and wait and hope that she then crosses through the river. We had a couple of buffalo bulls to keep us company while we waited but a flock of guineafowl erupted not so far away from us and began alarm calling. So that could only mean one thing, the ankle of any female or a leopard was close by and what unfolded next was just pure magic. My only dilemma was trying to balance between videoing the scene and taking some photos and so I hope in amongst all of this that I managed to actually successfully capture both. So now that she was through the river I had to take a moment to compose myself because that scene was just pure gold. She then walked up and found the scent of her son on some tracks just behind us. The tracks were heading away but she sadly turned in the wrong direction and was backtracking to where he had been resting and every now and then letting off a contact call because she's trying to find and make sure he's safe but sadly he had moved out of this area and she was walking in the wrong direction. returned back into the area to watch her cross through the river again. Jess had seen her walking through the river crossing north still trying to find her son but with no success up there she then turned and started walking back towards the river so we joined just in time, backlit, soft, golden afternoon light, we lined ourselves up in the perfect position to see her then cross through the river again.