In 2010 I traveled to South Africa and Kenya. The highlight of the South Africa trip was a four day visit to Kirkman's Kamp, in Sabi Sands Game Reserve. I'd never heard of Sabi Sands before starting to think about this trip, but it came highly recommended, reportedly providing some of the best game sightings in Africa. We arrived around mid-afternoon, settled in, had a late lunch, and then went out on our first game drive. Within minutes of starting out, we found this character, lounging on a boulder not more than ten feet from the jeep track, in beautiful dappled light.
The leopard lounged on the boulder and ignored us while we blazed away with our cameras, taking photo after photo. After about ten minutes of this, the leopard seemed to tire of our antics, sat up, and gave a huge yawn. Holy cow!! A photographer's dream.
After the yawn, the leopard struck this pose, held it for a beat, stood up, jumped off the boulder, and disappeared into the brush. Wow!! What a great introduction to the Sabi Sands.
