we awoke in the dark and went together to the washroom with our head torches lighting the way. in the gloom animals could be seen,thankfully only zebras but a hyena scuttled across in the distance. we set off in search of a leopard and cruised up and down the tracks by an river with plenty of acacia trees,the most likely hideout for one. fairly soon we came across a lioness guarding her kill,a poor wildebeest. by a watering hole we saw crocodiles,hippos,maribou storks,herons,a hyena having a wallow ,zebras,elephants and buffaloes going down to drink and also the quite rare serval.the zebras were easily spooked as we passed a pride of lions asleep not far away. Up ahead we noticed half a dozen jeeps stopped by some trees. a couple of lions passed us with a small warthog in their jaws towards another pride and another crossed our path also with some kill. it was here our jeep developed an electrical fault but a jeep behind us pushed away from the danger zone so the driver got out and hammered the battery connections firmly back in place. the state of the dirt tracks leave much to be desired.further out in the bush we encountered a male lion and lioness under a tree,the male washed himself and then proceeded to mate with the lioness. a few roars and it was over but a few yards away we found the rest of the pride asleep. we passed by and noticed two other lioness approaching our jeeps and a lone zebra walking towards the sleeping pride. luckily he noticed the lions approaching to make a kill and retraced his steps pretty quickly. on our way back to camp another driver finally spotted what we had been looking for,a leopard. his wagging tail gave him away as he slept in the fork of the tree,without it we would have missed it as he is well camouflaged.
After lunch and a short rest we set off for a late afternoon game drive . a hyena crossed our path and seemed to be trying to avoid a herd of thompson's gazelles surprisingly but veered off towards some topi as he had seen a baby but was charged by a big bull topi. the hunter became the hunted and ran off.the gazelles also dispersed in panic although there was no need to. in the distance there were some rocky outcrops with trees,perfect leopard terrain. by one cliff face there were some jeeps.clearly a leopard. we had a clearer view of this magnificent animal this time. driving on through the "endless plain",the translation of serengeti,we came upon a male lion and two lionesses. they were mating. an extraordinary phenomenon whereby the female was the main protagonist with the lion forced to mount her every 20 minutes and not always succeeding.they both roared and jumped off each other in a heap to recover. this mating ritual takes about a week and neither one has any food for a week. in the distance the male lion's brother lay in the grass. the rest of the pride and cubs would be elsewhere. by now light was fading and we had to drive back in the dark but the result was we saw a honey badger,a very rare sight. at the camp the cooks had to chase away a hyena who was keen to get into the kitchen.