Breaking the Leopard Curse

This morning started off rough... We woke up at 5am to go on a 6am morning game drive as the sun rose. As I was getting ready and putting my bug spray on, the bug spray accidentally sprayed straight into my eye. It was the most horrible burning sensation EVER!! After a flush with water and some antibiotic eye drops from the doctor, all is well again and we made it in time for the 6am game drive. The first mammal we saw was the hyena. There are four types of hyena that differ in size and diet: spotted, brown, striped, and aardwolf. 

Hyena in the middle of the road

This morning, I was really fortunate and went in the photographer vehicle. We have three National Geographic experts on this trip with us, and one of them is a conservationist filmmaker I've been following for years. Being able to hear tips from him and photograph along others who enjoy photography was really special. The photos below are some of my favorites from the day. We photographed everything from birds, to hippos, to leopards, and more. 

Photographing birds in the early morning light

One of the highlights from this game drive was going to the hippo pool, where we saw juvenile hippos playing. Hippos are most active in the morning while it's still cool outside and our driver said if we had gotten there after 9am, we wouldn't have seen them active. With their eyes, ears, and nostrils located on top of their heads, hippos can spend most of the day submerged in the waters to stay cool and prevent sunburn. Weighing up to 8,000 pounds, the hippo is the heaviest land animal next to the elephant. 

Juvenile hippos playing in the early morning

Another highlight was seeing my favorite African bird... The lilac breasted roller. This bird is easily identifiable due to its lilac throat and breast, a blue belly, and even brighter blue wing feathers.

My favorite bird in Africa... The lilac breasted roller

On the way to our picnic lunch, we saw some lionesses resting in the trees. Since lions can sleep up to 21 hours a day, we were not expecting much action and didn't get any.

Lioness taking a nap in the afternoon heat

After a picnic lunch in the bush, we started heading back to the hotel, stopping to take some photographs along the way. Below are some of my favorites.

Storm clouds rolling in

Earlier this morning, we had seen two leopards with a zebra kill in the tree. We went back to the same location in the hopes of seeing the leopards again. Sure enough, both leopards were still there. One was perched above the zebra kill, pictured below.

Leopard and its kill

Less than two minutes after we had set up our cameras, the leopard started to take its kill down the tree.

Leopard moving its kill down the tree

The leopard proceeded to drag the kill to another tree to hide it from the vultures.

Leopard dragging its kill.

In our 11 years and 7 trips of coming to Africa, we had never seen a leopard so this was an incredibly special sighting!

Happy New Year from Africa! We are spending New Year's Eve in the Serengeti, and we are off to Madagascar tomorrow for New Year's day... a destination I've been dreaming to go to for years!

Thanks for reading about my African adventures... Stay tuned for what's to come and be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts! As always, follow my instagram @elissatitle for more pics.