Coming into the late afternoon and the sun was starting to go down on an incredibly hot day, we set out on safari and we set route to our Southern section of the reserve. Shortly into drive we noticed some female leopard tracks going along the road in a Northerly direction, they looked incredibly fresh and we had no hesitation to follow up and see if luck was on our side.

Sure enough it was, after only following the tracks for about 5 minutes, we noticed a stunning female leopard on the road, but instead she had changed direction and was no longer moving north but south down the road towards us. What a treat as this gave us a great view, but to top things off, just behind her out popped her cub from the long grass, we were in awe.

We stopped and thought about this - why would she be moving in the complete opposite direction from where she was not even 10 minutes ago? Unless she had hidden her cub for the day and had been out and about; managed to make a kill and was now taking her cub to the kill... This was exciting and we decided to stay with her and see if our theory was right.

A short stroll down the road and the cub seemed playful and very vocal as mom kept lagging behind, and for good reason as she needs to keep an eye and ear out for any potential danger towards her cub. We eventually reached a little mud wallow that had some water still left in from the rain a few days ago. Mom carried on past and her cub rapidly made her way to the puddle for a well-deserved drink.

After a refreshing drink we moved off into the bush and we were led straight to a very bushy shrub and there laying under the tree was a young kudu kill. Still all pretty much there, just a small opening and hole on the rump. The cub did not hesitate and got stuck right in, while the mother lay not too far off and decided to have a little rest after what had been a long and busy day.

We were watching as the cub was eating the rump and noticed that the stomach had not been touched and we commented on how clever that is as once the stomach breaks open, a nasty odour is released which could possibly attract predators but we can’t be certain this is the reason, but it made sense to us.

By this time, the sun had gone down and it was starting to get dark and after an exciting and special afternoon we let mom and cub be, we hope that they stay safe and enjoy their meal.