Kgalagadi: ... and Leopards, Oh My!

Finally, saving-the-best-for-last and all, here is the hands-down best big cat sighting we had during this trip.  Actually, it might be the best sighting we've ever had. 

Two leopards.  TWO!  In the middle of the day.  And incredibly close to the road.  I don't know how to express how very, very rare this is.  Leopards are the Holy Grail of sightings because they are so elusive.  Secretive, shy, skittish and mostly nocturnal, we were hoping to just catch a glimpse of one.  In fact, I was really crossing my fingers to at least see a paw or something because I had seen one and Aaron hadn't -- and he really wanted to.  Of course there are people we know who have been going out for years and years and have never seen one.

So I can't tell you how excited we were.  Two leopards.  At essentially the same time.  While one stayed remarkably close to the car, the other wandered off.  But she never quite left, so we got to watch her roam around.

This is the only good picture that we got of the wanderer:

But the other one was a dream.  Truly, it was like she was modeling for us.  She seemed really interested in the other leopard.  We later found out that the wanderer was her mother and that she had recently "left the nest."  Perhaps that is why she was less typical in her behavior.  Because we stayed with her for over an hour and she never strayed more than 5 meters away from the car.  Behold:

Thrill!  Joy!  Amaziness!  And the beauty of it is that we had her all to ourselves for quite a long time.  Eventually, there were enough cars to make us want to move on.  But on our way back to camp we thought we'd swing by and see if she was still there.  Wouldn't you know it, she was.  Much more hidden this time, but eating!  A leopard on a kill!

That's like Holy Grail plus special sauce.