I break for leopards!

SH2015 Gaza Gray ran for two weeks, straddling the long Women's Day weekend in the middle of that time. Being a public holiday in South Africa, people took advantage of the Monday off from work to visit Kruger National Park. A lot of people. The park was groaning over the three-day weekend with the extra cars, bakkies and 4X4's all anxious to catch a view of the Big Five.

A few times traffic in the park ground to a complete halt and vehicles stretched the road into four lanes where there should have only been two.

We soon found out that this behavior meant that apparently a leopard had been sighted.

And sure enough, there is the leopard, ably hidden deep in a thorny thicket. I shot this photograph with my little point-and-shoot Canon and quite frankly I thought the leopard was a log when I took it. It wasn't until afterwards that I could zoom in and see the familiar spots!

the scene in front

Not long after the first leopard spotting, traffic slowed down again to a complete stop. Apparently, it was another leopard.

and the scene behind us

And sure enough, just as we inched forward to where everyone was looking, out of the bush came leopard #2.

He / she slowly crossed the road in front of us ...

... and then disappeared into the bush on the other side!