Tjololo 13th May 2000

13th May 2000
A cold but very eventful and exciting night, ending in a showdown.
One that makes filmmaking such a thrill.
Early afternoon we braved Rocky crossing. First we had to remove a 6foot high wall of debris deposited by the floods. Then I took the plunge. The going was fine while on the rocks but as soon as I hit the sand I sunk in and that was it. The sand was very soft. With Dale on the firm rocks he managed to pull me out. Then taking a good run at it we were through. Once the initial pass through had been made it was easy.
This now means much shorter trips to get to Tjololo. The crossing had been inaccessible for 3 ½ months following the floods.
We thought Tjololo had headed in to Kruger last night but picked him up on his western boundary. Catching a brief glimpse of him in a donga, we then got stuck in the soft wet sand. The only way out was to deflate the tyres to half their pressure. That then meant driving around on flat tyres for the rest of the night, which doesn’t make it easy on the steering. Once out the donga we then got hitched up on a log. Again the jack came to the rescue. Did I say it was a good night? I suppose one has to have the bad to appreciate the good.
At last we were able to get to follow Tjololo. On the move, looking after his territory, he was beginning to look respectable again with a normal sized stomach.
Very much in tune with his environment he heard a movement. A snake. I thought they moved silently. Tjololo moved into some long grass and at first we just heard the deep hissing sound and then saw the 3m African Rock Python. Being cold it was fairly lethargic. Tjololo approached, he too hissing at the snake. Then he swatted the python, which lunged at him but he was quick to jump out of harms way. The confrontation went on for some 10 minutes with the python not appreciating a punch to the head. With neither opponent being harmed, Tjololo got bored with the game and moved on.
We lost him heading north in the Sand river and went ahead to intercept him. While waiting we heard him calling and another male leopard calling to the north.
The temperature had now dropped to 4 degrees celcius, adding a windchill factor on to this makes it about – 5 degrees. Somewhat chilly for Africa.
Several hours later Tjololo was on course arriving at our position.  But he wasn’t on his own.  The 2 male leopards were standing their ground growling at each other and scrape marking. Both moving parallel to each other along an invisible boundary, neither willing to challenge the other for extra territory, but just to hold on to what they already have. With heads arched and tense they drooled with tension. Trying to hold a pose they would roll around on the ground as if to say “you don’t scare me, look how relaxed I am”.

Having each asserted their dominance they slowly drifted apart back to home ground and time for us to move back to our territory.