Tjololo 16th July 2000

16th July 2000
Back on line ofcourse means a happy me!
With snow having fallen all around the country the big freeze eventually hit us last night and by dawn Tjololo was sleeping all curled up in the frost covered grass on the banks of the Sand river.

He had been on the move all night. Another tiring one but good to have him on the move as then there’s always some potential for filming and taking photos.
Marking in the northern areas of his territory he then headed southeast. Just south of the Rockdrift donga he was resting after hunting a steenbok. Suddenly he took off south as we heard a male leopard calling to the north. Presumably this was Masuli. His call seemed to strike fear into Tjololo as he trotted south until he reached the Charleston/Flockfield boundary where he rested and started calling back. A while later he headed a little west and then north continuing all the way back north of the Kapen to where he started the evening. No more sign of Masuli.

Here he was hunting impala, but with the moon full his cover was soon blown. I then got a desperate call on the radio from Dale, “I’m diep in the k-k.” He sure was in trouble. We arrived on the scene and all we could see at first was a back wheel a couple of meters in the air. Slowly we could make out the rest of his vehicle. His one front wheel had fallen into a very deep gully tipping the whole vehicle on the verge of rolling. As I tied a chain to it it teetered on the edge of the gully. Dale was clinging onto his door trying to keep his weight on that side as a counter balance. Luckily with the chain it was an easy matter to sort out and he was soon back on level ground.