There are few vistas to give one a sense of place or distance but as we bounced through the quickly drying potholes near the airstrip, we could see in the distance a large grouping of black things. As we got nearer, I pulled out the scorecard I'd been given at reception and readied my camera. There were nearly 200 Cape buffalos in the herd each accompanied by its own Red-billed Oxpecker. The Cape buffalo is one of the Big Five...one down!

The rangers are inter-connected by radio and listen through a single earphone for the finds of one another. All of a sudden we shot off, cross-country, through the veld. Whatever Steve had heard, he wasn't telling us but the increased urgency of his anxious backward glances to Enoch, our tracker, told it all. We were definitely after something special.

We slid to a stop on the rain-soaked grass and Steve turned off the engine. I was the first to spot the leopard, then two blurs in my binoculars focused as her cubs. Two other vehicles arrived and the leopard took off with us in full pursuit. Crashing down small trees and skirting thorny bushes, we out-flanked our prey, which had sheltered in a clump of brush. Now everyone could see its deceptively tranquil face...two down.