View of Leopards and Lions from above
Nyamsika Cliffs is located only a couple of hundred meters from our campsite, and on every one of our african wildlife safari, we spend a couple evenings or mornings to enjoy evening sunset or sunrise breakfast. The Cliffs overlook semi-dry Nyamsika River with a vast expanse of acacia woodland / savannah across the horizon. It is a treat to observe variety of animals from rambling elephants, resting buffaloes in the riverbed, or giraffes browsing in the distance.
The views reward us sometimes with unusual sightings of predators. Hyenas venturing out on their nightly prowl, lions coming for a drink, or leopards finding its stalking place. As we see plenty of their footprints while walking, we always eagerly await such sights while enjoying our sundowners or breakfast on the cliff.
Timing of one such trip was conspicuous as the last day/night of it happened to be my birthday. This was the final night of our safari, as we had explored the park on foot, boat, and car for three days, and my friend/visitors enjoyed discover africa safaris in Ugandan wilderness, coming all from Zambia/Malawi. Nyamsika Viewpoint is indeed a perfect place for sundowner any day, and on March 7th it was a perfect spot for celebration.
We were all having fun, talking, watching birds, few bushbucks around, or some buffaloes and elephants in far ends. Shadreck, one of the visitors has a feeling that “something was missing”, so had made a bold prediction “the Lion will appear within 15 min”. Time was aroung 6:30 pm, so he/she better hurry… We all somewhat forgot about this prediction within 5-10 min, when suddenly another crew member, Josh said “a Lion, see there is a Lion”. And here he was, a young male casually strolling into the riverbed for a drink, from the opposite side. We were too far high and the other side for him to be noticing and bothered; but we had a perfect view.
“Josh Sibanda” as we named him was a young male (about 2 yrs) and he was not in a hurry. He took some sips of water (presumably after an all day nap), walked casually up and down and then sat down and just chilled. Getting ready for the night? I was grateful for “Josh Sibanda” and my friends to make my day so special. This was not our only lion sighting in the area, as recently we seen some hunting from our camp.
On the most recent trip, a similar fantastic experience occurred on the first night of our trip, this time with a leopard at the very same spot. We were just introducing our visitors to the environment, and after a long drive we suggested a short 10 min walk to the Cliffs to stretch our legs and enjoy the view.
As we set up our bush bar with all drinks and refreshments, everyone felt great to rest and soak the wilderness, with some black colobus monkeys playing around underneath us. All of us were more hoping to see a hyena perhaps to spring out from the grass into the riverbed, eagerly awaiting. I found myself facing the river with my back, a mistake! Suddenly, one of the guests pointed to an animal crossing the river and for the moment we were not sure of what it was as the dusk already set in, and the visibility was poorer. Suddenly, the subtle moves and body shape revealed it was a leopard, walking carefully across the river, which was fairly full due to lots of rains. We were fortunate to have with us Kim Paffen, a professional photographer who was able to take a perfect photograph of this beautiful leopard.
This was our first leopard sighting in the area despite seeing footprints daily and hearing the leopard grunts at night, so much more we were happy for it. One can see both lions and leopards on a variety of Africa safari packages, however, this place offers truly a special view. Observing a dry riverbed from above – with wildlife unaware of us even though they come very close to us at times.
As the near total darkness enveloped us, we have departed the Cliffs and slowly walked with our torches back to the nearby camp. There giggling hyena sounds enlivened our night as we fell asleep.
Photography is supplied by Kim Paffen.
