We were shockingly late for supper. Utterly blameless, of course: it was the leopards’ fault. We were travelling through South Luangwa National Park in Zambia towards the pleasant bush-camp of Nchinedni. By the time it got dark we had the spotlight on, just to see what turned up.

 

And what turned up was a leopard, uncompromisingly male, with a huge neck on him, so that he looked more like a jaguar than a lithe Luangwa leopard. It was clear from the way he moved that he wasn’t simply going from A to B: he was locked onto a herd of impala 200 yards ahead, and they had no idea he was there. He dropped into a dry watercourse: standard leopard tactic in open country. The hunt was on.

 

Or was it? Suddenly there was a second leopard out in the open: much slighter, more graceful and clearly female. The male was now visible in the gulley: and in an instant he changed his plan. He turned through 90 degrees and very slowly lifted his head over the edge.

 

He was now stalking the female. He gazed on her raptly for two or three minutes, body motionless, just as he would have done had he had still been after the impalas. And then he committed: flowing effortlessly over the edge and giving her the charge.

 

She was up a tree in a matter of seconds, pouring herself upwards as easily as water pours down. The male followed and, hidden in the branches, there was some kind of coming together – some kind of kerfuffle. The male came down again, leaving the female in the branches. They both needed to think things over: but contact had been maintained, perhaps even strengthened.

 

We reached camp full of totally unconvincing apologies.

 

• I was co-leading the Ultimate Luangwa safari for wildlifeworldwide.com. Next year I will be co-leading https://www.wildlifeworldwide.com/group-tours/sacred-combe-safari and I will also be participating in https://www.wildlifeworldwide.com/group-tours/festival-of-wildlife-zambia