Young and Old

What an evening, we just watched over a hundred elephants bathing in the sand river. As we went around to the road, young and old crossed right in front of us playing with each other. Then we carried on and stopped at the oldest tree around Kirkman’s Kamp. A sycamore fig tree (ficus sycomorus), estimated to be about 650 years old. We had a look at the still green figs along the giants’ arms. “Hey, there is some sort of cat lying there”, said Jaine, one of my guests. And she was right. A young female leopard was lying on one of the old trees’ branches. Curled up she enjoyed the evening sun. For years we were waiting for one of the leopards to use this most comfortable tree to rest.

Posted: Kirkman's Kamp by Stephanie Mast, Date: 14 April 2008