2025 South Africa, Zimbabwe & Zambia - Day #15 - Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve

Elephants, African Wild Dogs and Lions!

Up at 5:05 am, we met the group at 6 am. We were out on the game drive by 6:15 am.

It was a slow start to the morning. After some rain overnight, it seemed like the animals were bedded down. Eventually, we started to follow a couple of groups of elephnats. Johan's background is a zoologist and his master's theis was on elephant vision. He was very fond of the elephnats.

We watched the elephants pulling up trees to eat the roots. They were also stripping the bark off the trees to get to the cambium layer of the tree.

At some point, the guide got a call on the radio. We left the elephants. We ended getting a chance to see African Wild Dogs for a second time. The included 11 adults and 8 puppies.

African wild dogs (also known as painted dogs or painted wolves) are listed as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. For comparison, Cheetahs are classified as "Vulnerable." "Endangered" is a more severe conservation status. The global population of African wild dogs is significantly smaller than that of cheetahs.


As we were wrapping up a late breakfast, a young male hippo wandered towards the watering hole below the lodge. It is the first time that we have seen a hippo out of water! For breakfast, I had eggs on avocado ciabatta toast.

For the second day in a row, we skipped lunch. After updating my blog, I wandered down to the fitness center. I did a 10 minute Peloton core workout and then walked for 2 miles on the treadmill.

Sharon and I had a very cool experience in the afternoon. A large herd of elephants gathered at the watering hole behind our room. At one point, a young female came over and tried to drink out of the pool on our deck; her trunk wasn't long enough. A little while later, a larger elephant started towards the pool. Sharon got up to get into a better position to take a video. The elephant saw her, stopped and wagged its head back and forth. Our guide told us that this is an acknowledgment that they see you and that everything is cool.

Being able to watch the animals the watering hole made Sharon much happier about the room.

The evening game drive focused on a small pride of lions (1 males and 3 females). They were laying in the grass along the Sand River. There was some excitement when the guide attempted to park near the lions and the vehicle starting to tilting to one side.

The evening break was a beautiful spot overlooking the Sand River. It was one of the nicest sunsets that we have seen.


We had dinner in the BOMA again. I had a oxtail curry as my main course.

Tomorrow is a travel day. Packing up the room after dinner, it was almost 10 pm by the time that we crashed.