You want to see leopard? Plenty of them? And not just far off, fantastically camouflaged in the dappled shade of a marula tree?

Try Cheetah Plains.

Before our visit to the lodge, we’d managed to spot the elusive creatures only once, and much as described in the introduction. After 24 hours at Cheetah Plains we’d renamed it Leopard’s Lair.

A concentration of leopard in the Sabie Sand makes for riveting viewing

Here our sightings were never the grab your binoculars or telephoto lens and peer into a distant tree variety. Here the leopards were everywhere.

A couple of metres above us in a tree, a female tucked into her duiker kill that she dragged up the trunk to safety.  As we approached I’d taken a shot and she filled the frame with a 50mm lens. When we stopped all thoughts of cameras (a wide-angle lens would’ve sufficed) were forgotten; the shutter might’ve irritated her and she’d pounce on us in the Landie below.

A little further on our drive we watched two young brothers roll in the shade and clamber up rocks. Not much later we rounded a corner and found Dad in a marula tree next to the road – they love these trees and they are everywhere; lazily curious, he seemed quite unperturbed by our vehicle. Just before camp a magnificent haughty male was happy to saunter alongside us for quite some time before disappearing into the bush.

It was a taste of what followed every day.