This was now our fifth trip to African national parks, and our fourth day in Etosha National Park, Namibia. So far we had seen most of the sought-after photographic trophies, as it were. On the previous day, we had even witnessed a lion couple mating. Content? not quite. One species still eluded us, to the extent that it had become almost like an obsession to me. Even when I was a kid reading Tarzan books, the one species that fascinated me most was not the lion, nor was it the mountain gorilla. It was the leopard.

After having once again carefully examined the sightings reported at the main camps, we set out at dawn. There had been one or two leopard sightings on previous days, but it seemed to us that one simply could not chase them like mad. One couple told us they'd been to Etosha 15 times and never seen one. So, as we were driving along the quiet gravel road with the occasional springbok and zebra herd slowly yielding to us, it felt great just to be enjoying the awakening nature around us. "Graceland, Graceland, we're all going to Graceland...", I remember signing to myself, taking in the golden morning rays of the sun while combing the gravel road in the restful wooded savanna.

Then at 7.20 a.m. on that July morning, it finally happened. Suddenly out of nowhere, a female leopard emerged from the bush, then stopped suddenly, look at us straight in the eyes (which was when the shutter release decided to get jammed of course...), then decided we were uninteresting and slowly disappeared into the bush. At that moment I noticed my camera was not responding to my finger anymore: it had run out of film. All I could think of was "Wow!"

I rode on that for days.

Marko Laakkonen

About leopards...