My amazing bush pee!

One of the first things you will learn when on a drive is the importance of the bush pee. Long drives in baking hot temperatures,lots of water consumed, and not a toilet for hours. When you've got to go you check that there are no animals nearby and find a suitable bush.

I never imagined that a bush pee would lead to one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

It was the final drive of the final day of five weeks of amazing experiences and we were all a little down, a combination of having to leave Venetia and also as we had not seen much on this final drive of ours.

We were parked at the top of Lizzelea Dam waiting to watch the sunset when I had to go and bush pee. I moved away from the group and as I did so I heard an animal bellowing from the plains below.
A blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), was head to head with a leopard!(Panthera pardus)
The wildebeest charged and the leopard spun around and bolted into the bush. As the rest of my fellow volunteers came rushing over to see what I was shouting about I noticed that before being chased off the leopard had taken down a wildebeest calf.
It is often said that nature is beautiful in its' cruelty. The injured calf, bleeding heavily, struggled to its' feet and managed to walk a few hundred metres alongside its' mother until it fell to the ground to awit its' fate.
For the next half an hour we stood transfixed waiting for the inevitable to happen, occasionally catching a glimpse of the leopard as it crept closer to the calf.



Cruel? No. A little sad, yes, but also beautiful and compelling.
As the light was now fading, Chris, our guide, drove us down to the plain below. Using the spotlight we found the leopard hidden away in a bush, and as the sun set behind us we watched her with her kill.



It was a truly magical end to a wonderful five weeks, for me the experience served to remind me why Venetia is such a special place.
You see that's the thing with Venetia. When you've had a long, hot day and maybe you haven't seen all you were hoping to, it can suddenly surprise you with a wonderful sighting like this which will stay with you forever.

Matt Dunn UK (volunteer)

My amazing bush pee!