I never cease to feel a sense of awe when coming across a kudu in the wild. These majestic horns of a mature male are beautiful to see.

An interesting aspect of kudu is that they often stand stock-still when surprised. We have witnessed this behaviour time and again in game reserves: they might take a long look at you before moving a little further away or into the relative safety of a cluster of trees and then stand still to look back at what has disturbed them. It is equally wonderful to come across the females.

Look at their large ears and … this one is clearing something from her nose with her dark tongue.

Her companion chews a blade of grass whilst contemplating our presence in the late afternoon light.

Now this is the thing about kudu outside of protected areas: they pose a very real danger on roads throughout a great deal of South Africa – particularly from dusk until dawn. One reason for this is that they apparently have a compulsion to leap in front of approaching headlights. They are not easy to see in the dark either and so one has to drive very carefully and be on the alert to avoid a collision which could prove to be fatal to both the motorist and the kudu.
We once surprised a kudu along the nearby country road during the late afternoon – beautiful to see, but not an experience to risk again as we watched it run back and forth along the road; run along the high fences on either side and crash into them while attempting to leap over them. Kudu have a reputation of clearing a normal fence with ease – and we have watched one clear a high game fence with grace too. The latter had been running across the open veld and simply leapt over the high fence as if it were a bush in the way. Such fences are more of an obstacle if there is no ‘run-up’ space and there is an annoying vehicle in the way. We have since been much more cautious about getting off that road well before dusk. What we did not expect was to come across this sight as we came around a corner mid-morning.

This photograph and the next are not of good quality as they were taken through the windscreen. As you can see, the road is narrow and bordered on either side by tall trees. What makes there even less room for these three to escape is that high game fences run along both sides of the road too. The trio would run ahead and stop to look at us; run ahead and disappear into the bushes lining the road; presumably run along the fence line out of sight and then appear in the road further ahead to cross it and try the other side.

I crawled along, eyes wide, until at last the kudu decided to turn back. I glimpsed them running along the fence on my right, back the way they had come. Having seen them standing in the road behind me, I knew it was safe at last to continue on our way.