Tuesday, November 6
Honestly, it’s days like the last three that make Kenya utterly irresistible to me. Every day I’ve thought that the next day can’t possible out-do it. And it does. Even if it ended right now, this safari would likely go down as my best. Not to say it hasn’t had its harrowing moments where I’ve felt all was lost. But then I put my faith in Ping, and it pays off.
Ping left us last night saying two things: he would do some research on where the Fast Five and Amani were and that it was going to be a very vocal night. And was it ever. No sooner had I turned out the light than the lions were roaring right across the river. With the echo of the deep embankment, it sounded as if they were on my front porch offering me a dawa. They sounded so close that I actually looked at the tent walls and wondered if they were enough to keep them out. Then I decided to try to record the roars on my iPhone, so I was jumping from tent opening to tent opening trying to get it. I guess that makes me a lion dork. I can’t count how many times I heard lions all night, or express how close they seemed to be, not to mention a virtual non-stop chorus of hippos, but I did not sleep through and just got bits of sleep here and there.
Fear not, though, I sprang out of bed when the alarm went off at 5:30 and was dressed and nearly ready when my coffee was delivered at 5:45. It was colder this morning than yesterday but we just tied shukas around ourselves and settled in. This morning was less cloudy so we got to see the sunrise race up over the horizon.
Ping said that most of the roaring last night was females. I of course asked how he knew that and he said the female roar drops off at the end of the sound, whereas a male’s does not. Good to know. I need to pay more attention tonight. And I learned something else on this safari.
Ping said that the lions around here are weird, in that once he hears them that vocal, he never finds them, and today was no exception. We couldn’t find a lion near camp to save our lives. It’s a good thing we didn’t depend on that, since cheetah was on the agenda.
We passed a small herd of elephants that was very wary of us. He said ordinarily the elephants are as skittish but these really didn’t like us. He suspected that the elephant had passed through a nearby camp and had a negative encounter with humans. Gosh, I hope not. They were great to watch, nonetheless, because they had two little ones. The littlest one was so cute though because it had enough trunk control that it was able to browse on the greens successfully, but when it wanted a particularly tasty bush of some sort, it would just face plant and eat it right off the ground with its mouth. Too funny.
He’s found out that the Fast Five were on the side of Lookout Hill closest to us today, and that ended up being nearly an hour drive. He also knew where Amani and her new cubs were last night and it wasn’t that far off from there, so we headed in that general direction, unsure of which we’d do or if the cats would even still be there. He was using a channel on the radio to talk to his cousin and two other trusted guides and they were working together for the same cause. Ordinarily I’m not a fan of the radio thing but this was the best way to guarantee we were at least headed in the right direction. Finally Ping’s cousin called to say he’d found the Fast Five. They were on the other side of Lookout Hill and they looked hungry; he thought that they were going to try to hunt.
It took another 40 minutes to get near there, but we did stop for breakfast, photos of various things and at Lookout Hill itself for the vistas towards Tanzania (remember that I’m not alone here in this vehicle. and we need to balance the first-time safari-goers experience with mine). In the end I could do a lot of “we shouldn’t have had a second cup of coffee” or “we shouldn’t have done the photos at Lookout Hill”. But we did, and in doing so, missed the Fast Five fighting amongst themselves and then dispersing. By the time we got there, there were no Five to see.
The Fast Five are a five male cheetah coalition, which is extremely rare. They formed in December 2016 and experts at the time said it wouldn’t last. Now it’s become the stuff of legends. It’s on everyone’s want-to-see list, including mine. The five are made up of two sets of brothers, two who are Naborr’s sons (I saw her in Naboisho a few years ago) and three who are of an undetermined mother. Ping seems to think the mother of the three was from somewhere in the Reserve because when they lead the pack, they go there and when the two do, they go back toward Naboisho; they retreat to where they were born. Lately I’d noticed that Ping has been posting on social media that there have been a lot of fights between these boys, which he doesn’t think is good for their longevity. That’s what had happened today, and the sets of brothers split up. It wasn’t long however until we found Naborr’s sons sleeping under a tree. So I saw 2/5 of the Fast Five!
It was starting to heat up and I didn’t want all of us to hang out there just waiting for the cheetah boys to wake up, so we moved on. Ping thought maybe we could find a cheetah mother with five cubs (I’m unsure who this might be) so we started heading into her territory. That’s when Ping’s radio started to go wild. Beyond that territory, a cheetah was starting to hunt. Around the same time, another guide let Ping know that two leopards were hunting. Ping had already made the turn towards the cheetah mother/cubs territory and he quite literally stopped the vehicle and said “We have a decision to make here, we either go see a single cheetah attempt to hunt or we go see leopards mating.” I voted for the leopards but said I would commit to whatever we as a democratic unit agreed. Beverly and Rick said they didn’t really care, so Ping headed towards the leopards. He said at dinner tonight that that is what he really wanted to do.
Without the benefit of understanding Swahili, I had no idea what the guides on the ground were telling Ping but when we pulled up he told us that there were two male leopards vying for the mating rights to a single female. Unfortunately they were in a ravine surround by shrubs. We managed to get a spot initially from which we could see one of the two males. We drove around a cluster of vehicles and saw the other male. The female was meandering about in the thicket.
The adrenaline was pretty high by now so what took place over the next hour went so fast but was so fraught with anxiety. I wanted to see them mate and I wanted the photos. There was no telling what they were going to do when or where. Sunshine was turning to clouds and eventually looked like rain. Ping said if it rained, the leopards would come out into the open. A reserve warden showed up and booted us all out of the thicket (maybe 5 vehicles, that’s all that could fit). Ping parked us along the road with an eye on one leopard so he’d know when they were moving. It started to rain, the leopards started to move, but in the opposite direction. Ping rolled down our windows and told us to cover up with a shuka so as not to get wet. Through binoculars to the open field, I saw that one male appeared to give up on the female when she was following him, but as soon as she turned her attentions to the male who was following her, he was all interested again. We tried to find a quick way to cross the ravine to get to the cats in the open field, then they doubled-back and headed back.
When the leopards had passed back over the ravine, we were right where the mating male stopped to wait for the female. He was really close off the passenger front of the trunk. I had a perfect shot. The female showed up and lured the male away from us and into some grass where they promptly started mating. I tried to stand to get a better view but to no avail. I was not pleased and immensely stressed. Ping told me not to worry, “we’ll get this”. He moved the car yet again, along with the other handful of cars following this, to where he thought they’d eventually come out of the thicket. And wouldn’t you know, out came the mating male and he plopped down about 25 feet directly off the front of our vehicle, and a perfect clearing. The female came over, flashed her tail in his face and that was all he needed. He mounted her and I heard the voice in my head saying “push the shutter release”. I’d remembered to keep the camera set on multi-frames per second and just let it go. I got the whole thing! I didn’t screw it up! The shots are excellent. And I just saw one of the rarest sightings for a safari-goer, mating leopards. Better still, two males aiming for the second female, which even Ping said he’d never seen.
During all this Ping was assessing the situation and said the female is Lorian’s daughter and this was her territory. What likely happened is she’s gone into estrus and has been scent marking all over the place. Both males wandered through and decided to try for her attentions. One male was larger; they were both huge compared to a female but one was just enormous. They’d had some skirmishes before we got there. The mating male was limping and the other had a gash on his cheek. The non-mating male was literally worked into a lather, he was drooling heavily and was quite agitated. All three cats were growling deeply and persistently. After the mating session we got to see, the males moved on to another area of thicket and Ping thought for sure there’d be a fight. The female did too, I think, because she followed to a point and then sprinted off, not wanting to be caught in the cross-fire. We’d seen plenty at this point so Ping suggested we leave before the warden returned again. I agreed. This was so much more than I could have imagined.
We headed away from the sighting to use the bush bathroom and have a hot lunch packed for us. It was now 3:00 and I was astounded how quickly the day had gone. We had rice, a curry vegetable stew with zucchini, carrots and onion and rice. I think we were all exhausted from another long day in the vehicle but the excitement was enough to carry us.
After that we saw a few more sedate but memorable sightings. There was a fairly impressive line of wildebeest moving along the plain and Ping positioned us so that the wildebeests were coming right at us with an artistic acacia tree right next to them. I also managed a great shot of an in-flight vulture. I’m impressing myself with my photography skills, when my stupidity doesn’t screw it up.
We got back around 5:30 and had time to pack and shower before we sat around the campfire with a drink, which was really nice on our last night here.
On the path back up to our tents from the parking area, the staffer who was walking me up jumped to the side so as not to step on something. I looked down only long enough to ascertain something black and squiggly. I ran ahead of him and nearly climbed in his sweatshirt with him. I’ll pretend for now it wasn’t a snake even though he said it was. It was small and thin, I’m leaning more towards worm...
Dinner tonight was ugali (like polenta, a Kenyan specialty) and then something like tortillas with something like salsa. Barbecue was the main course for the others, I had fish similar to last night’s. There was something I think Ping called pizza that was so good, lots of cheese and veggies. There was orange cake for dessert.
At dinner tonight we were asking Ping all sorts of questions and Rick said that one of the guards mentioned that there were lions in camp once. And yes, Ping said, they were there walking up the path to our tents last night! Yee ha! I can’t even imagine.
As I’ve sat here in bed typing this, the chorus of lions has been going on. Near and then farther each successive time, and now it seems closer again. I’ve never stayed anywhere that it’s been this reliable and close. I’ll be sad to leave here tomorrow, as much as I’m looking forward to Offbeat again.
No comments:
Post a Comment