Day 11 — Last Day Luck

 Wednesday February 22

An absolutely silent night for my last night here other than the few lions who serenaded me while I packed before bed.  I tried to read but fell asleep quickly.  A text from my sister around midnight woke me at midnight, a warning that I’d be landing in Boston in snow.  Oh joy.

Off we went on our last morning drive with Twala.  We were all quiet as we made our way through the dark, probably all thinking how it is possible to leave the perfection of a pre-dawn game drive.  Twala passed a lone lion and a couple of hippo making their way through the dark, which was fine since we could hardly make them out and photos wouldn’t work.

I think we headed north and soon enough we could see the tawny colored fur of lions making their way through the bush.  Little did I know that I was about to have one of my best lion sightings ever.

We came across the Ilksiausiau pride again, this is a big one and we had about 10 of them.  They were all sub-adult so old enough to be on their own without mom but still dotted with their cub colored spots.  These cats were enjoying the cool morning before the sun came up playing.  All sorts of rough-housing, chasing, coveting of sticks and chunks of bark, tearing up turf to play with reminded me of the two I left at home, just big kittens burning off some energy.  I have more photos and a whole lot of video from all of these interactions because they were truly epic and I’ve never seen so much play and fun in a pride before, so a first for me.

But also, two moments when I thought “uh-oh, this is the end of me”.  One a trio of lions were really fighting and turned vicious.  They were rolling around in a wrestling heap and growling and roaring and came right toward the jeep.  I jumped back because they came uncomfortably close while full of their play rage before they realized the vehicle was there and abruptly stopped.  PHEW.  The second time was when a very big male came up out of the dry riverbed expecting to just jump right on to the bank, not expecting that we’d be sitting right there.  As he leapt up, I saw him headed straight between me and my Brit vehicle mate, before he suddenly lurched to his left and dodged around the vehicle all together.  He was, quite literally, within arm’s length and I jumped back.  I have the video to prove it, it was pretty special if not the first time I think I’ve ever been panicky here.  But hey, better to go crushed by a big lion than sitting at my desk, right?

We stayed with them for about an hour when they started to tire and the heat of the day set in.  It was so much fun to see all that play and realize how similar domestic and wild cats are.  Just as we left two lions looked up at a tree.  One of my vehicle mates asked Twala “cats don’t climb trees, do they Twala?” And he said no just at the moment that one cat did indeed climb that tree.  All behavior I’ve never seen before.  What a day for a girl smitten with lions.

We then came across a very skittish male cheetah that Twala couldn’t identify.  It wasn’t familiar to any of the other guides either.  Since he was just dozing under a tree we only watched him for a bit and moved on.  Twala was still giving it a good try to find leopards for the Brits, but any time we made it to leopard territory, we’d seen baboons or monkeys or even humans having their bush breakfasts and realize there’d be no leopard there.

Bush breakfast today was pretty much the same, including the bush loo break, only this time three vervet monkeys watched me as I did my business.  Too funny.

Over breakfast we watched one of the vervets with a very tiny baby climbing and playing on a log near us.  I don’t think any of us has seen a monkey that small before, it was quite cute.

After dinner last night where we discussed vervet monkeys, I made it Twala’s goal to find a male vervet for them to witness.  The males are most notable for their bright blue testicles.  Everyone at the table had seem them except my vehicle mates, and I felt it a necessity.  Twala found one while we had breakfast.  It was funny.

As we started the slow and regretful job back to camp, we stopped to watch some baboons with little babies and a few vultures on the remnants of a wildebeest (just the horns and skull!)

We agree that none of us was ready to leave, but we didn’t have much choice, they’d already given our tents to the next guests!  We got back to camp and I had a couple of iced coffees before lunch, which was excellent as usual.   They had a red pepper and tomato gazpacho, which was incredible given how hot it was midday.  There was also a pasta salad and grilled veggies on skewers.  Dessert was a strawberry mousse that was heavenly.  I washed it down with my last Malawian Shandy.  Sniff.

Minnie runs an amazing operation at Kicheche Valley.  Her team are always helpful, smiling and anticipating any need.  I would return there in a heartbeat.  She’s a kind, gentle soul who really looked after me.  It’s not often you find someone like her in a business like this.

After a good cry as we lifted off from the Mara, I found the SafariLink flight to Nairobi, which had one intermediate stop midway somewhere, was mostly uneventful.  It is much cooler here in Nairobi now and I’m sitting in an outdoor restaurant at the hotel waiting for my veggie burger.  

For those familiar with Nairobi, the new expressway and bypass roads are now open, so the trip to/from Wilson and JKIA is only about 15 minutes now, even at 4:30 pm when I landed today! It’s a vast change from the good old days.

Doing a covid test before the flight, 12 days of no mask has been blissful, I’m hoping it didn’t gain me an infection.  (Edit…test is negative.)

Just need to eat and shower and head to the airport for a midnight flight.  The long slog home begins….the good news is I just scored another discounted Business Class fare so at least I can sleep the 9 hours to Nairobi.  Woot!

Day Ten — Dancing Maasai

 Tuesday February 21

I was up early and got a head start on packing for tomorrow.  While I was organizing and sorting, I heard a lion right outside camp.  The same outside I was about to walk into to get to the LandRover.  No worries, we have guards at camp that you flash your flashlight at from the front of your tent, but still.  They were close.  Twala says when the lions are nearby we have no other animals around camp.  And indeed, driving out, none of the usual zebra, giraffe, impala that we’ve seen right up next to camp were around.  Last night a giraffe was grazing on a tree right next to the front flaps of my tent!

Some days out on safari are a bit slower than others but it doesn’t mean it’s any less enjoyable, maybe just a little less exciting.  We started out early again and headed north toward the very large pride of 40+ lions (Iikisiusiu pride).  It was after sunrise before we found some of them.  They’d killed a young wildebeest in the wee hours and by the time we got there, one sub-adult male was gnawing on the skull and antlers and that was all we found left of that creature, other than one bloody hyena running away with the spine.  In the distance a parade of a dozen or so lions was heading to the hill and the area where there is a watering hole.  Twala said that lions often like to drink after a meal and he raced to the spot where he knew they’d first look.

We got there just as a female lion did and the spot was dry.  Twala knew she’d check there first and move to another that usually has water if they were truly thirsty.  She came over to the dry watering spot right next to us and surveyed the situation, then huffed off grumping about it, probably letting the rest of the family know not to bother, the hole is dry.  Off she went into the bushes to sleep the day away.

Next we came upon the big tusker we saw yesterday on his own and then with that small herd.  He wasn’t alone today, he was with another big tusker, and together they made quite an impressive  pair.  What I didn’t mention yesterday is that, while I got some really good photos of him yesterday, I’m not sure I’d enlarge any of them, and especially not display them at work, because in most of them he had a very erect penis.  Any shot I got of him yesterday made it appear as if he had a fifth leg.  Hanging that in my office will probably get me branded Not Safe For Work.  Today when we found him, he was in that state again.  His friend was not initially, but then they swapped states of arousal and I managed to snap the big guy with just four legs.  The challenges of wildlife photography!

Anyway, all of us really took the time to appreciate how silently they move, even being the size these two are.  Neither gave us a second look, which was good.  I liked not being a bother to them.

Bush breakfast today was unique in that we were right along a migration route and several hundred wildebeest were running past us for a lot of our time out of the vehicle.  They were just moving either from one source of water or grass to another, it wasn’t the great migration everyone knows about, but it was interesting to see the herd mentality at play.

Breakfast today was frittata (this place has it down with the protein!), orange muffins and granola. I had a wonky stomach overnight so ate light with just the frittata and a muffin.  I feel better now by midday and ready to roll on with lunch.

Twice today we came upon herds of eland, which are a very large antelope with a very prominent fat pad that hangs beneath their chin along their neck.  I’ve only ever seen them in singles before as far as I can remember, so to see them in herds like this and in very good numbers is impressive.  What was funny though is that one big male eland must have stuck his head in a bush and a bunch of greens stuck to his horns.  So he was walking around like he had a crown of garland on his head.  It was pretty funny, especially when one of the females came over to him to try and nibble the greens!

Our last sighting right before returning to camp was pretty cool in how it happened.  We were crossing a ridge above the valley and Twala stopped suddenly and picked up binoculars.  He said “lions over there” while pointing to what appeared to be several miles of landscape.  Further detail was “moving towards wildebeest on the horizon”.  None of us could even see the wildebeest.  And the horizon looked to be a good 10 miles away.  But no, it was only about 4 minutes away, and when we pulled up, we found a pile of lions under a bush.  How Twala made this spot like he did is well beyond my comprehension.

These were 6 cousins of the Sampu Enkare lion pride, the same pride we saw running toward the male’s roars last night after sundowners.  There was one sub-adult male who looked to be in charge of 5 younger cubs (not little cubs, maybe 18 months or so).  The cubs all still had spotty bellies and legs and were keen on watching us and looking at where our noise was coming from.  One little guy had a wound on his nose with flies poring out of it, and he kept rubbing it with his paw.  Man, I’d have him to the vet so fast if he were my cat (which is why Cape Ann Vet loves me!). They were all just hunkering down for a nap and appeared to have round bellies meaning they’d fed recently, so we had no reason to think they’d move again now, so we headed back to camp, which was less than 5 minutes away!

We grabbed a drink in the lounge area before heading back to freshen up for lunch.  I asked for a Stoney Tangawizi but Minnie asked if I’d ever had a Malawian Shandy, which is Stoney, Sprite and a dash of angostura bitters and a slice of orange. I obviously haven’t had one before, but now that I have it may be my drink of choice!  It’s so refreshing and a nice taste.  And I know Sprite is rehydrating, which I really think I need.  It’s cooler here today but my skin is so terribly dry I may never be fully hydrated again…

Lunch today was a turkish pastry stuffed with veggies and a spicy tomato sauce and the beet root salad I like.  Dessert was a very thin puff pastry cup with fruit salad and a dab of raspberry ice cream on it.  It was so good and very refreshing.

After Iunch I took my last siesta nap.  I’m tired and I think the schedule is catching up with me, so I slept for nearly 2 hours.  It warm and quiet but still good to have the sounds of the bush lull me to sleep.

Poor Twala tried so hard to conjure up some leopards for my vehicle mates.  We spent over an hour combing leopard country high up in the northern part of the conservancy (we are very far south) but no luck. We headed back towards camp and instead came across several pairs of impala faux-fighting, locking horns and cracking heads together.  That was kind of crazy to see.

At one point Twala stopped fast and had us look down.  In the middle of the road, nestled between three stones was a crowned plover (bird) sitting on two eggs.  When she felt threatened by us, she stood up and spread her wings to make a show of it, but we quickly left her to it.  I think she might have picked a less trafficked place for it, but who knows.

At last we got closer to camp and saw a herd of impala all staring downhill, and we discovered the large lion pride we saw part of this morning dispersed across the hill on the other side of the valley.  Those impala were so suspicious of lions so far off from where they were. 

We of course went to see them.  We started with three who we followed to a watering hole.  Twala positioned me just right for that “lions drinking” shot, so I was very happy right there.  Then we went further up the hill to find 8 more lions of various ages (but none fully grown) lying about.  One little guy was attempting to stalk an impala but quickly thought differently about it and went over to the pile of his siblings and cousins and piled on.

As each additional lion turned up to the pile of lions, they’d greet each other with head or chin rubs or tail flicks. It all became too much for one of them though and a bit of a fight ensued, which I was lucky to be taking video for at the time.  A couple of the older lions move away from the pile then, and the one younger lion who I suspect was the instigator walked over to one of them and swatted her across the head.  It was kind of funny to see them playing like kids, or like my own cats at home!

I have spent more time with Twala and this couple doing a little more slow safari.  Stopping to look at things beyond the cats (like a gorgeous bee-eater bird tonight) and also learning more from Twala. 

Dinner tonight was gnocchi in a tomato sauce to start, baked fish with rice, broccoli and boiled red cabbage for the main and a molten lava cake for dessert.  It was wonderful!  I had a glass of Amarula for a nightcap.

One of the other British guests has been teasing Nelson, one of the dining staff about singing for us.  Well tonight he made good on it and got all the camp staff dressed in their Maasai robes and jewelry and they came out and presented traditional song and dance to us. They even got us up to dance.  It was really fun and a nice way to end the trip.

Five of us here all have one more game drive tomorrow, the morning one, which is the best one and then late check out and lunch before we fly back to Nairobi together at 3:15.

This trip is just what I needed to relax, recharge and heal.  I’m so lucky for how much it has exceeded my expectations.  Now if I could just go home and look at my photos, clean some clothes and come back!

Day Nine — Lions vs. Buffalo

 Monday February 20

Today I got my groove back.  Yesterday I was disappointed for a few reasons I won’t elaborate on here, but I think the tone of yesterday’s post might have revealed some frustrations.

Minnie the camp manager here at my last camp is wonderful.  Such a gentle, sweet, endearing woman.  She runs a tight ship but no detail is overlooked and nothing is too much to ask.  I mentioned I had two bug bites that had not been responding to hydrocortisone and were driving me crazy.  She quickly turned up with something stronger that, thankfully, seems to have eradicated them miraculously. 

I slept amazingly well with that front tent flap wide open.  It was the perfect sleeping temperature and even cool enough to pull the duvet up and snuggle in.  I didn’t hear too much noise except for either a buffalo or hippo munching grass around the tent.  Just a soft chewing and gentle footstep.

Out we went at 6 am.  We headed back up to the plain where we had the sundowner last night and stumbled across the honeymooning lions and his brother.  (Brothers will stick together, even when a female mates with he dominant one.  The brother was wandering around nearby both time we’ve seen them).   The couple were asleep but the non-mating brother was walking.  Twala positioned me exactly for the big maned male to be heading directly at me.  Then he looped around and set me up again.  And again.  And again.  Man, if I don’t get some good shots out of that attempt, I’m hopeless.  Twala also told me I could open the door to the jeep and lie flat to be almost ground level with him, but I just couldn’t do it.  For once, fear got the best of me.

We then went back up to the honeymooners and watched them do their thing a few times in the golden light just after sunrise.  They’re still going at it every 5-7 minutes or so.

Next we came upon a small herd of elephants that had a matriarch and a few of her daughters, and the tiniest wild elephant I think I’ve seen.  It’s ears were still folded flat across the top of its head, so that puts it at less than a few weeks old (Twala is actually teaching me a lot, I did not know that!).  At one point the little one fake charged the vehicle and it was so cute…like, all the fierceness it could muster with wide ears and trunk up.  Too funny.  And I love watching how even at this young age, when it’s a long ways from eating greens instead of mother’s milk, it is mimicking what the others do, scuffing up clumps of grass to then pick up with a trunk.  It was scuffing already and also reaching into bushes with its trunk but not pulling anything off.  Nature is pretty amazing.

Our next lion sighting was three lionesses and three 5 month old cubs from the Enesikiria pride.  They were walking through grass mid morning, and I didn’t realize why they were so shifty until I saw a large herd of buffalo passing by.  The lionesses hustled the cubs under bushes.  One stayed with them, another was on guard near them and a third lioness took the front line on a small hill in front of them, watching as the buffalo paraded past.  Some would stop and stare the lioness down, and her ears would flatten and she’d crouch a little lower, just like my Maisie does when she’s staring down a squirrel at our back door.  

One of the little cubs has a lame front paw.  When it runs it is not weight bearing at all, which is of course incredibly sad to me.  I offered to take it home to do rehab.  Hopefully it is just a soft tissue injury that will heal over time, and the moms can keep them safe until it does.  Twala said that two of the lioness had cubs at about the same time for a total of five cubs and they’ve lost two to buffalos, so that would explain why they were very twitchy around them.

Breakfast this morning was out in the bush today.  I was surprised when Twala stopped where he did, because we were right in the middle of a whole lot of game: topi, hartebeest, zebra, giraffe, impala, jackal, warthog.  None would threaten us, but I’ve just not been that close to so many at once on foot.  Most of them gradually edge away from us and stood to stare from a safe (for them) distance.  However, the giraffes were more curious.  Each of us used the bush bathroom (just going behind a large bush near the vehicle that Twala first inspects for hidden predators/snakes and gives us the all clear).  Each of us went in turn, and it was fascinating and hilarious to watch the giraffes watch us do our business.  I looked over at one point and she was staring at me, not chewing, not moving, as if to say “so THAT’S how you humans do that!”  After the initial performance anxiety from having an audience, all was well.  But hey how many people can say that a giraffe has watched them pee?

Bush breakfast this morning was quite good, vegetarian scotch egg (yay PROTEIN!) and pancakes with coffee and juice.  It was very good.  The Swiss couple told me the food is better here and I have to agree with them so far.

We spent some time at the hippo pool again watching them submerge and pop up again, showing varying degrees of ears/eyes/nostrils each time.  The weaver birds weren’t going nuts over the pool like they were yesterday, so it was fun to just watch the hippo bloat float.

Returned to camp to a nice tall iced coffee.  I haven’t had this since home and boy do I miss it!  I am reaching the point when I’m starting to miss some creature comforts.  I could do with my hydrating face masks right about now for how painfully dry my face is from all the sunblock.  And I really miss my cats, who I think of every time I’m watching lions.

Not sure what’s in store for this afternoon.  The couple I’m sharing a vehicle with have not seen a leopard so I’m sure Twala will find one.  I’m perfectly fine with all the lions, since those are my thing.

Lunch today was carrot and chick pea soup, vegetarian cannelloni and Amarula (like Bailey’s Irish Cream) mousse.  Heavenly!!  I sat with and hung out for a while with Nina and Marie, the cousins from NYC who are leaving today.  It was fun to chat with other like minded wildlife and photography folks.

A couple of follow-up notes….

The snake I saw the other night (ending my streak of no snakes on safari) was a spitting cobra.  I would, allegedly, have been alright as long as I didn’t show the snake my eyes….

The pregnant cheetah we saw with her impala lunch yesterday was Kulete.  Interestingly she is the sister of Kweli, the cheetah with 3 sub-adult cubs we saw a few days ago, and the daughter of Amani, my favorite of all cheetahs in the Mara.  So I’ve now seen all of Amani’s litters:  Karembo in 2014, Imani in 2016, Kisaru and Busara in 2017 and Kweli and Kuleti now.  Pretty cool.

Well the afternoon drive was one of those things I would never have thought I’d ever see.  There are just encounters that you never think will happen while you’re watching.  I’ve actually seen this play out on nature tv shows, but it was far more hair raising in person.  Twala quickly found what we thought were just a couple lionesses lounging aside a riverbed.  Turns out it is the Sampu Enkare pride, which is 30 or so lions strong.  They were pretty spread out among the bushes though, which would quickly become obvious to us.

As we watched these two lionesses, my vehicle mate Kevin said he heard rustling in the bushes across from us.  Twala didn’t think so.  But the lionesses both rose and went directly into the bush, so Twala followed them.  What they, and we, encountered was a very old elderly grouchy Cape buffalo coming at them (and us) through the bushes.  It didn’t register whether the buffalo saw them at that point, but the lionesses knew he was there and hid deeper into the bush.  The buffalo passed the bush with the lions in it, but paused.  Then one lioness came out and followed him, quickly realizing he was closer than she thought, and she ducked for cover, just before he realized he was being followed.  So he stood there, staring just at the branches she was behind, with another lioness deeper into the bush making way towards him.

The buffalo finally turned and continued eating along the riverbank.  The two lionesses boldly came out of the bushes and sat like two sphinxes about 40 feet behind him.  He turned and stared them down while they stared back.  And then the calvary arrived.  Four other lions appeared out of no where and spaced out in a 50 foot circle around this buffalo who was now basically trapped between them and the river…and our vehicle was in the center of the circle!  If any hunt at all had occurred, we’d have been front and center, literally!  

The lions continued to stare and the buffalo continued to ignore them while he ate and walked away.  It was all very intense!  I think we all wanted something to go on, but were also nervous about our position if it did.

The lions retreated back into the bushes and we moved on.

Next up we came across a big tusker (50+ year old male elephant with massive tusks) as he lumbered across the plains on his own.  We followed him for a bit and then caught up with him again as he met up with 10-member elephant herd.  He was really just checking the females to see if any were ready to mate, and once he ascertained that there weren’t any, he turned and left.  We hung with the herd for a bit, watching their two little babies and just listening to how quiet they are when they eat.

We then came upon another dozen or so lions from Sampu Enkare pride.  They were sort of flaked out across an area we were driving through, so we stopped to watch them.  They all moved closer together to create a big pile of lions, which was great and all, but what was really very cool to see and hear was their pride male started roaring for them across the valley.  They all stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the roars, got up and made their way to him.  We followed them through the bush the best we could until they got deep into it.  Twala of course was positioning me for some great photography.  As much as I don’t want to go home I’m really anxious to see how all these came out.

We had our sundowner on the plain again.  It had been sprinkling on and off during the drive and was pretty overcast when the sun did go down, but we still managed to squeak it out.

Dinner tonight for me was a baked eggplant appetizer, red snapper in paprika sauce with potatoes and carrots and a fruit cheesecake for dessert.  Then, because it was my vehicle-mates’ 41st wedding anniversary, there was cake, champagne and a performance by the camp staff who sang Hakuna Matata and a Kenyan song about blessings to them.  It was really sweet.

I’ve added another member of the indoor chameleon club today.  There was a tiny one on the screen when I came in from dinner.  As long as they deal with the bugs, they can stay.

Tomorrow is my last full day here and I’m pretty bummed about it, but also really want to see my kids and family, and have a facial of some sort for how ridiculously dry my face is!

I’ve just turned out the light and am listening to what I’m pretty sure is either a hippo or buffalo right outside the tent.  I will miss this….

Day Eight — On to Naboisho

 Sunday February 19

Right after being walked back to my tent after dinner, a lion seemed to be roaring his way toward camp.  I stood and listened while I was packing, remembering to savor the moment.  All too soon I’ll be back to car alarms and barking dogs.

After that, it was a much quieter night around camp until just before the alarm went off when a lion was roaring quite close by.  I mentioned to Benja that it was nearby right before we headed out and it seemed that we’d go in that direction to investigate.  I mean, that seemed the obvious choice, it usually is.  We did see one lioness about 1/4 mile ahead of us at one point, but we didn’t bother to follow her.

We rode around for a bit and finally came across a couple other of our camp’s vehicles watching the two Enkoyani pride males lying in the open sound asleep.  They make no bones about just lying anywhere, not trying to take shelter or hide themselves.  Just flop and sleep.  Once again, Swiss Guy for the win….he whispered to me that he saw the females and cubs in the other direction.  I let Benja know and we snuck off. 

We tracked the females and cubs for a bit and then they doubled back to where the males were and we did too, just in time to witness an absolutely adorable reunion between fathers and cubs.  Yes, I have photos!  I was beside myself with happiness.  There is just nothing better and during golden hour light too.  Then one little cub started his not-so-ferocious roar (more like a cranky mew) and walked right towards us.  I flipped on the video on the iPhone and caught him walking next to our LandCruiser. Holy cuteness!  I’m fairly certain he’d fit in a carry on, just sayin’!

At one point one of the pride males spotted a hyena approaching, a very big threat to the cubs, and he flew off to chase it away.  The other camp vehicles went after that while we held down the fort with the cubs and lionesses.  I’d like to think that’s my speciality.

Benja wanted us to move on and find something else before breakfast.  I think all three of us would have been fine staying there, but who knows what he may find.  We drove for a while without any sightings.  He’d stop and survey the landscape with binoculars and then keep driving.  Suddenly while looking through the binos, he said “leopard cub”.  Hey, ho, what???  Before he could even explain to us where it was, he was radioing it to the other vehicles.  It took me a good 5 minutes to figure out where he was talking about.  We were a respectful 100 yards or so away.  I only saw it by taking a photo fully zoomed on my camera, and then enlarging that on my camera screen.  That’s how far we were from it.  

The cub was left alone in the crook of a stone wall.  Behind it was a little cave where it was being raised.  Its mom is Natito, a well known leopard here.  She’d obviously told it to stay put while she goes out.  He was the cutest little thing, just sitting high up on the rock, hunkered down and waiting.  We didn’t want to encroach on him/her so we left before it could get spooked by us.

We had the same bush breakfast as yesterday except with the addition of a spanish omelet which was great for protein!  We sat watching a long line of wildebeest migrate across the plains.  It was pretty chill.

Not 5 minutes outside of camp, Benja sighted a cheetah under a tree.  We approached and even before we got to the sighting, Benja was calling it in on the radio.  The cheetah was a female who appeared to be pregnant, but when I asked Benja didn’t know who she was.  She’d just made a kill of a small Thomson’s gazelle.  She was still panting from the effort and nervously scanning everywhere, fearing that it may be stolen from her.  It took her about 10 minutes before she even thought about starting to eat it.  We were in the only good position for photography, head on to her and not shooting into the sun.

All in all my stay there was good.  The camp is nice, the in-camp staff is incredible, friendly, accommodating and attentive.  I certainly had the cat sightings, however we got them.  Benja was a good guide, but I’m more used to someone making their own sightings, keeping them to ourselves, at least for a bit, and knowing the resident cats by name.  That he didn’t was somewhat of a disappointment.  The Swiss couple said my next camp, where they’d come from, is much better.  Fingers crossed!

The drive between camps took only 45 minutes and now I’m in Naboisho Conservancy.  I met Minnie the camp manager and was just in time for lunch, which was delicious.  They had the choice of fish sticks or baked vegetable sticks, three bean salad (yeah, protein!), cheese and crackers.  I had a glass of rosé with it.  A nice rest before heading out for our first evening drive.  I’m sharing with an English couple on their first safari and they’re eager to see cats, so hope it works out that way!

Just as I was dozing off here at nap time, two flies started to annoy me.  I made a mental note to get them before I left for tea. As I was getting dressed to head out, I saw a chameleon on the tent screen. “You better be on the outside,” I said.  He moved enough for me to see that he was inside. Ugh.  “OK then, you better make yourself useful,” and with timing a movie director couldn’t have gotten better, a fly landed next to chameleon and it ate it.  Chameleon is now allowed to stay.  As I write this several hours later, the second fly is now gone too.

I met Kevin and Jane and our guide Twala and off we went.  I gave him the brief that I really want to see cats, and I think he got it.  First we made a stop at a hippo pool where there were also some golden weavers doing their annual nest making competition to win over females.  That is always fun to see.  Then we headed to a nearby watering hole because Twala saw female lions from the Sampu Enkare breakaway pride waking up and walking through the bush.  He thought they might come down to drink.  I think it turned out to be still too hot and too early (it is broiling at 4 pm when we head out) so we moved on.  We found honeymooning lions who were early in their week of mating, so literally doing the job every 5-7 minutes.  It was quick, only 20 seconds or so.  But….I learned something!  I always thought the female rolled over because of the passion of the act (LOL!) but really she rolls over to ensure the male’s sperm gets into her uterus?!  Who knew!  We watched a few rounds of mating from different angles,  I got the best photos I ever have of mating lions head on and some video, and off we went.

We headed for sundowner up on the plains, where a gorgeous sunset set off some great silhouettes of animals on the horizon.  Just as we pulled up, we saw three jackals going after a baby wildebeest.  The mother was fighting them off but they still managed to wound him on his hind leg.  Oooof, not a good start to his life.

Dinner tonight was vegetable curry over rice and ginger cookies with cream.  I ate with two cousins from NYC who are heading back tomorrow.  They’re like minded when it comes to photography and wildlife, so it was a good conversation.  Back in the tent and ready for bed.  I’m slightly curious because they’ve not closed the front tent flaps when they walked me back here.  I don’t think I’ve ever stayed here and kept them open….hmmmm.

 

Day Seven - Cat-trick

 Saturday February 18

Fell asleep to rainfall last night, interspersed with lions who kept getting closer and closer all night.  They were in camp at least twice that I could tell.  I heard a bit of huffing around my tent at 2:30 which I presumed was a cat of some sort (edit: Dido confirmed it was a hippo!).  Then around 4 there was very loud lion roaring quite close to the tent.  My closest neighbor confirmed it was between his tent and mine.  There are worse reasons to lose sleep!

The Swiss couple and I were right on time for our 6 am departure with Benja.  It’s still pitch dark at that time, so we have to be escorted from our tent to the vehicle.  I would have thought with lions in the immediate vicinity shortly before we headed out that we’d go looking for them first (a bird in the hand, as they say) but instead we took off for the other side of the conservancy, driving about a half hour to an area where cheetahs were found yesterday.  We came up empty on cheetah on your own and were lucky a guide from another camp told Benja there were lions right behind him, just ahead of where we were.

So that’s how we came to find the three lionesses of the Iseketa pride snoozing under the edge of a large cluster of croton bush.  Benja said that they have four cubs but at this hour we didn’t see them.  Two of the lionesses had fresh, still bleeding wounds (one on the neck, the other on the hip) so he was worried that there’d been a fight and the cubs had perished.  He asked if we wanted to wait and see if, once the sun warmed things up a bit, the cubs would appear.  Ummmm, of course!

We didn’t wait long until one lioness got up and went deeper into the croton bush, calling out to her charges…and out they came, four two-month old lion cubs.  I was delighted!  We spent about an hour watching them play, rough-house, attack each other and the lionesses, play with sticks, steal each others’ sticks, play with a lioness’ tail.  It was all such great fun to see them so active, happy and playful.  It’s what I’ve been waiting for, I think, since I left here 4 1/2 years ago!  

The lioness with the wound on her neck seemed to need a break from mothering while she recovered from whatever happened last night.  Any time a cub would try to play rough with her, she’s put a massive paw on its head and push it down, as if to say, “not now, kid, Mom needs a break.”  Once the moms and kids started to settle down, we moved on to find the cheetahs.

It didn’t take long for another guide to point Benja in the direction of Keli and her three almost-adult cubs (two males and a female).  We found them in the shade of a small acacia.  They appeared recently fed; Benja said they made a kill yesterday.  It looked like they were going to spend today sleeping it off, except we bumped into them again as we were nearing camp.  The cattle that are allowed to graze here due to the drought had moved into the area we originally spotted them and the family moved away.

Bush breakfast was out on the plains under an acacia tree.  I had homemade granola with homemade yogurt and a couple of thin crepes with coffee and OJ.  It was a nice break around 9:30 am.

Right after that we tripped over Kiraposhe’s boys again.  This time the lame one seemed more lame than yesterday with a more pronounced limp and hesitation in weight bearing on it.  Benja says he is still improving and pulled up video from the original injury a month ago and it is indeed a lot better than the obvious pain he was in then.  Benja says the uninjured brother is doing a good job looking after the injured one and is using his speed and ability to catch their prey while the injured one comes in to make the kill.

We were back at camp around 11:30, all in all a great morning.  I reviewed my photos, mostly of the cubs and am thrilled with so many of them.  Unfortunately this Sony RX10 seems to be on its way to biting the dust with a lens issue…I am just crossing fingers that it lasts through Wednesday!   As much as I love the photos that I can get out of it, these problems are inexcusable especially given the price of the camera! 

Lunch today was veggie burger, rainbow pepper cold salad, eggplant and tomato cold salad, rolls and a cheese board.  Dessert was a mixed fruit salad with vanilla ice cream. I am really struggling with energy levels here, I think because I’m not getting enough (read: any) protein and carbs.  I think they are interpreting “vegetarian” to mean that I only eat veggies.  I am desperate for some black beans or a whole lot of cheese. 

We headed out at 4:00 and it was downright sultry.  Not as hot as up at Sarara but we were all eager to get moving and have some air blow around.   Benja said the plan for tonight was to find an elusive leopard.  There is a leopardess who recently had cubs and they’ve only seen the cubs once but….  We all said “YES” and off we went.  I told him not to tease me.

Right out of camp we came across an elephant family about to cross through camp.  We stopped to watch them for a bit.  They tend to frequent this particular plot of land because of the species of acacia tree there, which they are very partial to.  Indeed, a couple of the sub-adults actually pulled up huge branches of acacia and carried it off with them!  Like it was a take-out restaurant!  This herd had one tiny baby who was pretty cute and still getting used to having a trunk.  Pulling up the rear was a massive bull elephant who was pretty pissed off about the herders cows who were moving into the area to graze, and apparently he’d tried to charge another vehicle so when Benja saw him coming, we got the heck out of there.

The area where leopards tend to be is usually somewhere that has somewhat dense undergrowth and trees.  They like to hide low particularly if they have cubs and store their meals/kills high up in trees.  We were very clearly in leopard territory and really scanning high and low. Thankfully another of our camp vehicles found her first, so we just piggybacked off their sighting.

In conservancies, the rule is the first four vehicles on the sighting get to stay, anyone who comes after must wait at a distance and swap out when one of the four leaves.  And also in the conservancies, only those who are staying here can be here, so there are no day trippers.  All this usually means that there is good behavior and not the madhouse that I’ve seen in the public reserve.  Usually.

We were doing fine watching Akira (our leopard).  There was no sign of cubs, which was more than fine because she was fine specimen and well worth shooting off about 200 photos as she sat there looking as dismissive of us as a cat normally would.  She didn’t seem to love the passing motorbikes that locals use.  One more of our camp’s vehicles showed up and all was still good.  Then a fourth one with a jackass private guide and a renegade driver eager to impress him showed up and it got tense.

Akira suddenly decided to hunt.  It literally came out of no where.  She threaded her way between the four of our vehicles and headed toward a cluster of bushes that would provide her some cover from a small herd of impala, one of which was a tiny baby that should have been an easy kill.

Jackass’s vehicle went speeding after her.  I think Benja was going to follow but I told him to stop and we’d catch up with her if/when she caught something. The other two vehicles looped around to the other side of her so if she kept going straight she’d go right at them.  Benja followed them.  Jackass pulled straight forward into the bushes where she was and sat there.  Literally, right into it.  

We waited it out and long story short the impala moved on.  Then the hot pursuit for Akira began again and now other camps in the conservancy had heard so they showed up.  We found her, almost back to where we originally found her.  Who knows if she even attempted to hunt or turned back when all the vehicles started maneuvering around her.  When the 7th vehicle showed up and pulled up near her, I asked to leave.  We were way off from her, easily 40 yards, but I still felt like I didn’t want to be party to that.  It was all fine and calm and respectful when it was just the first three of us.  It soured me in the end but I did really appreciate the quiet time with her before it got ugly.

So, given that we saw lions, cheetah and leopards today, we accomplished a cat-trick!  All three in one day.

About a half hour before sunset tonight, the sun was behind a thick bank of clouds and I wondered whether we’d see sunset at all.  Suddenly a hole opened in that cloud bank and a gorgeous set of sun rays poured over the plains.  It was majestic and heavenly.  It made me think that maybe Dad was here with me, it was quite a show.

Sundowner tonight was on the plains watching the sun go down behind an acacia tree.  Pretty iconic.

Driving back to camp my long-running streak of seeing no snakes came to an end.  Just outside of camp there was something very long (easily 3 feet) and silvery white trying to cross the road.  Benja slowed to a stop to let it cross, and I looked forward to see why he stopped and I got a quick look before I could look away.  “Is that what I think it is?” And he laughed.  UGH.  He told me to pretend it was just a lizard without legs.  UGH. UGH. UGH.

Dinner tonight was a tomato soup, a three bean quiche (hallelujah!!  PROTEIN!), broccoli, carrots, potatoes au gratin and a rhubarb crisp for dessert.

I’m all packed for tomorrow.  We’re doing the early game drive and then I’ll come back and transfer to Valley Camp for my last 3 nights.