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!
No comments:
Post a Comment