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.
No comments:
Post a Comment