19 Jan 2024
It was warm enough when we returned last night that I opted not to have the front flaps zipped shut. The air was nice and clear and since I wouldn’t be cold and it didn’t seem to be about to rain, I just figured why not. I slept really well, heard lions in the distance, but shortly before my alarm went off the lions were here in the valley. They were close. It made me second guess my decision to keep the flaps open! Twala said they were across the valley (maybe 1/8 mile) but still…. He suspected they were two young males from Ol Kinyei Conservancy who’d recently been forced out of their pride. He could tell they were young and inexperienced because their roars were clipped off at the end; he said they were lacking follow-through of a mature male. Too funny.
We headed out at 6 am and there was good visibility and no fog to speak of. It was nearly 90 minutes of nothing but a hippo or two and some plains game (translation: no cats). The sky started to clear up and we were seeing blue sky and sun for the first time this week, according to Twala. This gorgeous weather would last through the afternoon and help to dry up a lot of the puddling everywhere.
I was so honed in on finding lions that when we pulled up to a sighting with a bunch of vehicles around it, Twala said to look between the cars. I saw beige fur and immediately thought lions, but instead it was the cheetah Nashipae and her four 5-month old cubs! She is a social media sensation! I was so psyched. Nashipae was cleaning her cubs and one returned the favor. I had trouble confirming there were still 4 because they were piled up on each other a bit. Finally they all settled down to nap. Twala says she hasn’t successfully hunted in 4 (now 5) days, so they’re all hungry. She was eyeing the horizon behind us but with too many zebra there, she wasn’t going to be able to snatch a gazelle without them alerting them all. We rotated off the sighting to let others have a chance with her but the longer the cubs slept and Nashipae acted indifferent to the gazelles, more people left. We took another turn with her and then went for breakfast.
Bush breakfast was good, my favorite thing being homemade chocolate granola bars, they were incredible! Also had a hard boiled egg and some granola with yogurt. And more coffee….I think I’m living on Kenyan coffee and Gordon’s gin. Not that there’s anything wrong with that….
We returned to her after breakfast and they’d all moved since we left, with the four cubs now asleep under one little tree and Nashipae under another nearby. She was eyeing the horizon but two huge herds of cattle were being moved through so she was unlikely to try to hunt while they were around.
My vehicle mate asked to try another night drive tonight and I told Twala I’m not interested. I was too tired last night and I’d rather relax here and get a good night’s sleep.
I took a shower after the morning drive and downloaded a few photos. I’m really pleased with this camera but think I still have a lot of work to do, more to learn. Paul Goldstein, a wildlife photographer I follow and who owns this camp, is here with a small group. Those folks just left so I may try to pick his brain later tonight. In my head I have mapped out the next 13 months really working on my skills (and maybe either getting a different lens or a second camera body…) so that when I’m back here next year, I’m far better at this than I am now. A girl’s gotta have goals.
Lunch today was cold lentil soup, veggie burgers (to die for! No mushroom or beans, all veg and mozzarella cheese!) and a delicious cole slaw. Dessert was an amazing strawberry mousse. They are really trying to fatten me up here.
My little rock hyrax friend is back on the porch. Yesterday as I tried to nap he sat on the porch staring at me through the screen. If I went out to talk to him he acted interested. When I went back to bed he brought a second friend along to watch me. He’s out there now waiting for me to hop into bed for my nap, I think!
Just read on social media that Nashipae hunted while we were at lunch, so she and the cubs have eaten after nearly 5 days. PHEW! I’m sad we missed it but more happy for her and the kids.
We headed back out at 4. The first thing of interest that we came upon was a jackal that had a hoof and lower leg bone of a buffalo. It was chewing on it like a dog would a bone. We scared it a bit when we shut off the truck, and it grabbed the leg, which was larger than himself, and ran off, right into 3 other jackals. It dropped the leg and started an impressive bout of growling which scared the other three off so it was allowed to enjoy it in peace.
Another stop was to watch two baboons courting. Twala pointed out that the females’ bums are bright pink when they are in heat. As we drove up a male was picking at the bright pink bottom of a female, and as we got closer they moved for a bit of privacy next to a bush. While we never saw the act itself, it is clear they were on a first date of sorts, grooming each other intensely and really looking each other over very carefully.
Not long after, we came upon three lions (YAY! FINALLY!) and it turns out these are three from the Ilksiausiau breakaway pride. That was one of the massive prides from my visit last year, now broken into two parts, the breakaway is 17 of the originals. Twala says they are about 13-14 months old now so they would have been 2-3 months old when I was last here and it is very likely I have photos of them as cubs. I’m going to try to match whisker patterns on these three with the ones I saw last year when I get home.
All three were covered in flies on their chest, belly and nether-regions. The guy sharing my vehicle with me thought it was disgusting but Twala explained that that’s actually good. They aren’t nuisance flies but serve the purpose of cleaning the lions. They eat remnants of any kill that get stuck in the fur as well as anything the lion may secrete, like blood or urine, so they serve to keep the lion clean and healthy. I did not know that!
We made a pass around the area to try to find more of the pride but came up empty.
Coming down the hill we saw a vehicle from another camp stuck in some very deep mud. The guide was not very experience and just needed a tow, so Twala hitched up and dragged him out. It only took a few minutes.
It was not that much longer after that that we came across the breakaway group for the Sampu Enkare pride. They had already splintered off last year, I think. This was the oldest female and two younger lionesses. They were just sitting looking about casually. Suddenly, one of the females got up and walked past and behind us. Another followed a bit behind. We backed up and rode alongside the first lioness. That cat was on a mission! We looped around a large patch of small trees and down a decline. At the very bottom of the decline was a very large harem of impala and their male. By the time we got to the bottom, all 40 or so impala knew something was up and coming down the hill. They were all staring uphill and were very, very uptight.
Twala saw the lions stop about 3/4 of the way down the hill and just sit i front of a bush in broad daylight. I was half paying attention because I still hadn’t figured out what was about to happen when Twala said “she’s coming” and at just about the same second I noticed impala start to flee to our right, the same direction the lioness was headed.
I don’t feel like she really planned it out well or really was fully into doing it because it did seem like the whole thing was a bit half-hearted after her concerted walk down the hill. The impala panicked and alarm called for several minutes after the attempt. The lioness just stood there as if she didn’t understand what had just happened. She turned and looked up hill, and slowly meandering down was the other younger lioness. She missed the show and a chance at dinner. I wonder if she was meant to help hunt.
While it was great to finally see lions (my favorite), I’m really shocked by how few we’ve seen and how tough it’s been to find them, when in February it was lions everywhere, to the exclusion of every other cat.
By now the wind had shifted, the air felt cooler and the sky started to thicken and turn gray. As absolutely beautiful as the day was, it was quickly looking to turn diabolical. I sort of hinted that maybe we should go back but there was a creepy orange-red sun going down and Twala thought we could make it to our sundowner spot to get silhouette photos in front of it. So we did. This is where I came to appreciate the full meaning of a sky being “pregnant with rain” because I really felt like if I reached up and pricked one of the clouds with a pin, I’d just get hit with a deluge. Where the sky hadn’t turned black already, it was a weird yellow. Those clouds were about to unleash on us. I could feel how heavy the air was with rain on the way.
We skipped putting the roof back on because Twala thought we’d make it back to camp before it started (he was right). I opted to stay in the common area until dinner rather than venture back to my tent. By now the lightning had started. But oddly, no rain ever hit camp. And no thunderstorm ever emerged. So strange.
Dinner tonight was mushroom on toast starter, baked fish sticks and fries for entree and a small pear filled with pomegranate for dessert. My vehicle mate and I ate with Mike the temporary manager and Paul the camp owner. It was great conversation.
I took a Bitter Lemon back to my tent with me and blogged, barely keeping my eyes open by 10:30. One more full day out there. Lewa seems so long ago now!
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