The Getting Home Part

26 Jan 2025 - Sunday

Somehow everything I dread about leaving Kenya (except the actual leaving part) was a non-issue last night.  I wonder what stroke of luck I picked up along the way.  

The bush flight back to Nairobi landed at 4:20 and I was checked into my day room at Four Points by 5:00.  While ordinarily a day room means you can stay until 9 p.m., the check-in staff said I’d have to vacate by 7:30.  There’s no way I was sitting in the nightmare of NBO for 4 1/2 hours.  I managed to negotiate leaving at 8:15 and so I did, expecting the usual sauna-like crush getting through immigration and to the gate.

The Four Points car dropped me at the Sky Priority entrance (and he walked me and my bag under and umbrella directly to the door, since it was now raining — Africa cried when I left!)

I walked in and did the door security screening.  Got through that and looked up, bracing myself for the chaotic throngs that usually mean at least an hour through the next one, and saw….no one!  Was I early? Was I at the wrong place?  I didn’t think so.  But I had to get my second boarding pass because for whatever reason when using the Delta app, you cannot check in for a Kenya Airways flight at all, and then cannot access the connecting flight on Delta back to Boston.  So I popped into the empty Sky Priority check-in and got that taken care of. 

Immigration, no lines no waiting.  Security check to the gate, no lines no waiting.  And then I found myself with 4 hours to kill, so I went to the lounge which was packed bumper to bumper last time, and it too was empty.  So just where was everyone?  Or why were the last two times I went through this such nightmares?  Anyway, I will not look a gift horse in the mouth. I drank water and Sprite and tried to keep myself awake.  It was quite warm in the lounge so as 10 pm approached and the nice couple from NYC I was chatting with had to leave for their flight, I went downstairs just to keep moving.

The gate for the flight was downstairs, which was a blessing because the door was open so the sauna-like conditions of an upstairs gate were avoided (seriously, I should go play the lottery at this point…). But I wondered if being tarmac-level meant bus transfer to the plane.  No, it did not. It meant a quick jaunt across the tarmac and up stairs to the jetway.  Odd, but I went with it.  I settled into my seat and fought to stay awake until take-off.  I told the flight attendant I didn’t want a meal until breakfast and that is the last thing I remember.  I woke up and we were already crossing the Mediterranean and heading for France.  Only 90 minutes left in the flight!  So I guess I slept most of the 8 hours.  Phew.

Deplaning was a breeze and it took about 15 minutes to get to my next terminal.  It was 6:30 so lots of time to kill.  I bought lip balm for my horribly chapped lips and some dehydration tablets and then hit the Air France lounge.  A few cappuccinos later and I was feeling almost human.  I may try to get a facial or manicure since I’m in dire need of both.

I’m definitely in a “smile because it happened, don’t cry because it’s over” mindset right now.  My focus is on getting home to my kitties and checking on things at home.  I’m desperate to get a look at my photos but I’m afraid between work and jet lag it may be until next weekend that I do.  WAH.  But I’m already looking at the clock and wondering what my guides are doing at this hour, what cats they’re seeing, what they’re having for bush breakfast.  It kills me that all of it still goes on without me, but Francis says that same passion is what will pull me back there.  I think he’s likely right.

What a grand finale — they keep me wanting more!

25 Jan 2025 - Saturday

The last day dawned as all the days before it did, except I was up way ahead of the alarm so got up and finished packing.  My room wouldn’t be taken today so there was no rush to get the stuff out, but I just wanted it done.  I smiled to myself every time the hippos acted up.  I’ll miss that.  And once in the not so far distance, I heard lions calling out.  At least they were out there and nearby.  “We’ll find them,” I thought.

I’d hoped for another fire engine red sky this morning but with a bunch of rain overnight it was still kind of overcast so the day had a soft start to it.  I planned for late check-out at Mara Plains, so I could get a full game drive in and a late flight back to Nairobi for my midnight flight out.  I would rather spend my time waiting to leave with the wildlife than in a hotel room.

I noticed immediately that while my pre-breakfast snacks* were in place, the breakfast cooler was not.  Doh!  I wondered if at first Francis thought I only had a partial game drive and I’d be going back for breakfast, or if I didn’t get breakfast at all on my last day?  What was up?  Those who have traveled with me, particularly car road trips, know that I stock enough food for the eventuality that we are stranded in snow with no access to the real world for weeks.  And now we’re out on a 6 1/2 hour game drive with only my pre-breakfast snacks?  Something’s afoot….

(*I may have forgotten to mention that every morning and every evening drive the Mara Plains chef packs a stackable tin set of container, usually a set of two or three, with snacks to hold you over until bush breakfast mid-morning or to have as a sundowner.  They’re tastefully made up, tied with a black ribbon and a little scroll from the chef telling me what goodies are inside.  I kept all the scrolls and some of the ribbons. I’m a nostalgic dork.  Today they were date protein balls and homemade Snickers bars!)

Francis stopped the vehicle just outside camp and laid out the plan as he did every drive.  We were going to another side of the conservancy to see if we could scour up some different lions.  The other guides split up in different directions and any “news” would come to Francis asap.  So off we went.

30 minutes led to an hour led to 90 minutes led to almost 2 hours…I was seeing landscape I’d not seen before but there was nothing, and I mean NOTHING, out on the plains.  Even zebra, wildebeest and topi were scarce.  We thought we were on to something when we came across some loudly yapping hyenas acting all aflutter, but it turns out they’d taken down a baby zebra that they were just finishing off.  False alarm.

Francis never reported to me that he heard about the sighting that finally popped up.  I saw a couple of vehicle roofs first, then I saw it, the tawny yellow of lions, and many of them, in the perfect golden morning light.  It appeared that they’d been lying in some bushes behind a ledge and right now they were moving toward that ledge (called a kopje here) to sprawl out on the warm stone that had been heated by the early morning sun.  And by the grace of photography gods, safari wizards and all that I hold holy, I was in the PERFECT spot for it.  I had maybe 3 shots to get them all looking at me, and I did.  Holy crap.  I was beside myself.  This is an iconic, lions on the kopje shot, and I have it.

We changed positions a few times as more lions joined (11 in total, 2 shy of the entire Dik Dik pride! Only missing the males) and I took photos of different pairs, some interactions and the cute adolescent who rose from her nap to chase a male agama lizard that dared to scurry in front of her.  Over the next hour or so one by one the lions got up from the now-too-warm rock and moved into a bush.  I had had my share and was ecstatic.  What a wonderful goodbye for me.  It was like the grand finale was saved for my last (for now) game drive.  Sigh.

Poor Francis.  He just sat there and let me indulge in these lions while all the while he was probably tapping his foot.  He said we’d go find a place for breakfast.  And he drove and drove.  We passed plenty of places where we could ordinarily stop but he kept going.  Finally I saw another Mara Plains vehicle and an outside kitchen set up, with Rolex my drinks manager and the chef!  A cute little table was all set up for my bush breakfast!  How sweet, and now I knew why there was no cooler and I no longer had to worry about perishing in the bush! LOL

I had champagne, mango juice and coffee (separately over the course of the meal) and a made to order omelette with cheese and onion, fried tomato and blueberry danish.  It was a brilliant way to cap off the morning.  I felt so well taken care of.

We still had two more hours of game driving but to be honest there was no topping the lions for me.  I think Francis knew that but he was trying.  We had a nice chat and I just enjoyed the scenery.

Close to camp, we came across a mother and father Egyptian goose and 10 little goslings.  It was absolutely adorable to see the goslings scurry under mom for cover, and then mom led them to the safety of a watering hole, where we watched them swim like a little goose parade.  While it didn’t top my sighting earlier in the morning it was a sweet way to remember my last day in Kenya.

For one final time, when we pulled up to the deck at the front of camp, some of the staff were there to wave me in.  It’s really kind of cute, they wave me in as soon as the seen the vehicle coming down the drive, and once I am almost to the deck, they start a synchronized wave back and forth, and then greet me with a “karibu” or “welcome home”.  I know it doesn’t sound like me, but I loved it.  And I’ll miss it.

Dee the manager asked me if it’s ok if Francis eats with me, and of course I said yes.  Lunch was amazing once again.  It was seared tuna with mango marinated potatoes, haricot verts with pickled onion and a green salad.  Dessert was my favorite of this trip, an orange crush panna cotta which I swear tasted exactly like a creamsicle, with an almond cookie on the side.  Francis and I had a great talk and I thanked him for everything he did.  He worked hard to keep me flush with cats and for that I can’t thank him enough.  He certainly delivered.

Mara Plains is beautiful.  It’s surrounded by river (hence the hippos) and you cross a suspension bridge from the car park to the main area of camp.  This was hilarious after I’d come back from sundowners with a heavily-poured G&T in my system.  I’m bad enough with vertigo ordinarily, but on a suspension bridge a bit tipsy with a bunch of other people walking me back in, I felt like a pinball.  My tent was #7 which was farthest from the common area, but it felt nice to be isolated.  The tents are far enough apart anyway that even if I was closer I’d likely not hear anyone else anyway, except the hippos.

The tent was larger than the first floor of my apartment.  There was a seating area with oversized leather chairs, a king sized bed and a large bathroom that appeared at first glance to be open to the room but when I returned at the end of the night after they’d done turndown, there was a curtain pulled across to separate bath from living/sleeping area.  There was a small toilet room beyond that.  A deck wrapped around three sides of it and was frequented by vervet monkeys who like to bounce off the canvas tent roof into the dense trees around it and eat the fruits on the trees.  I’d often find half-eaten fruit on my walk along the raised deck from the rooms to the common area.

2:00 came all too soon and I had to leave for the airstrip.  Maningi would be driving me so I had to say goodbye to Francis and Dee there.  They were all wonderful and took such good care of me. I cried when we left, and I cried when we took off from the Olare Motorogi airstrip.  Maningi stood at the side of the tarmac and waved to the plane, which just makes me cry more.  We had two stops at other airstrips before we headed for Nairobi.  At the second one, three topi stood there watching the plane, and I waved to them through my tears too.  Parting is such sweet sorrow.  But I will be back.  Once again, Kenya works her magic for me.

I had a brilliant safari with some amazing sightings.  Not a single one did I ever imagine in the days and months leading up to it.  I had some hopes and wishes and mostly they came to fruition.  When they didn’t, they were surpassed by something better.

The cat-count:

Cheetah:  15

Leopard: 7

Lions: 84 <— HOLY COW!

I certainly got my money’s worth!!!

Back in Nairobi now having a quick dinner before I head to my midnight flight to Paris, then home to Boston.  Now that I’m here, I just want to get home.  I miss my own kitties!!

Now to think about next year….

A day of nostalgia

24 Jan 2025 - Friday

I’m trying not to focus on today being my last full day on safari.  But I was up before 5 am so I got dressed and started to pack, that way I won’t have to use time during the midday break or after dinner to do it.  Wah….

I slept well and am hearing the hippos less each night.  I wonder if I’ll miss them when I go back to the silence of home?  Of course though, I miss my bed buddies and look forward to getting back to our nightly routine (bed buddies being my cats, for those who don’t know…)

We headed out at 6:15 and the sky was flaming up a bright fire red as we crossed the hanging bridge from camp to the car park.  It quickly mellowed and by the time we were driving out of camp it was “just” the bright orange I’m used to seeing on my early morning runs.

Our first destination was to check on the three big boys with the buffalo kill.  It would be interesting to see this story play out and what today’s chapter in it would be.  Alas, we quickly saw that the story had just about come to an end as we came across a clan of hyenas each enjoying the scraps they managed to scavenge, and no sign at all of the big boys.  They’ve likely trooped their way back to the Reserve and their pride.  I had to laugh as I saw one hyena gnawing away at the skull of the buffalo and I could clearly see the buffalo’s jaw and teeth with no soft tissue around it.  It was as if the buffalo was smiling at me in death.  Macabre I know, but before any coffee in my system, this made me chuckle.

Francis had a plan to try to find another lion pride across the hills so we headed that way.  Suddenly I noticed something running across the plains that looked like a very small hyena lumbering along, but it was so small I thought it had to be something else, but I couldn’t place it.  My mind thought mongoose but that’s too small.  Francis started getting very excited and it turns out it was a striped hyena, which are very rare sightings here.  The last time he’s seen one was over 10 years ago.  So he put pedal to the floor so we could catch up or perhaps intercept it.  It is a solitary mammal and very skittish so I only got a few very quick and blurry shots in the low light before it scurried off.  These document the sighting more than anything.  Photos or it didn’t happen, right?  We stopped to talk to another guide passing the other way.  Francis shared the striped hyena news and while sitting there with the engine off, he and I both heard a lion roar coming from up on the hill to the left of us.  So up we went.

Once up there, Francis scanned the horizon with the binos and saw four tawny specs making their way across the plains.  It was a good ways off (although I am a horrible judge at distance) and I wasn’t sure we’d make it before they hid again.  But when we finally made it to where we spotted them, there was no sign.  So we went on a game drive of hide and seek. We left no stone unturned and after maybe 45 minutes, we found a female lying out in the open and a female and juvenile sleeping in a bush.  All were reply chubby, indicating a recent meal.  Francis thinks this was the Dik Dik Pride.  We weren’t able to locate any other family members.

We started to make our way down off the rocky hill when another Mara Plains guide said they’d found more lions, so we quickly scurried there.  Turns out it was the Enkoyani pride splinter group we keep seeing near camp, minus the collared female but with the bonus of the pride male!  This is Osupaat and he was the guy we saw here the first night roaring his head off.  Osuappat means humble in Maa and he is known to avoid conflict and disappear when there is trouble brewing, which is why he’s been scarce since the big three Topi Boys have been around.

I had a moment though…as I sat watching this big pride male with his children, one of the young females got up and he got up.  The way he was positioned he was standing over her, and he lightly licked the top of her head.  I got chills.  This very same thing happened when I was here in 2022, and it led to my favorite photo of that trip.  When we left this sighting, I pulled up my blog and confirmed, yes, it was the Enkoyani pride.  At the time the cub was 4-5 months old.  I asked Francis how old the young female here was, he said about 2 1/2.  The timing works perfectly.  Then I pulled up that photo.  When we stopped for breakfast, I asked Francis if he remembers the male lion in my photo, and if that is Osupaat.  We looked at that photo against what I took today and also the photo of the other pride male from 2022.  He said no, the male lion in my photo is the other pride male, who was killed.  Today the lion I saw is his brother now taking care of his cubs.  I wanted to cry.  I look for signs everywhere from my Dad, and I still feel like this was one.  Like, even though he’s gone, there’s still someone looking over me.  Sniff.

Anyway….after breakfast in the bush things started to quiet down a bit.  We’d heard that the camp staff at Kempinski camp saw a leopard early this morning but didn’t see which direction it headed, so another Mara Plains guide and Francis drove either side of the river behind Kempinski scouring the trees for it.  He didn’t find a leopard but he did have a spot of another eagle owl like the one I saw the other day.  It was a neat sighting, even without the leopard.

We’re still on the lookout for the other half of the Enkoyani pride.  I’d really like to see the whole pride together (for a total of 12) but there’s no guarantee especially because we don’t know exactly why the pride split up.  While we were thinking about looking for them, Francis heard from a guide in Mara North that there are mating lions with an extra male lion with them there, so he asked if I’d be interested.  I didn’t want to go back to my tent at noon and wait around for the afternoon drive, so I said sure.  Mating lions is better than no lions and the ride would be good since it was so nice out.

Well, good plans gone to waste because we found not one, but two of the bridges to Mara Plains closed for maintenance.  Francis and another guide tried to find back roads and safe crossing points, but it was taking longer and longer and I would likely miss lunch and then run over into the evening drive, which is just a hassle, so we turned back.  It was still a really nice drive and just nice to take in the sights and sounds of the plains.  Flowering acacia trees are just starting to bloom so I’ve loved driving through fields with them, they smell so pretty.

Lunch today was quite good, I could get used to this safari eating thing.  I had whitefish with a Thai basil hot sauce, asian noodles, new potatoes and carrots with okra. Dessert was coconut custard.

I had a very quick break before we headed out at 4.  It looked as though the rain would be coming through again which was a bummer (although it never actually did, it rained across the plains but never where we were!). Francis’ plan was to head right out of camp, rather than left as we always do.  He wanted to go up by Moniko hills looking for the rest of the Enkoyani pride.  Then he got a call that there was a cheetah on a fresh kill nearby so off we went.

It turns out that the cheetah was Kulete, the last living offspring of Amani, who was my favorite cheetah.  Kulete had taken down a thomson’s gazelle and was about 1/4 way into it when we arrived. I could already see that her belly had started to bulge.  Well, this girl can eat!  It took her just about an hour but she managed to eat most of it except the head and some of the bigger bones and hooves.  And she was enormous by the end of it.  I mean, think about it, a thomson’s gazelle isn’t that much bigger than she is!  Her belly was so distended when she left it was crazy.  I’ve never seen this in person so it was an education!  I kept thinking she’d get up and walk away, but she didn’t.  She’d take a break, huffing and puffing from her effort to bring this gazelle down, then tuck back into it again.  It was amazing. I’d been hoping to see her walk off, but she just kept turning back to the gazelle and eating more!  I’m glad I got to see her.  I think Amani did well raising her.  If she’s not successful with cubs though, that’s the end of that bloodline…

We ended the day back with Osupaat and his kids.  They were pretty close to where we left them and didn’t look to be terribly motivated to hunt as they were all lying about.  I had my last sundowner here watching the lions on one side and the sun go down on the other.  It was pretty special, but even more so when Osupaat finally got up and passed by the front of our vehicle and started roaring.  And then a few of his kids started roaring.  It was a pretty special send off to an amazing 10 days. 

I ate dinner tonight with another of the camp manager’s (I forget if I mentioned that Dee, the camp manager, ate with me the other night?). We ate in the wine room, which was really gorgeous (and you guessed it, filled with wine!). Anyway, the starter was a cream of tomato soup.  The main was a Buddha bowl with bulgur rice, avocado, mushrooms, spinach and cheese.  Dessert was a chocolate lava cake with Amarula sauce.  Speaking of, I took an Amarula back to my tent tonight.  Iti’s the last night, why not?

I have one more game drive tomorrow morning and I’m hoping to make the best of it.  Lying in bed here at 10:15, I just heard lions roaring in the distance and now it’s started to rain.  Better now than tomorrow!

I’m sorry, there’s ANOTHER cat beneath me!

23 Jan 2025 - Thursday

Yikes, how did I get here already?  I only have a handful of game drives left.  I think though that my body is starting to rebel.  My intestines are rejecting the anti-malarial. I’ve lost at least 7 layers of skin from dryness on my face, my lips are now parchment paper.  But I’m sleeping and eating really well and otherwise I feel amazing.  I’m even sleeping through the hippos now. I miss running though, and my cats.

I just never know how it’s going to go when we leave here everyday.  It is difficult for guides because unless they hear something overnight, they’re unsure where to head first thing until others get out there and the safari guide rumor line starts to light up.  Francis suggested we start by checking in on the three big lion boys and see how they’re doing on the buffalo kill.  It was still there, they were still there, albeit the buffalo had been dragged out of the bush and flipped over to access more meat, and the boys looked as if they’d need to be flipped.  All three now have much rounder bellies.  Francis told me that because there is no water nearby which would aid their digestion, they paced themselves to that they didn’t fill too soon.  Ordinarily we’d see those big round bellies of satisfaction sooner if they had water to wash the meal down with.

There was a report that a male cheetah was on the move, so we headed that way.  After a bit of patience and some expert positioning by Francis, I got some splendid cheetah-on-a-log-in-the-golden-morning-light photos of him.  I ran his ID by an expert on Instagram and she says he is Milele, who we think we also saw the other day.  I saw him with his brother in 2018 in Mara North but his brother has died and he’s solo now.

We stayed with him for quite some time because he still looked hungry.  We ate breakfast near him just to make sure we didn’t lose him.  He ended up going further up a big hill and laid down under a bush.  He was going no where fast.  I had to decide what I’d like to do next and as I was pondering my options, Francis learned there was a leopard sighting just over the border in Mara North.  Since Mara Plains guides can do game drives there too, that’s where we went.

Twenty minutes later, I was almost eye to eye with Natito, a leopard well known in Olare Motorogi and Mara North.  I’d never seen her before other than on social media.  Like all leopards, she’s an elegant, regal cat.  She was astride a tree branch, paws and tail dangling as they do.  Francis whipped me around the back side of the tree so that I wasn’t just seeing the back side of the cat.  I was elevated a bit which cut down on the “looking up” angle of my photo, and I got some really nice shots.  I think after lions, leopard are my favorite.

Suddenly Natito came down the tree.  As it was just my vehicle and another from Mara Plains, we decided to follow her and see where she’d take us.  I know she has a male cub, so maybe she’d head that way.  She wound her way through and between various bushes.  Francis positioned me so that she’d be walking straight toward our vehicle, and she did, and then went directly under it.  So, for the second time in 3 days, I was sitting atop a leopard!  How cool is that??

This time though, she didn’t zip right out like Nolari did.  She stayed.  And I was prepared to let her enjoy the shade of our vehicle.  Francis though kept starting the vehicle and turning it off.  I don’t know for what purpose but I think he was trying to get her out.  I said I’m fine waiting.  A conservancy ranger nearby approached and told him to stop.  They pulled up and were taking photos of her under the vehicle (she was fine, but I’m not sure what the purpose of the photos was).  Francis released the hand brake, and we silently rolled backwards, only to see her just at the front corner of the rangers’ vehicle in front of us and she was stalking a dik dik beyond their vehicle!  I said “I want to watch her, let’s stay” but Francis had already turned the ignition which spooked her and sent her running.  It’s always frustrating to me when things like this happen, because I make it clear that I’m about giving the cats room and space to do what comes naturally to them, and my desire for a photo is a very remote second place.  But it’d happened and she was on the move again.

The other vehicle from our camp left and we moved to where we thought she’d surface and waited, but she never turned up.  Francis said he’d heard there was a cheetah 15 minutes further up the road, so off we went.  I said I don’t want to stay and track them all day, but it’d be nice to see who it is.  When we arrived at the spot, it would have been next to impossible to find her but for the army of zebras all standing about 50 feet away staring at one bush.  And that’s where she was.  

Looking through binos I could see she wasn’t tired and not acting like she was going to stay put.  She was cleaning, yawning, rolling a bit and a couple time she stood and then sat again.  Now that zebras and topi knew where she was, there was no point staying there if she wasn’t going to sleep.  After maybe 20 minutes she was on the move and so were we.  Francis did a nice job lining me up for photos while giving her her space.  It turns out she is a lactating mom known as Neema.  Another cat I know from social media but have never seen.  She was painfully thin so probably needed to eat but with all the game around her already having seen her, plus there was nothing small enough around for her to go for, she headed off to the hill and hopefully some lunch on the other side.

As it was already 1:45 (where does the time go?) we headed back to camp for lunch.  We arrived around 2:30 and I sat right down to lunch.  Today it was Chinese style fish bao bun, a veggie fritter, asian cole slaw, green salad and mango and avocado.  Dessert was a passion fruit sorbet.  As usual, all delicious.  I finished lunch around 3:15 and was definitely full…I didn’t want to eat so much because dinner wasn’t far off but it was just so good.

After a very quick break when I relaxed a bit and caught up on the blog and some cheetah IDs on Instagram, We headed out around 4:30.  We could see that a storm was headed toward us from the east.  Francis said the weather in the Mara comes from either due east or northeast.  The crazy thing about rain in the Mara is that it hits pretty quickly, from drip to full blast but only lasts a matter of minutes.  And it is extremely localized.  I’ve seen several afternoon showers that leave me dry here, but not 10 minutes away by car it has rained enough to create large puddles.  Today it was our turn here and the rain came lashing down at a biblical rate.

We’d just pulled out of camp and Francis said he’d seen from the staff tent a topi looking warily in the other direction.  We went there first and found all but one of the same Enkoyani pride lions that we saw out there yesterday. Only one mother was missing.  They were just lying about and even tolerated it when the rain first started, but they wasted no time at all retreating to the bushes once it picked up. 

Francis rolled down the plastic sides to keep the rain out but by the time he’d gotten them down and secured, the rain had stopped and it was time to roll them up again.  It was good that we got the sides down anyway because it was raining in from all directions pretty heavily.  After the storm I kept the flannel-lined poncho on over my fleece as it had really cooled down.

The lions exited the bushes quicker than we got the sides up on the vehicle again.  We found one behind and the others in front of the bush where they had sought cover from the rain.  They were cleaning the rain off each other and trying to get warm from the heat of the day that they could feel on the ground.

After the rain stopped and we had open windows again, we headed off looking for a cheetah that had been spotted nearby.  That came up empty.  I suspect that it took cover when the rain hit and would be a while before we see it again.  In any event, Francis got a call that one of the three big Topi boys had stolen a baby hartebeest kill from a bunch of hyenas who’d snatched it from its mother.  Of the three boys, this one lion really does not like hyena and has apparently made it his business to make their lives miserable.  There were only scraps left by the time he got to their bounty, but his point was made.

Francis set me up for some photos of this guy crossing the plain with a very dramatic, stormy sky behind him.  He returned to one of his brothers who was still (still!) guarding the buffalo kill in the bush.  The two moved a bit away from the kill, leaving it open to scavenging. One jackal was having the time of its life eating with abandon but occasionally checking to make sure the lions weren’t going to see what he was doing and punish him.  Hyenas have been all around the kill just waiting for their chance to clean up the rest of the carcass, but so far the lions haven’t let them at it.

I had my G&T sitting by the lions and Francis and I talked about guiding, safari guests and my different safaris and photos.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon, even with the rain.  I returned to camp at 7:30 and had dinner.  Tonight was a cheese souffle starter, pumpkin gnocchi (in a sage butter sauce with blistered grape tomatoes and green beans) and a chocolate tart with a coconut crust for dessert.  How am I ever going to go back to the same old stuff I always have at home?

I made it back to my tent just in time to avoid the rain, which is still going now.  There’s a thunderstorm nearby too.  Better overnight than during the day!