21 Jan 2025 - Tuesday
Today was a bit nutso. It was my last day with Ping and as we got closer to today, I really started to dread saying goodbye. I think we’re a good team and he offers the safari I want and need. It’s challenging, the pace is high but the rewards are immense. He told me last night that I have incredible patience and he likes that I just go with the flow of the animals. Without patience, sightings like what we had just don’t happen. Today was another one of those days.
After leaving Nolari and her cubs (leopard) last night we agreed that we would come back today. I slept completely straight through the night and only heard lions once I was up and getting dressed, and they were close! But we still headed up for the leopard.
We got there and were not the first on the scene, despite leaving at 6:15 and well before sunrise. Nolari was tucked into the bushes and we could just make her out. No sign of cubs.
Spoiler alert: we were there until 1:10. Yes, that’s right, I spent more time waiting on this leopard than I did with Faulu the other day. But this went by so much faster because there was pretty much nonstop action and suspense. Our goals were a few: see the cubs, see Nolari haul her kill up into the tree, see Nolari in the tree. We were partially successful.
It is disappointing for me to see other guides who aren’t patient enough, or don’t have the guts enough to tell clients, that they have to sit and wait. No amount of circling the bush wildly or driving face first into the bush is going to bring her out, and certainly not young cubs. But that’s all I kept seeing, and from some big name camps too. We kept our distance respectful and played the waiting game, moving only when it was obvious that Nolari had different plans than what we were positioned for.
The day was a game of tracking her within and between large bushes, and positioning ourselves that we could watch her and know what she was doing and what she might be about to do. I got some good shots of her, I think, through the low undergrowth.
She was hot and panting and agitated by the traffic around her. At one point she scooted out of the bush and directly under our vehicle! All the other vehicles around us were taking photos of our vehicle, me hanging out the side looking down, knowing she’s under there! And now we couldn’t move at all. I could hear her right beneath me panting! She stayed there for just a few minutes before retreating again to another bush. (If anyone reading this was on that sighting and you have photos of us with her, please let me know!!)
We kept bumping into an elderly British man at all the leopard sightings and it turns out he visits 3 or 4 times a year just to see his leopards. He was a delight to chat with and really passionate about the leopards. But you know he wasn’t just aiming for a documentary shot proving he’d seen her, he wanted more. We joked quite a bit about leaving to use the bush bathroom or eat breakfast, risking that “it” was going to happen as soon as we left. But it never did, and we were both relieved.
A pair of jackals turned up and harassed her. I could see and hear her hissing in the bush. But my elderly British friend and I even outlasted the persistent yipping jackals. Indeed, it wasn’t until all the vehicles except two were gone that she actually came out, and that happened around 12:45! She slipped past us and directly to the tree Ping had been saying she’d take the kill to, only she went up alone and without the kill. So we got to see her climb and then struggle to get comfortable hanging over the branches. I don’t think this tree was the best for what leopards need it for but she really tried to make it work. With the breeze and the shade, it probably felt better than just the bush.
I was well late for my transfer to my next camp, Mara Plains, but I think Ping let them know we were on a good sighting. Finally he gave in at 1:00 and we started on to Olare Motorogi Conservancy. I let my British friend know I was leaving Nolari in his care, and that once we left she’d come down and the cubs would come out and party for him and him alone. Lucky old guy!
Naboisho was so good to me. It was hard to leave.
When I got to Mara Plains, they let Ping have lunch with me. He was head guide and manager here for 8 years, so he was greeting a lot of people he hired and trained. Last night and today Ping and I really had a lot of good laughs. I’ve learned a lot about his history and heard so many of his stories. I also learned he keeps a notebook with notes on all his guests and their special sightings, so he doesn’t have as encyclopedic a mind as I thought!
Lunch was wonderful…as I let them know that I’m vegetarian but will eat fish if offered, we had seared ahi tuna, harrisa cauliflower, a vegetable stew, long grain rice with broccoli and a butter sauce, vegetarian sushi hand roll. Dessert was a coconut panna cotta. That set me up well for a wonderful game drive.
Ping had been telling me about his bush school and the work they do. Local kids attend to learn about conservation and preserving the planet. They do local clean up days and work with the Reserve to encourage tourists to clean up after themselves. He convinces them all that they are planet captains and in charge of our future. But he told me that once girls reach puberty, they often can’t attend bush school when they have their periods because they can’t afford sanitary products. So he’s been buying them. That really hit me so when we left, I gave him his tip plus extra to stock up on products for the girls.
Ping turned me over to Dee, the camp manager, and we said our goodbyes. I can’t believe how fast 6 days with him went, and all we saw. I’m sure it’ll strike me when I get home and start going through several thousand photos!
Interestingly, I have both a room steward and a food and drink attendant here. They will look after me for my stay.
Francis is my guide and he is such a sweet guide. I could immediately feel that the pace has changed and this is a much slower, contemplative safari. It’s just a different style but will require me to switch gears and perhaps decompress a bit. I think it will be a nice way to relax before I leave for home. Sniff.
Once we met and he found out more of my interests (cats, cats, cats), we headed out and were on a cheetah sighting within a matter of minutes. This was Milele, who I know well from social media. Apparently he’d gone missing for about a week but here he was in the flesh and very fat from a meal yesterday. He was just snoozing in the grass as he seemed unwilling or unable to move very far with his distended belly. We left him to sleep off his food coma.
Next up was a male lion who another camp guide spotted. We found him lying belly up, foot in the air. This afternoon he’d just finished a few days of mating round the clock and was back on the streets a free man. Apparently his first order of business was a catnap. And unlike the poor cheetah who was disturbed by every fly or blade of glass that made a whisper near him, this lion was out cold. No fly, no car engine, no hyena or jackal call made him even flinch.
And then a roar came from the other side of the river. And he sat bolt upright. He didn’t even think twice about it and rose to start the walk toward the call. He had his own response though, and his roar was so strong and so powerful and maybe 30 feet away at this point, and it resonated. I felt the vibration in my seat. This boy was staking claim to his territory, and we thought maybe trying to reconnect with the pride he abandoned to go off on a mating spree.
So off we went, following him. Guides had been following him since he left the female earlier today and they said he’d already covered about 8 kilometers and I think we followed him for another 4 or 5 km. He was definitely getting his steps in, scent marking along the way by rubbing his head on bushes, urinating and scratching with his back paws at every chance he got. He really scented up his territory.
We ended up parting ways after it was prematurely dark due to a big thunderstorm that passed close by but only ended up as a light shower for us. I hope he manages to find his pride.
Francis and I had sundowners (rain downers?) up on the hill. They have a South African gin here that I have not tried that is quite nice!
Dinner tonight was a spring roll appetizer (tasty), spring pea, spinach and beet risotto (wonderful) and a slice of fudge cake over crème anglaise. I pared it with a glass of rosé. Heavenly.
This camp is beautiful. My room is massive and mostly wood with old steamer cases for end tables and copper tub and sinks. I’m in the last room on the end of a long raised platform, so my deck overlooks the river where hippos are diving loudly and sighing excitedly. This ought to make for a fun night’s sleep! I asked that they keep the front flaps open so I can have fresh air these last few nights here.
Early to bed for a 5:30 wake up call. I’m beat today!
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