Lions of all sorts

 19 Jan 2025 - Sunday (I think? I may have lost track!)

Apologies for the mis-dating of previous posts.  If you noticed and didn’t say anything, thank you for letting me enjoy the time warp I’ve entered here in the bush.  I am utterly happy, almost obscenely so.  Whatever baloney I’ve told any of you about this safari being my last is crap.  How can I deny myself such joy?

I think the last thing I remember last night was my head hitting the pillow.  I slept with the tent flaps open so I had fresh air all night, which may contribute to the deep sleep.  For all of my insomnia and sleepless nights when my mind spins and accomplishes nothing except exacerbating over-exaggerated anxiety at home, I am sleeping the sleep of the dead here.  This morning I woke at 4:30 am for the first time (having turned out the light at 10:30 pm) and only looked at my phone because I was afraid I hadn’t set my alarm (I did) and also afraid I hadn’t taken my anti-malarial after dinner (I did).  So some anxiety dies hard in the bush.  But I felt great when I woke up both times!

Anyway, the reason I woke was because I heard a very active, very loud lion pride and what I thought sounded like a cow or buffalo being attacked.  The sounds were real, definitely lion, but I think maybe the buffalo piece may be imagined since I’d been dreaming of seeing a buffalo kill in recent weeks.  I did drift back off to sleep for a bit only to be jolted back to reality by the alarm.  I gave myself a breath or two to come to my senses and was up, dressed, sunscreened and camera-at-the-ready for 6 a.m. in the coffee area.  They tend to have a group coffee chat rather than in-tent delivery as a wake up call here.  I chatted with the Spanish couple who were here on their first safari.  I told them they’d be planning their next one on the way home.  Heck, I’m already planning the next one now.

Ping and the Eagle View guides all heard the lions and knew generally where they might be.  We were on the road at 6:15 and drove and drove, guides splitting up to put more eyes on different places.  (I always get anxious when we don’t quickly find cats in the morning because I hate to lose the golden light around sunrise!). At 6:45 Ping spotted them across the plains and put it into high gear.  “They’re all in a pile,” he said, elaborating no further.  Given that I’m what could pass for nearly blind on a good day in decent light, I of course saw nothing in the pre-dawn dimness until we were practically on top of them.  And yep, it was a big ole pile of lions.  Too many for me to actually count!  (Well, eventually I did manage and it was 19!). This is the Ilksiausiau pride, which I think was close to 40 members when I was here last January but has now split in two.  Even having seen them before, there is nothing like a healthy dose of lion to start the day.  And I was getting an overdose!

We stayed with them for about 3 1/2 hours and the behaviors I got to see really ran the gamut.  Initially the older females seemed intent on hunting. They haven’t eaten for a few days and there was plenty in the area that they could take down.  They’re known for taking down giraffe, and there were several nearby, as well as zebra and wildebeest.  Over time though, their interest in a hunt seemed to dwindle except for one female who broke away a bit from the pride and we’d come to follow her at the end of our sighting.

The pride was mostly adult females and adolescents, with a few sub-one year old cubs (not as small as those we saw last night though).  They were playing, play fighting, actually fighting and playing chase for a coveted stick, set of wildebeest antlers or fur from a dead hare.  (I can’t be the only cat owner who sees a lion eating fur or chewing bark and wants to yell “put that DOWN or you’re going to be sick!”). The competition for ownership of a stick was very heated and one lion finally gave up and went over to a whistling thorn acacia tree and snapped off a branch of his own.  Problem solved.

I was surprised by how rough the older lions were with the younger ones.  Swats across the head, body slamming them, biting them.  The little ones seem to hold their own fairly well and I suppose it makes them tougher predators somehow.

Early on in the sighting, word got out that Figlet, one of leopardess Fig’s other daughters, was spotted elsewhere and almost all the vehicles on this sighting with us left.  Ping told me and I gave an “awwwwww…” and maybe shot him some pleading eyes.  I didn’t want to leave these lions but I didn’t want to miss Figlet either.  Ping said “we cannot be everywhere and I think these lions are going to hunt today.  They need to.”  He’s told me many stories of missed hunts in his past and I think he tries to avoid them when he can. So we stuck around. (It turns out that Figlet was mobbed and the rangers were handing out tickets and fines, so maybe better that we stayed put!)

Gradually the lions drifted across the plains and went to hunker down for the day in some thick bushes and low trees.  At least that was my interpretation.  Ping thought that they were either going to cross through  the bushes or hunt, not necessarily rest.  Or rest while contemplating a hunt.  One lioness though, remained on the tail of any of the plains game she could encounter.  She’d run towards herds of impala or Thomson’s gazelle or zebra or even giraffe and just cause them to bolt and scatter. Ping said she was hoping to trigger her pride-mates into coming out to help round up one for a meal.  But alas after about a 45 minutes of her working all on her own, she gave up and followed the pride into the bushes.  

We were suddenly lion-free, so we moved off to a shady acacia tree nearby for breakfast, where we could keep an eye on the bushes and the game around it while we ate.  By now everyone else was long gone, so anything that happened, if it happened, would just be our sighting.  Nothing did happen though, at least not before lunch.  Even without a hunt though, it was an amazing and productive morning.  I was in lion heaven.

On this sighting, I got to see Twala as he pulled up to talk to Ping.  It was nice catching up with him and Ping knew his guest.  Small world here in the bush!

We drove around the area where Figlet had been sighted this morning but found nothing.  Some Maasai were walking their cows through the area which may have spooked her undercover.  We’re trying again on our drive this afternoon.

I forgot to mention on my first day, Ping slowed on the road and leaned out to look down.  I assumed since we were looking for lions he was tracking paw prints.  Instead he said “green mamba” and I said “Ping, hell to the no.  You must have forgotten that detail about me!”  He seems to have encyclopedic recall of things I saw with him on my 2018 safari and he even remembers seeing me on the sighting of Sankuet and Nadala last January!  Yet, he forgets my snake phobia!

Another thing I forgot about Ping is how he is like the mentalist when he’s computing what’s happened at a sighting.  He’ll point from one direction to another, like he’s calculating vertices and angles while simultaneously taking in environmental details and calculating probabilities.  It is fascinating to watch and I can almost see the gears in his brain turning, churning the data through 29 years of experience to come up with a prediction.  It’s kind of nuts.

Breakfast this morning was excellent, especially considering it was packed before 6 am and we ate at 10!  Granola with yogurt, rolled omelettes, pancakes, toast, fruit salad (and for Ping sausage and bacon) along with coffee and juice.  You wouldn’t think I’d be that hungry from sitting in a vehicle all day, but I am.  I also think being outside all day is appetite-enhancing.  Or that’s my excuse anyway.

We came back to camp for lunch and a midday siesta.  I’m ok with that rather than an all day drive because it gives me a chance to recharge (and use a real toilet!).  Plus, here more so than in the Reserve, the cats really go undercover during the hot midday hours, so driving around turns out to be pretty fruitless once the heat of the day sets in.  I may take a quick nap after lunch because that is my favorite sleep anywhere. Although sitting on the deck looking at this view is pretty hard to resist too!

Lunch was outstanding, again.  We had a beet carpaccio with cucumber and carrot tuille for the app.  The main was a vegetable penne arrabiata.  Dessert was crepe Suzette with an orange ginger ricotta-based ice cream.  I either need to buy an ice cream maker or bring this chef home with me.

The rest of the afternoon played out oddly.  We left at 3:30 and cruised by all three leopards’ territories with no luck.  We passed by where we left the lions this morning and all was quiet there.  Ping said the other half of that pride that splintered off was over by Leopard HIil so we went that way.

It wasn’t long until we came across 6 male lions who are about 3 years old.  These are the Fig boys from Lerai conservancy.  Ping spotted a buffalo up behind them about 50 yards, sleeping in a circle of whistling thorn acacia, a literal enclosure.   Gradually, five of the boys entered stalking mode and crept up toward it.  Two made their way into the enclosure where the buffalo was “sleeping” and it put up no fight at all.  Odd.  The lions then sat on either end of the buffalo, and the buffalo was caged in on all but one side by the trees.

We moved closer to the enclosure, oddly enough (a lot odd about this situation) right at the one opening the buffalo had as an escape. That didn’t make me feel comfortable as I had visions of an enraged old buffalo charging us as he escaped for his life.  I didn’t want to be NBC Nightly News’ next “American Killed on Safari For Being Stupid”, so I asked Ping to move.  So we moved to the top of the enclosure where one lion and some trees were between us and the buffalo.

After about a half hour, one lion got up and left, then the other followed suit.  Odd again.  Ping had no explanation. But he was convinced they would kill this buffalo.  Then the buffalo moved and we could finally see what the lions must have seen, the buffalo had at least one if not two broken legs and appeared to be actively dying.  An easy meal, right?  Not so fast.  We sat for another hour until it was past dark and the lions tried again, this time a more concerted effort but every motion toward the buffalo would elicit a groan or a moo from the buffalo.  That was not much of a response at all, but it was enough to send these boys cowering for cover.  Since we could only hear now and see what our red spotlight cast on the situation, it is hard to say why it played out exactly, but Ping thought that perhaps these young males had never taken down a buffalo before so they were confused first by the buffalo’s lack of aggression and also how they were supposed to do this.  

The buffalo, somehow, with two broken legs managed to make its way out of the enclosure and was hobbling toward the lions, who were crouched in panic position within paws’ length of what could be a meal for the next several days!  But still, no movement on their part!  We stuck with them until 8:00 (nearly 3 hours) and they still hadn’t taken it down, or even seem motivated to do so.  I don’t think these six lions were either motivated or honors students.  Short of me getting out of the vehicle, killing it and cooking it for them, how much easier could it get?  We are still really puzzled.  Ping says he has never seen anything like it.  As I said at the start:  Odd.

What is even odder about this is that for a few weeks leading up to this safari, I’d had dreams that I saw a buffalo kill (more traditional, not the kindergarteners take on a dying buffalo version) and then the same scenario started showing up in my social media feed repeatedly.  As if it was telegraphing what would happen.  To add insult to injury, my guide at my next camp, saw a successful, “normal” buffalo hunt by lions yesterday.  Cough cough.

While sitting on this sighting I was at once annoyed but also fascinated. Annoyed that this seemed to be a waste of time (especially when I heard the other car leave for the leopard sighting, which was within earshot because we heard the monkeys going crazy over a nearby leopard) but also fascinated that this was something Ping had never seen in nearly 30 years of guiding.  What did it mean?  Will they have killed it tonight if we go back tomorrow?  My inexperienced gut is telling me that hyenas (who we heard nearby) will do the job, not these six clueless boys.

Anyway, we drove home in a light rain and had a late dinner, arriving around 8:30.  The starter tonight was fried halloumi cheese with veggies in it, veggie lasagna and crème caramel.  All of it was wonderful.  I had it with my standard G&T and took a shot of Amarula back to my room.  After a nice shower, I’m settled in for a good sleep.  What a day.

Another old friend and new babies

18 Jan 2025 - Saturday

Up at 5:30 to finish packing and head out for my next camp, but not before one more game drive in the Reserve.  I said good bye to camp manager and his team, who took excellent care of me for the past few days.  I think I’ve neglected to mention that I was the only guest in camp, so not only did I have Ping and a vehicle to myself, I had the whole camp!  Not that I was there for long beyond dinner and sleeping, since we are doing all day game drives, but it was still special.  I cannot get used to that!

Ping really wanted me to see the Paradise Plains pride.  They number about 13 and are known for masterfully hunting buffalo.  He says they normally hunt around 10 a.m. (He says things like that and I start to doubt him because sometimes the facts seem a bit silly, but then….they happen, so of this I had no doubt.). That gave us about 4 hours to find them.  Mind you, we’d seen a mating pair last night and he thought maybe when they’re mating the pride might splinter up a bit so he wasn’t totally confident we’d find them and if we did, what they’d be doing.

I would say it took until around 7:30 and through the binos he spotted a lone male lion cutting through the grass.  We quickly caught up with this big handsome boy (I’m SUCH a sucker for healthy big male lions, blonde manes or black, ha!) and tracked him right to the swath of bushes where he’d sleep the day away.  Sigh.  We’d thought for sure he was leading us to the rest of the pride, but no luck.  So Ping said we’d circle around Paradise Plains again, stopping every little bit to scan the horizon.  And wouldn’t you know, he found 6 lionesses.  They were just out of reach far off-road and in an area that was newly turning to swamp (a lot of the normally dry Reserve is still mushy/swampy from the rains of the last year or so, he’s unsure whether they’ll ever bounce back) so there was no getting to them.  At first they were eyeing buffalo to our right and it looked like they’d go for them.  But then they turned left and started cutting towards where the male had gone.

We turned and took the road to where it would intersect them, and what absolutely healthy, gorgeous females they were.  It was just about 8 a.m. so I had some still soft light and two lionesses did me the honor of posing on termite mounds above the grass.  Sigh.  I was really pretty happy.  They carried on and then they themselves took refuge into bushes (not near the male) to sleep the day away.

We’d heard that a 7 male lion coalition had taken down 7 Maasai cows near the marsh overnight. Ping’s thought was if there was commotion from that overnight, those 7 boys may have pushed the Marsh pride out of their territory, so we headed toward the marsh.  In passing a couple of vehicles, the guide chat was exchanged and one guide coming from there said “no lions, no leopard” so Ping was a bit deflated.  He thought sure his theory was good but we’d go check it out anyway.

We got to the Marsh area, which happened to be where we’d gotten out and seen the elephants on my first day.  We got out and Ping said, we’re only stretching our legs briefly, we’ll eat breakfast and water the tires (pee!) elsewhere.  Just as he finished saying that we heard the huff-huff-huff of a suppressed roar.  “That lion is close,” Ping said.  I pointed at the car and immediately hopped back in, with the thought of “we’re going to find that lion” whereas Ping (after the fact told me) was thinking “we need to get in the car to be safe from that lion.”  

I figured maybe a 4 or 5 minute drive around the marsh area and we’d find him.  I NEVER thought it would be literally less than 100 yards away.  Maybe three trees down from where we’d been standing!  Where I’d been hoping to pee!  His gut had just told him that spot wasn’t right for either breakfast or a bathroom break.  Good glory…but it gets better, hold tight.

So we pull up to this gorgeous male lion and he’s agitated.  We’re unsure who he is or which pride it is. Maybe it’s the activity of the night before with the 7 lions killing the cows.  Maybe it’s an interloper from another area.  But he’s brought a heavily pregnant female with him, who isn’t threatened by him when he passes right by her.  Ping thought he also saw another male lion approaching, so this boy may be one of two.  Anyway, he’s agitated as heck and spraying to scent mark and half-roaring repeatedly.  The female seems non-plussed.  We follow him for a bit as he tracks along the river and disappears into a bush.  We go to turn back and we look and he’s sitting like an Egyptian sphinx looking out over the river.  We wait a bit to see if he’s going to move again, then we decide to head on for breakfast.

As we start heading back, Ping looks with his binoculars to see if there are any other lions approaching.  It’s then that he sees a massive male leopard with a kill up in the tree directly over the lioness!  We’d not only stood near it, driven under it, but also had two other big cats within eyeshot of it and we totally missed it!   I managed to get a great look at him and a brilliant shot of him looking directly at me (chilling!) before he decided now that both lions had moved on that he was coming down.  So we lined up for that shot (brilliant!) and off he scurried into the undergrowth.  Ping thinks he is likely Romi’s unnamed son, who is known to be quite shy.

We decided to have breakfast (in the vehicle) here so that we can kill some time waiting to see if he’d come back.  (Same breakfast as previous 2 days).  He never did but Ping and I had a great chat and I heard more hilarious stories.  The guide that passed us on the way into the Marsh area who declared “no leopard, no lions” was shocked to hear what we’d found, and he too parked with his guests to wait out the leopard’s return.  While we were sitting there, I looked at the kill through the binos and saw that it was actually a young hippo!  I was shocked.  And my next thought was “boy, I would have LOVED to see him haul that up there!”  I wonder how that happened!

I can’t overstate how completely random and unique this whole sighting was.  Lions and leopards don’t mix, so to see them that close, and indeed with the lioness looking up at that leopard, is just bizarre!  And the behavior of that male lion was very strange.  We’ve yet to confirm his identity and hope once we know if that will help piece it all together.

Since I had to be out of the Reserve before the timestamp on my ticket (24 hours allowed), our time was running out so we headed out.  But funny enough, a few times over the last few days Ping (the cheetah fan) said that every time he leaves the Reserve to take a guest to Naboisho, he always runs into a cheetah right near the exit.  And wouldn’t you know, today we saw a cheetah named Ranger just as we were approaching the gate. We followed him a bit but carried on to Eagle View in Naboisho.

Eagle View has recently been renovated and Ping has guiding privileges here.  So I have the same room, menu, benefits as other Eagle View guests, but I keep Ping and his vehicle.  After such a fruitful (cat-full?) few days in the Reserve I was so anxious to see what we get up to here.  But first, lunch.

And wow…first, the view from the common area out over the conservancy is stellar.  I thought I liked it at Kicheche Valley, but this is just exceptional.  I really could get used to this!

Lunch was amazing.  We started with potato leek soup, then I had a veggie burger and fries and dessert was a brownie with banana ice cream.  As crazy as it sounds that ice cream was incredible.  I never thought it would taste as good as it did.  They’ve set the bar high here with the menu!  What is really nice is that Ping eats with me here, so I don’t have to eat alone and he gets to have this awesome menu with me!

I took a quick hour break after lunch, so I sat on my deck and looked out over the same gorgeous view.  Wow.  All tents face that same view and I just have no words how gorgeous it is.  Photos will never do it justice.

We headed out at 3:30.  Ping wanted to try to find Figlet and her two cubs (Figlet being another of the leopard Fig’s daughters).  We cruised around the area where she’d been last seen and came up empty.  Ping said she’d been caught in a bushman’s snare a few days ago and they had to dart her to get her out, and since then she’d been very skittish with vehicles.  Ugh.

More driving, more wondering what we were going to find.  Ping caught up with a couple of guides he’s worked with before and one was with a guest who was really into leopards.  They’d just spotted lions on the other side of the area we were in, so we asked them to call if they find leopard and we headed to the lions.

This was a male and two females of the Molibany pride.  A new to me pride!  They’d taken down a topi and the male and one female were finishing it off.  The second female was lying in a food coma with the most bloated belly I’ve ever seen!  The male and female actually had a skirmish over the carcass but then the male walked off and came to drink at a small puddle of water near me.  I was taking video when Ping got the call….leopard.  And right across the area where we’d just talked to the guide and his leopard-loving client!  It was not even a 2 minute drive!

We pulled up just to see a young leopard heading for the rocky outcroppings.  I got a few shots off and then asked Ping if he knew which leopard it is and he said “Nadala.”  OH MY GOD!  It’s Sankuet’s cub with the amber eyes from last year!  She’s almost fully grown now and since we saw no Sankuet (although her territory is quite close by), I have to assume Nadala is independent now!  I’m seeing all my cubs from last year all grown up!  She is a beautiful cat and I managed to get one decent shot of her I think.  I was thrilled.

We tried tracking her more but she went deeper into the rockier part of the landscape that we couldn’t reach, so we chatted with another guide when I saw a lone lioness heading away from the lions who’d been eating the topi.  Ping says you always investigate a lion heading away from its pride.  We approached and I started snapping photos and then I noticed that she had very full teats.  She was a nursing mom!  Ping noticed at the same time and said “she’s going back to her cubs.”  Just then the mom started huffing to call out to her cubs.  She was walking straight for another rocky outcropping and kept huffing.  All of a sudden I heard that sound, that cute little chirp of lion cubs!

About halfway up the rocks three little faces popped out and they were absolutely beside themselves that their mother had returned.  They could hardly contain themselves and they were chirping LOUDLY at mom to feed them.  The lioness though had stopped at a ditch right beneath us to drink.  Those cubs were relentless in their calling to their mother and finally she let out a suppressed roar and all three came running/tumbling down the rocks and down the grassy hill toward their mother.  I could have died of happiness!  Is it possible to be too happy?

The lioness immediately laid down and rolled over and the three started nursing excitedly.  Their sounds of satisfaction were so cute and loud!  They drank for quite some time and then things got a little aggressive and they were pushing and shoving for position.  I think they may have either bitten the lioness or clawed too much (or maybe she was tired of the fighting) because once she swatted them and the second time she just got up.  She was having none of it.  Once dinner was done, she started to walk them in the direction of the pride, not the den where they cubs had come from.  Ping wondered if they were about to be introduced to the pride.  They appeared to be about 7 weeks old and he said that’s about time.  We let them go on their way and headed back to camp.  It’d been a day!

While I was still full from lunch, I had another excellent meal for dinner.  I started with butternut squash ravioli in sage butter sauce.  The main was a four cheese pizza on a thick soft crust.  Dessert was supposed to be tiramisu but I was both stuffed and hungry so I headed back to my room to shower, blog and sleep.

Tomorrow another day in the Mara.  Just what does it hold in store?

Reunited with old friends

17 Jan 2025 - Friday

I sleep pretty well here (no medicinal help required) although I wake up for about 45 minutes long before I need to and find myself just listening.  If the lions haven’t been what wakes me, I wait long enough and end up hearing them. There are worse fates in life than smiling to yourself in the darkness of the Kenyan bush.

This morning we headed out at 6:15, a bit later today, because our destination was Oloti, the male cheetah we left at sunset last night.  We’d been worried that he’d hunt after we left.  No need for worry.  We drove around where we’d left him and there was no sign.  The wildlife like impala or gazelles we came across were calm, so they hadn’t sensed they were in danger lately, so that told Ping Oloti had moved on.  Every few minutes Ping would stop the car and scan the area with his binocs.  After several times, he looked up at a distant hill with the sky turning a bright orange of sunrise behind it and saw a tiny silhouette.  “There he is and we can get there for the good light,” he said.  I took the binocs and could not confirm that’s what I saw.  Something, yes, cheetah, I didn’t know.  But I trust Ping and off we went.

It took maybe 5 minutes to get to him and by now the sun had risen but everything was a gorgeous orangey-gold hue, including this handsome boy sitting on a termite mound, surveying the land for where his next meal might be.  And, better still, we had him all to ourself.   So we just sat and waited for his next move.  This cat could not have posed better for me if I’d asked him to.  I was ecstatic.

Then Oloti jumped down and started to make his way down the hill toward some impala we’d spotted too.  It interested me to see him hunting in grass rather than open plain.  He got lost in it and if you didn’t know where he was, you wouldn’t have seen him.  Maybe that’s how it works for him here, if we couldn’t see him the impala didn’t either.

By now the other vehicle from last night joined us, which was fine with me because we split up and watched from different angles, the guides sharing details by phone.  At one point we were on one end, with the impalas standing in the road looking up the road to where the other vehicle was, and a very big cheetah was trying to make himself look very small behind a very small bush in the road.  Unsuccessfully unfortunately.  The impala copped on to the cheetah and ran.  His mistake was coming out as far as the road.  It was one step too far.  The impala bolted but didn’t completely retreat and somehow the cheetah knew this, so he pursued a bit.  Ping moved us down behind the impala, so if the cheetah came at them, he’d also be coming at us.  But after a bit of a wait the other guide said he’d taken a seat on another termite mound and was going to reevaluate his options.  That guest was going to stick with him all day, so we said we’d check back in later and we moved on.

Today was the day that Ping thought he’d find Nashipae for me.  I knew it was a big ask, and I felt bad asking at all, but last time I was with Ping I told him too late in the trip that I’d wanted to see the 5 male cheetah coalition, and he told me I should let him know sooner.  So I did.  And of course Ping made it his mission to find them, only they were all the way over on the eastern-most edge of the park, over an hour away.  It also meant driving through a more trafficked area filled with day trippers.  But I was game if he was.  So we set off.

Crossing the plains we came across a Rekero pride male mating with a female. I’d seen mating behavior before but this pair really seemed into it.  Ping told me that lighter maned lions are better at mating and have more genetically strong cubs.  Interesting…. Anyway, these two went for a couple of rounds before scooting a bit away from where we encountered them (there were about 7 other vehicles there at the time, all somewhat spilling off the road, which isn’t allowed in the Reserve).  About the same time a ranger pulled up, so there was a reshuffling of vehicles as we all tried to get back on road but still in a good position to see the couple in their new spot.  Ping unpacked our breakfast for us and we ate in between mating sessions, which were happening about every 10 minutes at that point.

The male seemed determined to keep the female from veering in our direction.  Ping thinks it’s because the other pride males were behind us and he wanted her to himself.  For whatever reason, he started leaning against her as they walked and pushed her in our direction.  I was leaning on the window taking shots until I realized she was so close I couldn’t see anything through the camera.  I tipped the camera forward and she was about two feet from my face and looking right at me!  All I saw were yellow eyes.  I flopped away from the window and on to the floor of the vehicle behind the front seat.  “Ping, Ping, Ping…she’s coming in,” I said.  He leaned over and by then they’d gone either under or behind us and were on the other side.  He thought perhaps they were just trying to find shade near us but that was far too close for comfort.  I always say if I die here, I’ll die happy, but I really didn’t want today to be the day.

That was enough adrenaline for me, especially right after coffee, so off we went.  It was a long and pretty uneventful drive.  Ping is like the mayor here and seems to know everyone, so most everyone we passed he stopped to talk to the guides.  Since it’s Swahili, I don’t understand much more the names of animals (like Simba, pumba, duma, etc.) but also their given names.  So I’d listen and hear blah blah blah Nashipae blah blah blah and I’d know he was talking about where we were going.  Reports were mixed.  Some said she was in a closed section, others said she was right by the side of the road.  He also apparently found out where Olyonok and Winda were.  These are the two remaining boys of the five cheetah coalition from 2018.  He didn’t tell me he found them until we were actually on them.  That was pretty cool.  The boys were hot and sleeping under a bush, so not a lot to say about them other than that I saw them.

Finally we got to the area where Nashipae was supposed to be and had a tough time finding her.  Ping was reading the animals around and found most to be really relaxed.  There was one area totally devoid of animals at all and he said his gut told him she was there.  He kept driving though and he reached out to a photographer he knew had seen them this morning and got more specific details.  And then we found them.  They were heading back toward an acacia to sleep under, so I saw a quick parade of them but by the time we reached them, they were lying down.  I didn’t think I’d be as happy as I was, even though they were flaked out under a tree.   So we spent about a half hour with them, hoping that maybe they’d try to hunt since they hadn’t for a couple days, but it was really hot especially in the sun (hotter here than on the other side of the park!) and they were pretty sleepy.  I bid them adieu and wished them a safe life.  Nashipae’s done well to raise all four.

I felt good seeing where she is, that there’s so little traffic because it’s hard to reach and that the area is absolutely teeming with impala and gazelle.  No wonder she likes it.  And that the rangers seem to be there a lot is also a plus.  I know the cubs will split from her soon, they’re nearly overdue for that but maybe they’re staying with her while she’s limping.  Who knows.  I was just so incredibly happy.  I’d spent so much time with them last year, it felt like seeing an old friend again now.

Time to eat a late lunch so we found an acacia and spread out across the hood of the vehicle.  It was spaghetti with mixed bell pepper and sauce, margherita pizza and a cucumber and onion salad.  It was all really good and tasted even better since it’d been a while since breakfast and we’d had an active morning.

Heading back toward our side of the park, we saw some vehicles looking into a big bush, so we decided to look for ourselves and found mother and daughter lion from the Fig Tree pride.  These two were cooling off under a bush but ultimately came out to sit on a low termite mound.  The mother had a very distinctive ear cut, almost as if the tip had been sliced cleanly off.  We watched them bond for a bit and then continued on.

Now that it was after 5 p.m. Ping wanted to try to find Oloti again.  The other guide who’d been with us last night and early this morning said Oloti had moved over to the Chinese Hill area, which was a good 15 minute drive for us, so longer for him, from where he was this morning.  We assumed that guide stayed with him as he said he would but it turns out he lost the cheetah somewhere, so when we arrived there was no Oloti to be seen.  There were a couple of vehicles looking at something so we checked it out because, hey we were here anyway.  Turns out it was another mating pair, this one from the Paradise pride.  They did not have the same gusto as the pair this morning and when I mentioned that Ping said “dark mane, not as effective” so I guess we now had empirical proof of this theory from this morning.

Interestingly, Ping said that both lions mating today would give birth in April, which is the midst of the long rains here and a difficult time to raise cubs successfully, which is really unfortunate.

Somewhere along the way, we came across a mother giraffe and the tiniest baby I’ve ever seen.  Ping thinks he was about 5 or 6 days old, since he still had a bit of umbilical cord on him.  He was so tiny and very curious but also skittish. He was following his mom from a distance and crept closer to us until another vehicle came up behind us and spooked him back toward his mother.  I think I got a good capture of her nuzzling his head when he finally caught up to her and also him nursing.  It was so sweet.

I wanted an earlier dinner tonight so I could pack and take a shower after dinner.  Dinner tonight was pan-fried fish, french fries, steamed mixed veg and a tasty cold vegetable salad.  Dessert was an orange cake with cherry sauce.

I showered and got most of my packing done.  Tomorrow I move on with Ping to Eagle View Camp in Naboisho, the conservancy I’ve grown to love over the last couple years.  Ping has guiding privileges there and I’m looking forward to seeing what we get up to.

Calling it an early night…