Saturday, November 10
Yet another peaceful night in the Mara. I heard next to nothing all night. The lions had gotten quite close during dinner but after that, nothing. I woke just before 2:00 for the bathroom and then again at 5:00 ready for the day. We weren’t headed out until 6:30 but I figured maybe if I headed out early, we’d go early.
I stood on my front porch and admired the sunrise and the clusters of animals that had gathered here to start their day. I love this tent, how remote it is and how it fronts the plain and all its wildness.
The honeymooners had to be fetched when they were 10 minutes late (remember: 10 minutes, it comes into play shortly). They were suitably apologetic but the entire time I was waiting I kept seeing minute by minute of the golden hour slipping away.
6:45 and we were finally underway. We headed toward where we left the lioness hunting last night. Right off the bat we saw a handful of vehicles off in the distance and a bunch of wildebeest scurrying. Kappen thought at first it was the lioness, then as we drew closer he realized it was the cheetah brothers, Malaika’s sons, returned after being away from the conservancy for 5 days. And they made a kill...which we’d just seen happen from about 1/2 mile away (that’s why the wildes were scurrying). Arrrrrggggh.
I’ve been really fortunate when I’ve had to share a vehicle so I really shouldn’t complain. Yet I think this sort of set me off on a bit of a bad mood, that combined with the fact that I knew this was my last morning game drive and that I have to leave tomorrow. I was sort of grouchy after that for a while.
Anyway, a single hyena quickly took the kill from the cheetahs and they withdrew to some nearby bushes. For whatever reason, David chose to pull up next to the kill and the hyena rather than follow the cheetahs we’d been waiting on for four days. I let that sit for a few minutes then asked “Where did the brothers go?”, a couple times until I finally asked “can we go see the cats?” To that point we’d only seen them from a distance and I didn’t really think the priority would be to sit and watch a group of scavengers on the kill. Finally off we went.
The brothers were lying side by side on a log cleaning up the mess their bodies had become after a short meal on a baby wildebeest kill. It was no different than watching my cats clean at home. The pose was picture perfect, and I was dying to just get to it before they moved on. David pulled up, and as has aggravated me before with other guides (see I told you I was cranky), he pulled up next to another vehicle so he could chat with that guide, effectively putting the other vehicle between us and the cheetahs.
Once we finally got within photography distance of them, I managed to get some great shots, and likely would have been happy at that. But then they spotted impala and topi in the distance and went on the hunt again. We followed them around the area as they tried. The first attempt was very premature and half-hearted but as the morning wore on, each attempt seemed to have more intention to it. In all we saw them attempt to hunt 4 times. The last was the most serious. They situated themselves first under an acacia tree in the shade up an embankment from the only watering hole in the area that’s not dried up. There, most of the plains game could easily see them. On one attempt to hunt, they both retreated to a thick bush and just watched. We had to have sat through 90 minutes of waiting on this one attempt, as more and more plains game came in from all directions around us. Once they’d tried and failed on a hunt, we sat patiently and waited for more naive game to come to the watering hole, knowing that they didn’t know where the cheetahs were, but we did.
David and Kappen did a lot of guessing about which animal was their target as various groups of game cycled through the watering hole area. The cheetah really prefer topi, but it would have to be a sub-adult as a full-grown adult was too big. There were some warthog piglets, but the parents with their tusks are too dangerous. So many possible candidates warily passed by that very bush and we thought sure many of them would be the target. Finally there was a youngish zebra that seemed quite perfect, and we noticed that the cheetah noticed that too as the one we could still see in the bush was staring at it intently. The little group that zebra was a part of slowly grazed up the embankment and closer and closer to the bush where the cheetahs were. They were so ridiculously close we couldn’t believe it; it was almost within paw’s length! And then, the game was finally up when both cheetahs lunged at a zebra, only each went for a different one! It’s as if there was no plan here at all, they each had a different target! Hunt was blown in the blink of an eye. We decided to leave them then, after 5 3/4 hours and go have lunch. This wouldn’t be my first failed hunt and certainly won’t be my last, but it’s exactly what keeps me coming back.
Bush breakfast was mid-morning nearby the cheetahs, from where we could keep an eye on the vehicles sitting around them when they first retreated from their initial kill. We had to retreat ourselves when a family of elephants started working its way through the wooded area we were parked in!
Lunch today was a bush lunch, in a pretty secluded spot near camp. We had vegetable quiche, potato salad, chickpea salad and iceberg salad. And of course rose to wash it down.
The afternoon drive was with a newly arrived older couple from England. This was their first safari so we were stopping every 5 feet for an impala, a warthog, a giraffe. I just wanted to get to cats. I was patient and put the camera down for most of the drive, just looking at the landscape without the lens for the last time. I enjoyed being out but wish we’d seen more cats. We finally found the new mother lioness who just had cubs. She has moved them to a new hiding spot and we found her with a warthog she’d just killed. It’s good that she’s hunting on her own and eating, as she has some cubs to raise. This girl was one of the 7 month old cubs I saw in 2017 and this is her first litter. I hope for the best for her, as she’s raising the future of the Offbeat Pride.
We went for a group sundowner on the plain. There wasn’t much of a sunset but an impressive display of rainstorms going on all around us, that never actually hit us. I chatted with the new Brits and the honeymooners and then we all headed back to shower before dinner. I forget what dinner was, since we all ended up sitting by the fire and drinking until the wee hours. I know there was tree tomato crumble for dessert. This ended up being a fun group of people. I just wish none of us had to leave tomorrow!
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