Shot of adrenaline to start the day

 22 Jan 2025 - Wednesday

I cannot tell a lie, those hippos were something else last night.  My tent is the furthest out from the main area of camp and the river wraps around almost three sides of it.  I’m not sure if the river is deepest here or it’s just an obvious or convenient congregating spot, but it was full of very loud, splashing, flatulent hippos all night long.  They only woke me once for an extended period with their loud honking.  I can’t really complain though, it is just another sound of the bush that I will miss in a week when I’m back to sleeping with all windows closed.

I had the flaps on the tent left open again here and really love sleeping with the fresh air.  It didn’t get cold at all which is nice.

Francis and I met at 6:15 and headed out.  His routine is to get in the car and pull just out of camp and then stop and share what he’s devised as our plan for the drive.  He was just starting to lay out his ideas when we both heard a large number of laughing hyenas up the hill not very far from camp. It was a no brainer, we needed to see what’s going on. They do not get that excited for no reason.

We stopped once en route and shut the engine off to confirm the direction and by 6:40 had come across an adult buffalo kill in a bush and a large clan of hyenas tearing into it, but also a male lion.  It was all so confusing as it happened, but the two sub-adult lions who took it down were formerly of the Topi pride in the Reserve and had been pushed out of the pride when they hit the age for them to go.  Suddenly, out of seemingly no where, three very big, extremely aggressive male lions came in and chased all the hyenas and the two younger boys away.  It was a skirmish like I’ve never seen or heard, but thankfully I got it on video.

The big males took over the kill and gorged themselves on it.  Ironically, these were the Topi pride males, and the two boys’ fathers!  (And even more interesting, the three big males are sons of Notch and Scarface — the same Scarface I enjoyed seeing back in 2018!)  And if I go back to last week’s posts, I saw one of these males with the young cubs in the Reserve, he was the limping one!  So they’d come a long way into this conservancy to get a free meal.

The dynamics here were so interesting.  The hyenas felt comfortable pushing the younger boys off and taking over, but knew enough that the bigger males were a serious threat and backed off.  So even the hyenas knew how formidable a threat they are.  The two younger boys split up and ran off in different directions.  We managed to track one of them down, and his belly was big enough that we believe he managed to eat before both the hyenas and the big males spoiled the fun.  We went back to the big males and found two of them already asleep in a food coma but one was still merrily eating away, not willing to waste a scrap. They will need to stay on that kill to protect it from scavengers until they are well done with it.  And as for the younger boys, they will want to be together, but will have to find each other without roaring or calling out.  They do not want to risk another potentially fatal confrontation with the big males, who will kill them despite the bloodline.  They’re old enough now to be a threat.

Our next very quick stop was to a cheetah nearby who’d been lying out on some rocks but by the time we got to him he’d moved deep into a bush.  I got some obstructed shots of his face through the foliage, hopeful of an ID, but he was not known to the guides.

We decided before we move on to have breakfast, so Francis found a safe spot to stop and lay out the spread.  (I should add that the chef here also sent us out with sweet potato mini muffins and chocolate granola bar bites that I absolutely loved, so it wasn’t like I had nothing at all since my 6 am coffee!  Breakfast was wonderful, with yogurt and granola, blueberry danish, hard boiled eggs and fruit salad. And of course coffee.

Once we hit the road again, Francis said we had a choice to make.  The leopard Nalangu (who I saw in 2017 and 2018) had made a kill in Mara North which was about 1/2 hour away, or there was a male cheetah about 10 minutes away who looked like he was going to hunt.  Of course that’s where we headed because I haven’t yet done a 6 hour stake out today!  In all seriousness, we did buckle down and track him for about 2 1/2 hours and he seemed to have a couple of reasonable attempts at a hunt, but for whatever reason he didn’t go for them.  Once we saw topi, eland and some zebras enter the scene, we knew that any attempt he had would be quick alerted, so we abandoned the effort and headed back to lunch just as some storm clouds started building on the horizon.

Lunch today was wonderful.  I had red snapper with a mint yogurt dip, grilled sweet potato and zucchini, quinoa with very finely shredded carrot, green salad with tomatoes and a very nice tiramisu for dessert.  I am not going hungry here.  I would also argue that I’m eating healthier here, at least for lunch and dinner!  The storm struck just as I was drinking my cappuccino so I scurried back to my room for a quick yoga session (they have yoga mats and weights as well as a spin bike on the deck!). I might just keep up my 173 week streak on Peloton after all!

The afternoon drive was definitely less action packed than this morning.  I met Francis at 4:30 and our pre-drive briefing included the disappointing news that the cheetah we were following and left at 1:30 actually hunted and killed a Thomson’s gazelle just about where we left him 90 minutes after we left him.  So close…

We had a few options for the afternoon drive.  One was to find another pride that had settled near camp, or try to catch up with the now newly-fed cheetah or revisit the three big males from this morning’s hostile takeover.  I of course opted for the lion pride.

During siesta I had returned to my tent in a downpour which passed by the time I headed out for the drive.  The storms here seem very surgical in how they strike, cutting across thin swaths of the savannah while leaving spots adjacent nearly dry.  We found some parts of the conservancy quite muddy while others bone dry.  These lions were not 5 minutes out of camp so they got the same rain I did, and were now lying in the sun and brisk breeze trying to dry off, which they were for the most part.

These lions were half of the Enkoyani pride.  It was made up of two mothers, 3 sub-adult males and 2 sub-adult females.  Francis said they had split from the rest of the pride and may reconnect at some point.  The lions were dozing and would occasionally raise their heads but other than that they weren’t up to much.  What was interesting though was a browsing bull elephant right behind them.  Neither seemed to notice each other because none of them stirred.

We were going to move on to the cheetah who hunted without us, but we found that he’d gone so far that by the time we reached him we’d be out of good light, so we returned to the three big males to see what progress had been made.  The buffalo carcass was pretty cleaned out and one male was sleeping in the bush next to it to protect it from scavengers (all of whom - hyena - were still lying about the area just waiting for a sign that they were needed for clean-up.  The two other males were lying separately nearby.  I was pretty surprised to see that two of the boys weren’t nearly as round and bloated as I’d expect after a large hippo meal.  The one boy who was pretty round could barely move and had no intention on doing much of anything, clearly.  He rolled over twice and it was an effort for him to shift his center of gravity to heave from one side to the other.

I enjoyed another lovely G&T on the savannah watching lions sleep.  There’s nothing better.

Dee, the camp manager, ate with me tonight which was really nice.  Dinner was a mixed vegetable soup, a pistachio encrusted ahi tuna with carrots and asparagus cream, and a creme brûlée.  I had the rose with it again, which was very nice.  We watched an elephant approach the back lawn of the camp while we ate and the Askari chased it off.  He will pull down trees on the property if he’s not stopped!

It’s quiet outside my tent right now, but who knows how long this will last.  Up at 5:25 again tomorrow.

I’m sorry, there’s a cat beneath me

 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!

We can’t be cat-less!

20 Jan 2025 - Monday

Another good night’s sleep until I was awoken by a noise which I at first thought was something going through my luggage behind the bed.  It sounded like rummaging or foraging.  Monkeys are around here so I just assumed it was them.  I waited a bit and then ascertained it was outside and something grazing, but there was a swish and tap on the tent that was relentless for half an hour or so.  I finally came to the conclusion it was a giraffe eating and the swish-tap was its tail hitting the canvas of my tent.  There are worse things to listen to in the dead of night, I suppose.

I was up and out for 6 am again today and we had the express intention of finding leopard today.  Yesterday was chock a block full of lions but there are three leopardesses and two cubs here I’d really like to see.  Do you think we could conjure up one at all? Or even a lion?  NONE!  6 hours of game driving and we came up empty, as did all the other guides around.  There’s no real explanation for this other than a short bit of drizzle during dinner last night and once in the overnight, but not even enough to notice wet ground when I left this morning.  So where are they??  I CANNOT have a cat-less day on safari!  The pressure is on for tonight.

So I turned to other sightings (gasp!) and my curiosity was piqued when we saw a gorgeous giant eagle owl in a tree right by the side of the road.  Ping says that the Maasai community are split on whether seeing one is an omen of bad luck or a blessing.  I’m leaning toward the former given how cat-free the rest of our drive was!

We also came across a formidable herd of Cape buffalo, which had to be 500 strong.  It’s been a while since I stopped to appreciate one of the big five, so we sat for a bit and I took photos.  Ping pointed to one of a handful of acacia trees a bit away and said “we’ll go have breakfast there.”  I didn’t know which tree that was, but I certainly didn’t think it would be the one closest to this herd of buffalo!  In an effort to keep my name off the roster of dumb Americans killed on safari, I protested but he said I would stay on the other side of the vehicle for him.  Plus anyway, since they are about 50 meters from us, it’ll take them 50 seconds to get to us, that’s plenty of time to jump in the vehicle.  OOOOkaaaaay.  No worries then?  Except over the course of the meal, a few would inch closer as they grazed, then stare at us sniffing.  Whether they were sniffing us out or just Ping’s bacon and sausage remains up for discussion, but I was glad to swill my coffee and get back in the car while he cleaned up.  Having been gored and tossed by a buffalo, Ping is remarkably calm around them!

Having survived breakfast, we did another pass around leopard country and came up short.  We also revisited areas where the big lion pride we saw yesterday have been seen and didn’t see anything.  I know this can happen, I’ve had it happen before, but it’s just so frustrating, particularly with only 3 game drives left here and my desire to see these leopards before I leave Naboisho.  Fingers crossed for a better afternoon drive.

We did of course follow up on last night’s failed lion hunt, as I knew Ping would want to in the light of day.  Overnight he reached out to his colleague Paul, who is a big cat expert as well as Bill who owns Wild Source and is a big cat biologist.  First both of them really wished they could have seen this.  And second both agree that this was likely a new-phobia, the fear of doing something they’ve never done.  That they were crouching in a defensive posture was notable.  Ping got a call from the guide who was on the sighting with us and she went first thing this morning and couldn’t find anything.  He called a security guard at the camp near the sighting and he heard no confrontation at all overnight.  We also did a thorough search and found no buffalo (dead or alive), no sign of a kill (blood, fur, bones) and no lions.  It’s almost as if we imagined it!  How that buffalo got away is completely beyond me, but Ping says when they believe they are about to be killed, they can rally and exert extreme effort.  It’s all really interesting I think, I’m just still licking my wounds over not having seen a successful (albeit ridiculously easy) hunt!  This should have been a slam dunk!  I also believe I’m very black and white and need resolution, so for me to see something that was so obviously solved and dispatched with little effort, I was frustrated.  For the lions. For the buffalo.  For me.  For Ping.  He wanted that kill badly.

Lunch today was wonderful, as I’ve grown accustomed to.  The starter was a carrot and ginger soup, which reminds me that I really ought to be making more soups!  (How is it I always come home so inspired to cook differently and yet somehow never do?).  The main was a vegetable quiche, lovey and what a nice crust on it!  Dessert was a pineapple passion fruit sorbet.  Another reminder that I need to branch out a bit.  What was really creative about this is that the sorbet was passion fruit and there was a slightly frozen ring of pineapple on top of it that was a bit slushy.  Probably not the most delicate way to explain it, but I liked the textures together.

I wrote the top half of this post sitting on the deck of my tent overlooking the valley.  It is a view to remember.  I’ve been tying to take mental and audio snapshots to remind me of this when I need a lift.  The weather today is just about perfect, high 70/low 80 and dry, sunny and a bit breezy. It should not be as oppressive as it has been the last couple days when we head out at 3:30.

Random thoughts….I am really glad I rented the second camera with the shorter lens.  While I’ve taken over 3000 shots on the 100-400, I have about 800 on the 18-150, so I really have needed it.  I’m sitting here now just taking shots of all the birds landing near me.

Somehow I have either windburn or sunburn on my top lip.  Ping thinks it’s windburn since he has it too.  The sunblock lip balm I brought only makes it sting and more irritated.  I put Savlon on it last night before bed and that’s helped but I just put hydrocortisone on it and that’s better.  Writing this more to remind myself to think of a better lip protection next time!!

The afternoon drive was wonderful!  Spoiler alert: we found cats!

We headed out at 3:30 again, just ahead of when most camps go out at 4:00 for the evening drive.  Our plan was to drive slowly to hit the area for the three female leopards when it cooled off.  It actually was a lot cooler than recent days and quite windy.  I thought maybe the wind would keep the cats in hiding so I was a bit apprehensive.  Our plan never really materialized, as often happens on safari.

Ping stopped the vehicle to scan the horizon with the binocs. Then I heard “LIONS! They are hunting!” And he slammed the car into gear and we went steaming off across the plains.  I could just make out in the distance tiny tawny specks and one much darker spec running across the plains.  As we drove Ping said that they bolted out from under a large bush and split up and ran, which is hunting behavior.   I was breathless.  It was still before 4:00 and there was not another soul to be seen.

It took maybe 6-7 minutes to get to the lions and by the time we did, they’d all flopped down in knee high grass with the exception of a couple of females, who quickly followed suit.  There was another pile of about 9 lions of various ages, then the male on his own and a couple of other females off separately.  This was the same big pride as yesterday morning, well part of it, several were missing. And now I’m getting to see the pride male who I’d not seen yesterday.

They did not seem motivated to move once they settled where they were.  A few got up, looked interested in something we could not see in the distance, and then flop down again.  We sat with them for a half hour or so with no one else around and debated what we’d do next.

Ping was on the phone letting other guides know about these lions when suddenly the male lion got up and started walking right for the vehicle.  He looked me dead in the eye as he approached the vehicle and that was enough for me.  I leaned wayyyyyyy over into the other seat and said “Twala, Twala, Twala”.  Yes, that’s right, in my moment of panic I called out another guide’s name!  OOooof.  Ping leaned over in my direction and asked where he was. I looked and only saw the black tuft on the tip of his tail right under my window.  He was RIGHT THERE.  Ping said “he’s only looking for shade” and I said “he can find shade somewhere else.”  Ping started the vehicle and the lion moved.  A few minutes later he tried again.  Ping laughed and said “I cannot have a terrified guest.”  I wasn’t exactly terrified, it is just that this is now the second time in a week that a lion has made eye contact with me at a very close distance and I’m still not sure how to not freak the hell out!

All this time, a rather large storm was brewing and heading straight for us.  The sky grew darker, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up even more.  I suggested we start looking for leopards before it gets wet.  So off we went.  We seemed to be driving out of the direct line of the storm, which was good.  Ping started making the loop around leopard country when he stopped to talk to the rangers.  They said there was a male leopard with a kill clear on the other side of the conservancy.  He wanted to know if we should go for that.  I said I still wanted to see Figlet, Sankuet or Nadala and we know if the kill’s in a tree, he’ll be there tomorrow morning.  So we continued on.  Then he got a call from the guide he’d just told about the lions and he said that wasn’t a male at all but a female with two cubs.  No brainer.  Off to the female and cubs!

It took about 45 minutes to cross the conservancy and we hit some rain on the way.  The rangers were guarding the bush where the leopard and the cubs were eating.  The leopard was well known by the name of Nolari.  I had not seen her before but know of her from all my social media reading.  When I got my brief turn, I saw them all eating an impala.  I’d guess the cubs are maybe 4-5 months and of course quite cute.  We moved off to let others have a turn.

Ping thought that if we went and waited around the other side of the big bush she was in, the leopard would drag the kill out when they are done eating and it hang it in the only tree nearby, as that is leopard’s typical practice.  So we went around and cut back away from the path from the bush where the leopard was and the tree she’d likely be headed to.  A few dipshit guides must have figured out Ping was waiting for a reason, and piled up between us and the bush, cutting off her line of sight to the tree as well as her path to it.  Ping’s really well respected here so he texted the guides and asked them to back off and why and they did.  After a bit longer, Nolari came out of the bush and just sat and posed a bit while she contemplated her next move.  By now it was getting dark and all but one other vehicle had left.  She laid down by the bush her cubs and the kill were still in and we stayed until we could no longer see her.  Since she’s just up the road we’ll go there first tomorrow.

We zipped home since it’s just down the road from where Nolari is.  We had an early dinner which was, as is now customary, wonderful.  My starter was a mozzarella arancini (rice ball breaded and fried) and the vegetarian option was a vegetable pie, which was a bunch of different veggies diced up and in a pie crust with a cream sauce and some cheese.  Dessert was a flourless chocolate cake which was heavenly.

Back to the room to sort out the tips for tomorrow, shower and pack.  I move on to my next camp and say goodbye to Ping after the morning drive.

And hallelujah for it not being a cat-less day!