Sunday 29^th Jan 2017

 

Today we’re heading home, but before we do that we have time for a final morning game drive. We headed out hoping to find the elusive Leopard cubs. Around the rocks where they were known to be we spotted some Hyraxs and Clip Springers, but no cubs. We moved to where the mother is known to hang out and could see her in the bushes. David then drove us around spotting birds and stopping to let Tamsin take photos of the smaller antelopes as she felt she didn’t have any good ones.

 As we were doing this Kapen pointed out that there was some Lion action going on as he had seen Zebra and Wildebeest running away from a drinking area. After looking through his binoculars he concluded that that was all it was.  Tamsin continued to take photos of birds when suddenly we saw two Lionesses spring from the bushes and take down a Wildebeest about 500 metres away in the same area Kapen had been looking. David threw the truck in gear and we frantically held on as he raced over the rough ground to get close. As we drew up close to the Lions one of them had her mouth clamped around the windpipe of the Wildebeest. I’ll not describe all
that happened as it was rather harrowing as it was not a pleasant death for the Wildebeest. All we can hope is that adrenalin had kicked in and it felt nothing. Very soon after we turned up the older cubs appeared and the Lionesses started to bite into the stomach and some of the cubs, including Lucky who literally dived in, started to feed. A few of the older cubs practiced strangling the Wildebeest, which is good practice, as they at some point will have to fend for themselves. The Lionesses and the cub have to eat quickly as the two males will push them away, if they turn up, and they will only be left with scraps.

We passed Mike and Sue who were on the way to the airport. We had hoped to have had breakfast with them, but the Lion kill had delayed us.

After breakfast and a shower it was now our turn to head towards the airport. Jesse and Chania had arranged for us to have lunch in the bush by the hippo pool before Kapen and David delivered us to the airport.  We saw lots of super wildlife on route to the airport including a well fed hyena, a male giraffe hot in pursuit of a female on heat and a cheetah resting in the shade of a bush.

Just time for some selfies too....!!!

The flight home was with KLM via Amsterdam and what a contrast with Kenyan Air.  I can highly recommend them as they’re very professional and have tonic water on board!!

Sad Addendum to the holiday

About a  month after we got back, we heard the horrific news that Tristan Voorspuy, who was the founder of Offbeat safaris where we stayed in the Mara, was killed by herders whilst inspecting some property in the Laikipia area which is where our 2^nd stay had been.  There is a lot of unrest in this area due to the drought and several lodges have been torched this year.  I’m just very glad we went when we did as would not return to Kenya whilst it is so unsettled.

Saturday 28^th Jan 2017

A nice lazy start with coffee/tea being delivered at 8:00 am to our tent. After the usual great breakfast, (I do hope this continues at home), we headed out to see the Hippo pool. This is back towards the airport and we noticed that there seemed to be more game around. We spotted some Banded Mongoose running around in packs as well as Slender Mongoose. The former are always in groups and if you see one, look for the others.

As the day was hotter than any previous a lot of the game is disinclined to move as much as normal. This meant that we could get a bit closer and Tamsin get some great shots of Impala, Thompson and Grants Gazelles as well as Warthog. There were larger groups of Wildebeest and Zebra as we got closer to the river Mara.

Getting out of the vehicle so that we could look down from the high banks we spotted a large Crocodile motionless below us. Further up river was a school of Hippos. This comprised some calves as well as mature adults. There was the usual grunting and positioning that we love about Hippos. One Hippo that David pointed out had some serious wounds that still shone red on its back and muzzle and were being pecked at by a Pied Warbler. He explained that this was from a Lion attack as Lions attack them at night when they’ve travelled far from the water in search of grass. Normally Lions don’t bother with Hippos, but young mature males will sometimes use them for practice or in the hope that they may get lucky. We moved downstream a bit where there was another school. I think Kepan had hoped that we might see Crocodiles attack Wildebeest as they came to drink on the bank. Fortunately all seemed quiet as we don’t really need to see nature raw in tooth and nail.

As it was now very hot we started to head back towards camp. Along the way we came across two Lionesses from the Acacia pride lazing around, as cats do, under a tree. They looked well fed and not up to much so we continue after some photos. As we crossed a dry river bed we found a pair of Maribou Storks. These must be some of the ugliest and most disgusting creatures on the planet with some delightful habits. One of these is that they shit on their legs as some form of temperature control! Tamsin took some good shots of these as you could clearly see one of their air sacks that they use for high altitude flying on the hind neck. Having said all that they are part of the vulture clean-up crew that is necessary in the bush.

We decided to go out later as we getting a bit of Safari fatigue. We drove around a bit with Tamsin taking some photos of raptors. At one point we came across a troop of Baboons. Some of the females were in season and the dominant male seemed half prepared for some hanky-panky!

A bit later we came  across some of the cubs from the Offbeat pride. Initially we thought this group also contained “Lucky”, but on close examination it didn’t. Without him the others were relaxed and only indulging in gentle play. We eventually found him lower down with one of the other missing cubs. We hung around for a while, but no Lionesses turned up and not much seemed to be happening.  We returned to camp and sat around the fire talking with Mike, Sue, Jesse and Chania.

Friday 27^th Jan 2017

We were woken up at 6.30am as Chris, Sue and Mike were going for a walk in the bush with Jesse and Kapen bringing up the rear.  Mum and I had elected to go for a game drive instead.

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Tamsin and Gills story.

Before even leaving, we saw a large adult male lion and some females strolling through the grass on the plains just in front of the camp.  We set off in hot pursuit, but they’d already gone to ground in some thick bush and we couldn’t see them.  However, not far behind were the two largest male cubs (about 8 months old) so we went to see them instead.  They were slowly following the mature lions as apparently their mother was amongst them.  As they meandered along, one of the young males mounted the other one - hormones rising already I assume!  Anyway, their mother came out to greet them and after some rubbing around and licks they came back towards us and passed right by the side and back of our vehicle – very thrilling!

We were then driven back to the leopard area and spent some time admiring a very beautiful scimitar bird on an acacia bush, a yellow throated longclaw and some dik dik on route.  The leopard was in exactly the same place as yesterday and didn’t appear to have moved.  Perching in a tree just above her was a beautiful grey headed kingfisher – I duly snapped away but just don’t seem to be able to take good king fisher photos as they don’t seem to focus on the bird sharply, which is rather frustrating.

We then started heading for the breakfast rendezvous where we were meeting up with Chris etc after their walk.  On the way, we spent some time watching a jackal which was apparently hunting and seemed very busy.  It flushed some francolin out of some rocks but was nowhere close to catching them.  We also saw a warthog family with some very small babies – I just love the way they run with their little tails held vertically in the air like little pennants.  I also spotted a little bee eater and took a huge number of photos, as again my camera wouldn’t focus on the bird.  In the end I managed to get 2 photos that were in focus.

David, our guide, spotted that some antelope were all looking in one direction which signifies a predator and somehow, in the middle of the vast plain of grass, he found a young female cheetah lying in the shade of an acacia tree.  She was a very beautiful cat and seemingly didn’t have a care in the world as she rolled around and played with some dried dung.  We later found out that she’s about 2 years old and did have a sister which was eaten by a crocodile as they crossed a river one day. 

We then drove a very short distance to our bush breakfast that was served under the shade of a large tree.  Chris and the others turned up about 15 minutes after we got there, so we were already sitting down with our 1^st cup of tea.  I spent the time very usefully though as managed to establish that the Masai guides who shepherded us around did wear shorts under their skirts – a modern development.  I also found out that their nickname for us was Illashumpa (silent “i”) which means “The Confined One” and refers to the European mode of wearing shorts or trousers.

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Chris’ story.

We walked out of camp after Jesse had given us our briefing. For the walks Jesse carries a M375 Magnum rifle. This should be enough to stop an Elephant. All guides consider themselves to have failed if they ever need to fire their gun in anger. The plan was to walk towards where some Lions had been heard over night and to then circle around the camp onto some hills before coming back to a wooded area before stopping for breakfast.

We walked towards the Lions safe in the knowledge that we were down wind of them. Sadly we spotted them walking away into an area that Jesse didn’t want us to go so, we continued to climb up the hill and spotted Jackals following the Lions. This is common in that Jackals will latch onto a predator hoping for some snacks. Stepping into a small clear area of the bush a Scrub Hare sprung up and ran off. Jesse mentioned that the difference between hares and rabbits is that hares apart from the bigger ears live above ground – I didn’t know that.

Kepan showed us how he had, with others, flushed lions out from hiding places using a simple leaf that can sound like a Lion call. We tried this and noticed that some Zebra nearby had taken off. We also tried the toothbrush tree and cleaned our teeth. Have to say it doesn’t taste that great. He and Jesse pointed out various animal tracks and explained how they judged how old they were – it’s mainly to do with definition of the print and if it’s been windy.

We approached what is normally a river, but now dry and saw a Hippo surfacing before submerging again in the few deep pools still available. I also saw a Malacite Kingfisher. We then moved out into a plain area. Jesse pointed out a Cheetah print in the dust and reckoned on it being less than 2 hours old as you could still see that claws defined. He hoped that we might see it soon as it would be lain up for the day as they only hunt early mornings and evenings. We headed towards some trees where we could see the trucks and breakfast in the bush!

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After a delicious breakfast, we went to look at the cheetah again who hadn’t moved and probably wouldn’t do for some hours as by this time, it was getting hot.  We started back to camp and admired a brightly coloured Ngama lizard on a dead branch, various antelopes on the plain including a baby Topi, a group of female giraffe munching on acacia trees and lots of little birds in a river bed.   We also saw a woolly stork and a black stork side by side on a dead tree – the black stork looked stunning with its so called black feathers shimmering with iridescent green and blue.

Just got back to camp and have an hour before lunch – enough time to write the blog and upload the photos from the camera to the laptop.

We chose not to go for an afternoon game drive and enjoyed some down time and caught up on some sleep.  After a cup of tea and some flapjack, we set off for a short game drive before having a dinner out in the bush.  We saw Frank, the large lion with the dark mane, lying in the grass and a few lionesses we went to check on the Leopard who was back in her tree eating the kill.  Whilst watching her, there was a crashing noise and the kill dropped out of the tree onto the ground.  She followed it in a trice and almost in an instance had pulled it back up the tree – her strength is amazing.

We drove to our bush rendezvous where we sat round a very welcome fire having some drinks before dinner.  This is a lovely time of the day as people chat about this and that and exchange stories.  I was depressed (but not surprised) to hear that only about 10% the vast amounts of money raised by safaris goes to the local community.  The rest is pocketed by a very wealthy government minister who lives a life of unbelievable grandeur.  In the North Mara conservancy there are 12 camps who pay about $155,000 a month rent to the Masai.  On top of that, just to apply for a concession costs $2 million which is renewable every 15 years.  So, that’s an awful lot of money coming in to the area, but the local community don’t benefit that much from it apart from the employment it generates.   From our perspective, the villages look poor, but we did notice that some of the mud huts had satellite dishes and nearly all the locals who work at the camp have the most modern mobile phones, so maybe the villages aren’t as poor as they look?

After dinner, we went on a short night drive.  We didn’t see a great deal but we did see an Aardwolf which quite rare, some bush babies and a few scrub hares plus a couple of lionesses starting to hunt for antelope.

Bliss -we’re having a lie in tomorrow and not getting our wake up call until 8am.  Actually, I woke up early anyway so have been catching upon this blog which has been a real indulgence.

Thursday 26^th Jan 2017

We had decided to go to the weekly market in the local town this morning. It’s mixture of cattle market and fruit/veg – should be interesting?

On the way there we spotted a few more birds to be noted in our bird book before going back to look for the Leopard. We stopped and look for a while before heading the village via the camp. Along the way we spotted a Cheetah in long grass. Not a great spot as it seemed to have bedded down to later when they become active. Maybe we will revisit that later. The trip to the village took longer than expected, but in reality was probably less than 10km total and the terrain slowed us.

We parked up and followed David as he explained what was going on. The market has some order in that the sold animals are marked with a blue cross and transactions are between the individual owners and buyers. Kapen was supposed to be watching our things in the truck but walked off into the crowds. David explained that he was going to buy a cow as it was a good time of year to buy them. Cattle are like the Masai bank/investments as if you buy the right cow and feed it up during the rainy season it will be worth more. They also use an app called Mpesa to buy and sell things. This is an African solution to the lack of banks in rural and remote areas as well as for micro funding. It uses credits stored on the app on your smart phone, which everyone seems to have and you text credit to one another - simple.

The fruit/veg market was interesting as the main product seems to be sweet potatoes, potatoes and cabbage. David explained that the Masai are herders rather than growers, but that the neighbouring tribe are growers, hence the market each week. I suspect there’s a market somewhere in the area each day – not unlike home. We didn’t find anything to buy but enjoyed the ambience.

On the way back David took a short cut as we needed to be back for lunch. As we crossed a plain I noticed a Lion and mentioned it. It was a Lioness heading into shrub. Kapen and David noticed some more male Lions in another area closeby. These are the outcast male Lions that are about 1 year old and no longer part of the pride. They all seemed well fed and content so went to look at a young Elephant that was lying down. This was using a termite mound as headrest. Eventually it got up and Mum shielded it with its trunk. As we started to move away we noticed that some Zebra with a small herd of Wildebeest was walking toward where the Lions were. In amongst the Wildebeests was a new born. So we parked up to see what would happen. The Wildebeest with the calf was of no interest to the male Lions however, the Zebra were getting close to the Lioness. As the last Zebra past the Lionesses hiding pace she decided to have a go. This also attracted the attention of the males. Fortunately the Zebra remained unscathed.

During the evening drive we saw a Water Buck, our first and probably only one for this trip. Soon after we picked up on the two dominant males of the “offbeat” pride, Frank and Jesse, walking towards the river and a drinking hole. We decided to follow them and see what came up. As we parked up we realised that just behind us were some of the females of the “Offbeat” pride. We couldn’t get great view of the two males drinking as other vehicles had got there before us. However we were rewarded by the cubs appearing in front of us including “Lucky” the adopted cub. We watched them all gambol and play for a while during this time Kepan noticed that the mother of two younger cubs had left the other females and disappeared towards where the other cubs had appeared. David said that we might get to see the younger cubs. Some of the other vehicles took off to look for other viewings.

 We continued to look for birds and the Pygmy Kingfisher in particular. Although we saw some Tamsin didn’t get a great shot, but she did of other birds. Our patience/luck was rewarded with regard to the lion cubs as we watched the mother and her two cubs appear from the drinking place. The younger cubs were a bit nervous of the vehicles, but as Mum was okay they followed. She lay on a bank below the other lionesses and cubs and we watched the cubs frolic and play. Suddenly a small flock of doves flew low overhead which startled all the Lions. This was followed by another sound that caused the mother to suddenly bound up the bank towards the others. The consequence of this was that one of the youngsters was tossed in the air!  Fortunately it wasn’t hurt, but had become separated from its sibling and Mum. After some uncertainty and calls they were reunited.

After all that excitement Tamsin managed to get some photos of a Pygmy Kingfisher. We headed away from the camp. Eventually we saw a fire burning in the distance and drove towards it and our sun-downer. The other couple still in camp, Mike and Sue, turned up a bit later and apologised as they had been delayed by watching a Cheetah attempting to hunt. This we think was the Cheetah we had spotted laid up in the long grass earlier that day.

Wednesday 25^th Jan 2017

Today is our transfer day to the Mara. After breakfast we headed to the airstrip that we’d had our sun-downer at the night before. The plane arrived with a few others on board. We said our goodbyes to Mungai and boarded. At the next stop the woman in front of me that I’d been chatting to got off with her friend. I turned to Tamsin and said that I thought it was Rula Lenska, the actress. Next minute, they got back on board as they realised that they had got off at the wrong airport and we teased them that they hadn’t got the correct visas for there. Turns out that there is another airport that the plane stopped at, some 6 mins flight away, that has a similar name. Here everyone bar us got off and two others joined us. The co-pilot informed us that the next stop was about 1.5 hours away.

We were met at the Mara North airstrip by David and Kapen and driven for just over an hour to the tented camp – Mara Offbeat. Along the way we stopped to look at part of a pride of lions chillin’. As we got closer to camp we went off road as they were looking a Leopard that had been spotted that morning complete with a kill. Sadly they couldn’t find it so we continued on to the camp to be met by the camp managers Jesse (male) and Chania (fem.).

After lunch and a rest we went out on our evening game drive. We started by looking at a huge male Eland with an enormous dewlap. David pointed out some of the local “Offbeat” pride of Lions way over on the horizon. As we moved round to get closer to them we came across some Elephants. We moved to investigate what a Giraffe was looking at and discovered a young Lion near some bushes on further investigation we noticed some more Lions in the grass. In the distance (about 300m) David and Kapen pointed out the female Lion was approaching. We moved to have a look at her as she veered away from the location of the cubs. David stated that she look quite thin and was calling for her cubs. She then set off in a completely different direction. A bit later all the cubs appeared as they’d heard her call before she’d headed in the wrong direction. There were 6 cubs. Two older, 3 younger and 1 small one. David said that the small one was a cub from another mother that didn’t have milk and a younger mother had adopted her cub as there’s a strong bond between all the females in a pride this was our introduction to Lucky.

We headed off towards where the Leopard had put its kill earlier that day. David and Kapen decided the best thing to do was park up and wait for the Leopard to come along whilst we had our sun-downer in the truck. We waited about 20 mins and she appeared. They think she has some cub’s close by as she has been known to be pregnant and is obviously not now. We watched as this magnificent beast leaped up the tree and began eating the Impala that she’d killed and stored there. We didn’t like the fact that in the falling light one of the guides in another truck shone a light on her.

We realised that in one day we had seen the “Big Five” which is a first for us having seen Rhino on the way to the airport at Lewa.

Tuesday 24^th Jan 2017

As we sat with our early morning cuppas Tamsin asked if I had my camera with me, which I did. Unusual I thought, but didn’t think any more about it. I asked where her Mum was as she normally joined us. Tamsin said that her Mum wasn’t coming as she had not been sleeping too well and that if she didn’t have her light on not to disturb her. Again I didn’t think anymore about this though I should have. We set off in the truck and entered the airstrip, similar to what we’d done before but this time actually going onto the run way. Mungai mentioned that some Waterbuck had managed to get through the fencing and that they would need to be cleared. We then stopped outside the hut where Will, (the owner of Lewa Wilderness), was in his flying jacket. As we stopped he said to me “I have a seat looking for a pilot”, odd I thought as I turned to Tamsin. She said “it’s your Birthday present from Mum – Happy Birthday”. Talk about stitched up like a Kipper!? Apparently ever since we had arrived they’d been trying to pick the best day to go up and there had been lots of signals and whispers going on behind my back. The day chosen was superb with little wind and very clear views of Mt. Kenya – fantastic.

 There was enough room for two so Tamsin was coming with me. The front cockpit of the Waco bi-plane is a bit of a squeeze especially when you’re bulked up with, albeit thin, flying jackets. Tamsin had the door side as she would be taking most of the pictures. Decked out with leather helmets we took off rising slowly over the hills and down through the valleys at a height of less than 4 metres above the tree tops. Will asked over the headphones if we were okay with that – two thumbs went up! Seeing the conservancy and the adjoining properties at this height not only adds another dimension but also gives you an appreciation of the various types of vegetation and terrain. We landed after coming in over the house and guest cottages and taxied back under the hangar – wow, wow, wow! This has now got me thinking that maybe I do want that Gyrocopter I’ve thought about every since I saw James Bond using one years ago. I think the Healey needs to be finished and sold first though.

After breakfast we headed out again and went looking for the Leopard. We saw lots of Giraffe, Antelope, Elephants, Zebra and Rhino, but sadly no Leopard.

After lunch we decided to take some R & R by the pool.  We noticed that the birds were coming down to the pool to drink and wash. Tamsin went back to the room for her camera and started taking photos of the Superb Starlings, Mousebirds and various Weaverbirds.

On the evening drive Mungai took us back towards the park entrance and a wooded area. There we spotted Grey Headed Kingfishers, a large troop of Baboons and a Green Wood-Hoopoe. We then started to head back towards the swamp area and looking for the elusive Leopard. We looked hard and found a pair of Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls and some immature Martial Eagles, but no Leopard. Mungai then drove out of a gate towards the staff areas and a wooded area there. A truck was already parked up looking at a prone Leopard. As we waited the large male stirred and started to wake ready for the evening hunt. Tamsin took some superb photos. After about 20 mins the Leopard strode off into the grass. We were now very happy bunnys.