What an awesome day today. We left on our safari at 6:30am. We both just about froze, even with the blanket that Dennis supplied. Turns out we are at about 5,000 feet so it is rather cold, even if we are close to the equator. The scenery is pretty if a bit stark.
And we had a
modest sunrise.
We saw many of the usual animals that we have seen over and over (but we never tire of seeing them). Zebras,
hyenas,
wildebeests
impalas,
and a Saddle-Billed stork (new to us).
The highlight of the morning was a revisit to the lions we saw yesterday – three lionesses and seven cubs. The major treat was that the cubs were all climbing around a fallen tree…making them very visible. And they were quite playful and acrobatic (sometimes pretty clumsily).
The lionesses were keeping a keen eye on the surroundings and the cubs.
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More Lion Pride
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The conservancy has interesting things such as skull...
rivers and streams...
and wonderful vistas.
We saw an elephant without a tail
and a lion walking along the road.
Eventually he headed into the bush
and ultimately to a waterhole where he spent some time lapping up the water while the occupants of a number of tourist vehicles watched and recorded his every move.
giraffes
and an elephant family that had a few small ones.
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More Elephants
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We were back for a very late breakfast so we decided to skip lunch. In the afternoon Mary worked on photos in the room while Paul went down to the restaurant to do some work with the Wi-Fi. From the restaurant and patio, which is next to the river, you can see hippos on the other shore or in the water, which are there even when you cannot see them because they are under the water.
When the hippos all went into the water the baboons showed up,
And later elephants come down to drink.
We saw a large number of mongoose running around the grounds.
In the afternoon we saw a fairly large number of topi (several were having a grand time romping around…obviously playing).
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Video of Topi playing
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We also saw a
jackal (our first in the park)
warthogs (this one with a baby),
and elands.
We went to East Africa for the wildlife but something else that is in vast abundance everywhere in Tanzania and Kenya are Masai Cattle. We see them constantly.
The North Mara Conservancy was established in conjunction with the local Masai people and much of it is on Masai land. As part of setting up the conservancy they are allowed controlled grazing rights.
The highlight of
the afternoon was an encounter with a cheetah and her three cubs. We first saw her from quite a distance, and
she seemed to be scouting the area for prey.
With no success. When she started
heading out all the safari vehicles followed.
Turns out only five at a time are allowed close and we were able to get
there early enough for front row seats when she went to her cubs.
We spent quite a
bit of time watching them and photographing them. What a treat.
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More Cheetah Family
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Video of Cheetahs
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We eventually did
some more driving around but didn’t really have any luck seeing anything else
except a white-backed vulture. Ugly as
are most vultures.
We got a bit of a sunset on our way back to camp.
We were back pretty late so went straight to dinner. We were sitting out on the grassy area and it was pretty cool so Moses, our waiter for our stay, brought out a brazier that kept us from getting too chilly.
After dinner it was back to the room where we did a few items and then went to bed fairly early. It will be an early morning tomorrow.
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