Ol Kinyei Conservancy: Day 2

Day 2 : Tuesday 11th December 2018

Today's game drives

We heard leopards last night, our camp is close to (about 100m from) the leopard’s territory. we also heard hippos grazing behind the tent, it's becoming a normal thing now. If it’s dark you need to be escorted between your tent and the main camp area for safety.

We set the alarm for 5:30am, they bring tea, bikkies and warm water for face washing to your tent at 5:45am, then you head out on an early game drive at 6:15am. Not a bad way to start the day, with the sun coming up over the Mara. It was the two of us and Sarah, three is a very comfortable number in the game watching vehicle.

We had a look around for the leopard but couldn’t find it. They are very elusive and often very hard to spot, as they tuck themselves away under bushes or up in trees. We did see two jackals chasing a white-tailed mongoose, as well as several female ostriches and a Thomson’s gazelle with a very new baby.

  

Andrew heard hyenas carrying on, and then George spotted a pride of lions on a hillside some distance away that had scored a kill and some hyenas who were also enjoying a feast about 50m from them. Both groups were eating wildebeest.

The lion group was 3 fully grown females, several “teenaged” cubs and 3 very young cubs, about 3 months old. The lionesses were not eating while we were there watching, perhaps they had already fed. They were basically taking turns sleeping and keeping a close eye on the hyenas, as hyenas can be dangerous to them and their cubs. The teenagers were eating and also playing, wandering away from the meal and then back again. The littlest cubs were also having a bit of a lick and a chew at the carcase, but also trying to coax the others into a game, and generally messing about. One of them was playing with the tufted end of the unfortunate wildebeest’s tail.

The hyenas were quite a contrast, as they do quite a lot of squabbling amongst themselves over their food. There is a lot of snapping and snarling, and various individuals being chased off, and sneaking back for another bite, the smart ones try to grab a piece and take it a distance away to enjoy. The hyenas were also surrounded by vultures waiting their turn, but for some reason no vultures were near the lion kill.

We also saw giraffe, warthogs, wildebeest, impala and gazelles, zebra and various other birds and beasts.

At about 9 am we stopped for our much needed bush breakfast on an open area with a great view across the savannah. It was drizzling a little, so we put on the ponchos from the vehicle, they are great and keep you dry and warm. Breakfast was good, tea and coffee, boiled eggs, bacon, pancakes and fruit. After brekkie we continued the game drive until it was time to head back to camp around 11.30 or so.

Lunchtime was 1pm, and of course it was another delicious meal, then time for a bit of a nap before afternoon tea at 3:15.

We then headed off on our afternoon game drive at 3:30pm. The sun was out and we saw a few hyenas wallowing in puddles.

The plan was to search again for leopards, but we quickly became distracted by elephants. Lots of elephants! There was a group of perhaps twenty elephants of all ages browsing on trees, so we stopped to watch them for a while. Then we realised that more and more and more elephants were coming up through the trees behind the ones we could see. They just kept coming, and we estimated the herd was about 80 – 90 in total. They started pulling down branches to eat the leaves, then pushing over trees to get to the tastiest parts, which seemed to take very little effort. It quickly became clear why you see so many broken and fallen trees around here. We named the effect “elephantnado”.

One huge bull knocked over a dead tree, which must have been extremely tasty. He then spent ages stripping off bark and eating bark and twigs. Lots of the other elephants also had a turn at that tree, who knows why they liked it so much. 

We enjoyed the show so much we spent our whole game drive time watching the elephants and had our sundowner drinks and snacks there with the herd.   They basically were all around us, and completely unfazed by our presence. 

The herd started moving off gradually forming a long line which we followed for a while before we had to turn off to head back to camp.

  

Back at camp, they had the campfire burning, so we were able to sit by the fire under an African night sky drinking G&T. Can tick that off the bucket list.

We had the safari bucket shower before dinner and tonight the kids ate early, so it was a bit quieter and less messy at the table, thank god...

After a full days adventure with excellent game spotting we were knackered so we were in bed with our hot water bottles by 9:40pm.