Olare Motorogi Conservancy

Olare Motorogi Conservancy

Day 3 : Wednesday 12th December 2018

Todays maps

Last night I could hear the leopard again, it’s an amazing feeling laying in your bed and knowing there is a serious predator just outside. Every morning starts with the customary morning tea brought to your tent at 5:45am then a game drive at 6:15am however today was a little different in that there was a Bush Buck and her baby wandering around our tent. Lisa went to grab a camera but they took off across the creek.

Today was our last game drive at the Mara camp, as per yesterday it was just the 3 of us in the back, Sarah, Lisa and me which makes for a comfortable seating arrangement.

On the morning drive we searched for the leopard around the back of our camp, but again with no success. I think leopards are my favourite wild animal but we have a love hate relationship. I would love to see lots to of them, but I’d settle for just one, leopards on the other hand hate to be seen so they just stay out of sight. The truth is that you have to be really lucky to see one.

However, we did get to see 3 male lions, 3 female lions, 3 tiny cubs and a couple of juveniles hanging about.  After awhile one of the females decided to cross the creek and the cubs soon followed with two of the juveniles, we followed them for a little while until they disappeared into the bushes for the days nap.

Because Lisa & I were heading to the Porini Lion camp today the game drive was cut short and breakfast was served back at the camp. We said our good byes to Sarah (we were going to see her the following day at the Lion camp) and off we went.

The game drive to Lion camp was relatively uneventful, we did see some animals but nothing to compare to any of the actual game drives we had been on so far in the Mara.

We arrived at the new camp just before 11am which gave us some time to settle in and then have lunch before our first game drive at the lion camp. We met the new crew John the game spotter, William was our driver.

In terms of other tourists, there was a family reunion, which was a group of 5, who had not seen each other for 15 years. They were originally from Zimbabwe, 2 were now living in England, 2 in Navaisha (Kenya) 1 living in Brisvegas. We had 4 Canadians all painful, 2 were from our original camp Patty & Byron, (Patty had had enough I think and just wanted to go home) the other 2 were David (he was okay) and his wife more interested in the concept of “saw them got 10 snaps let’s move on”.

So one of the things that I have learnt is finding people to travel with that are like minded. For example, Sarah, Lisa and me all looked at things the same regarding game drives. If we saw something we were happy to just sit and watch it for as long as the animal was about.

We did get to see 4 Cheetahs, 1 mother and her 3 juvenile cubs, Lisa urged me to play nice as I was getting somewhat annoyed with one of the Canadian ladies constantly saying lets move on when I wanted to watch them. Also, she didn’t know the difference between a Leopard and a Cheetah.

We moved on and saw 2 female lions chowing down on a Topi, 1 female who, as it turned out was heavily pregnant, was eating the intestines but sucking it up like spaghetti, the look on her face was priceless, she didn’t look thrilled. Just watching her eat it made me want to vomit. As she sucked the intestine up through her teeth the green contents were oozing out – gross!

We had heard that there was another female lion who had just given birth, so we went in search of the lioness and her cubs. The thing about lionesses when they have had just had cubs is that they hide them away from everyone so they are difficult to find. However, we found her in a very dense thicket, down a slight slope, the cubs were there but we only managed brief glimpses of them, there were absolutely no photo opportunities.

The search for the elusive leopard continued, we searched everywhere which included the back of our camp as it turns out is on the leopard’s turf. Eventually we gave up, knowing they would be around and sooner or later with any luck we would find one. Another reason leopards are so hard to spot is their turf can be 30 square Km’s and let me tell you there are a lot of hiding spots in that territory. I guess they are treating me mean to keep me keen.

So we moved onto looking for the right spot for the sundowner and on the way we got to photograph some animals silhouetted with the sunset in the background. Turns out most of the guides have a reasonable amount of photography skills, e.g. the angle of the sun etc.

Once we found a spot everybody was happy with we stood around drinking G&T and watched the sun go down on the Masai Mara,

After the game drive I spoke to William and said that Lisa and I would like to just go out with Sarah when she arrived. William said, unfortunately that would not be possible, Sarah would be in a vehicle by herself, whilst Lisa & I would remain with the two Canadians. I told him this was a bad idea so he suggested we all go in the same vehicle, which was an even worse idea.

Dinner was great, I spent it talking to the brother living in England, they run a rose import/export business. Things you probably didn’t know about roses. The longer the day light the bigger the petals, the more money you get per rose. He was also telling me they export 4 tonnes of roses a week into Australia.

We had planned an early night as we had a ballooning adventure the next day.

During the night we heard the hippos feeding behind our tent, you can hear the grass being ripped out. There was a leopard roaring somewhere nearby and there was torrential rain during the night, which concerned me greatly because of the ballooning.

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.