Day 7 - Narashas evening meal

Finally.... a stunning African sunrise, spent with "teenage" lions play fighting and taking turns eating their way through a dead buffalo. Charles excelled himself again by predicting the behaviour of the adolescents and getting us into the perfect position for this shot of the brothers sharing a morning slurp.
We left them as the sun started to heat up and the lions activity slowed down. We wanted to find more cheetahs as we didn't really have any action shots of these high speed cats - which are one of my favourites - they have so much going against them and with two males recently found dead through viral disease, their future in the Mara doesn't look bright. We set off in search and came across all manner of things... Vultures and Maribou stock fighting over a stripped carcass, (just a ribcage really), a Kestrel performing acrobatics and Egyptian Geese mating (which looked more like drowning) but we eventually found "Amani", a female cheetah - Imani's mother in fact. We sat with her a while, until a really noisy truck from another camp announced it arrival with squealing brakes and serious engine roar - it's a wonder the p
assengers have seen any wildlife at all!
Today's lesson from our American friends, (prompted by the mating geese), was that of a "Rapid Roy" - which equates to a British "quickie", something the African wildlife seem to favour - although the Lions apparently practise the "Rapid Roy" every 15 minutes for 3 days!!!!
We passed a 2 week old Thompsons gazelle with Mum, and another dead Thompsons that Amani had not eaten. We, however, ate very well, with Eagles flying overhead - this mornings 4 course picnic breakfast consisted of a fantastic mushroom and potato frittata with chilli sauce and sausages, yoghurt and cereal, fresh papaya, pineapple and melon, fruit juices, Earl grey tea, pastries and banana muffins - totally spoilt and totally stuffed!


Charles' Swahili Lesson for today
Imani - Faith
Amani - Peace
If you call someone a....
Leopard, it means you are secretive
Cheetah means you are fast
Hippo means you are fat
Fisi (Hyena) means you are greedy
Warthog means you have a crap memory
"ooh-ka-joo" (no idea of the spelling) - means you're smart!

Charles' Wildlife Lessons for today
1) Hyena hierarchy dictates that the lower ranking females get left with the bones. The females are more dominant than the males as well as physically larger, yet still the entire family greet each other by licking each others bits!!!
2) Leopard and baboons live in the same habitat and have the same lifestyle which is why there are often disputes between them.


Tiredness is beginning to take its' toll now - seriously falling asleep behind the lens today.  I don't suppose the G&T at lunchtime helped - but hey ho - am on holiday this time instead of a purely photographic tour which is kinda nice. Incidentally there was nothing on the camera trap last night so Darren kindly reset it for us for tonight.
Noticed during our down time that both feet are now missing a fair amount of skin through scratching and sweaty socks, but the talc is helping - shame the anti-histamine isn't. Managed a 1h20m nap after lunch too which was much needed - and thankfully put me back on track.
All the Masai staff here have taken to calling Caroline, "Caro" which takes a bit of getting used to, since it is a new one she hasn't been called before - but I quite like it. So as we left on our sundown game drive, Caro joked with our amazing driver, and requested 3 things... As it was our last evening drive, she wanted a perfect buffalo skull with dark horns, a cheetah kill, and the perfect African sunset - she got them all within a couple of hours! Charles you are simply outstanding.
We were still within site of camp when we snapped away at a perfect buffalo skull, before spotting a massive herd of gazelles legging it across the horizon.... the chase was on.... moments later we were watching "Narasha", a lone female cheetah, looking very hungry and thin, hunting for a baby gazelle.
We learnt that gazelles hide their offspring in the depressions on the plains when danger approaches and they apparently remember exactly the spot they left them and the babies instinctively know to lay low and keep still and quiet. It was fascinating to watch all the mother gazelles trying desperately to distract the cheetah from where they left their young... drawing her away. Unfortunately for one mother though, Narasha stumbled in the wrong direction and came upon a very young Grants baby - which she quickly grabbed by the neck and started feeding. Surprisingly she didn't kill it first -
the baby remained alive a lot longer than I ever imagined it would - it was quite alarming as the mother was only 100m away looking on, clearly distressed. Jennifer was also slightly distressed - but equally fascinated. The mother continued calling her young - the baby continued replying. In fact, the baby was still moving and calling, even after its innards had been eaten! The stomach was still full of nutritional mothers milk, so Narasha ate it, before moving to systematically skin the foal over a period of 45 minutes, whilst vultures circled overhead. At one point, we realised the mother still wasn't sure, when she saw off a couple of approaching black-backed jackals in the hope that it wasn't her baby that Narasha was munching on. Narasha didn't seem nervous at all, she ate, scanned the horizon occasionally and then ate some more. Typically Cheetahs have to eat very quickly as scavengers will often steal the kill. But on this occasion she was able to continue till there was nothing but hooves and skin left - she even ate the skull and brain which would have still been soft because the foal was only a matter of days old.
The adrenaline and rapidly diminishing light caused some frustration with camera controls, particularly for Caro, but admirably she persevered and we both got some great shots. Amazing experience. We then raced to capture our last dramatic sunset, lying face down on the plains whilst our American companions took dodgey photos of us and drank wine - our last drive together as a group was rapidly coming to an end and we giggled our way back to camp with the wind in our hair. So going to miss this place. It's simply magical.

Day 6 - Fig Friday

Last night I had spent the evening chatting to 70 year old egg farmer, Ken Staverley, about Moba machinery and his factory in Lancashire. An interesting conversation with a charming, if a little tipsy, gentleman. So today, of course, the girls took the mick. Which made for a very giggly and lighthearted safari truck - right from the word go at 615am.

Charles excelled himself today, also from the word go.... even before dawn, he managed to get us into the best position, a foot deep in water, half way across the river, in perfect time for a pride of lions who were about to cross with their cubs. The ISO was bumped right up and both cameras had to be used as the cubs came a little too close for my borrowed Nikon lens, but I absolutely adore this shot of one of the cubs, growling at the water, as he tentatively padded from stone to stone right in front of us. Such a memorable moment.
After dawn, we found Fig guarding last nights kill (baby wildebeest), which was up a tree. Charles thinks the reason she stashed it instead of eating it last night is because she already killed and ate a baby impala right after we left her, so the wildebeest must have been a second opportune kill. Charles knew she would have to get the kill down at some point to hide it during the day, so we had breakfast in the van and waited to see what she would do. Trucks came and went - we stayed, and thankfully

our patience was well rewarded with three glorious hours of exhilarating "Fig" action. First she came from the bushes in front and trotted over to climb the tree and retrieve the baby wildebeest with immense jaw strength and grace - blink and you would have missed her get up that tree trunk - she took a little longer getting back down with the kill - tugging and pulling to free it from it's wedged position of safety 3 metres up. Then she caught her breath at the foot of the tree occasionally licking the kill before removing the innards and burying them in the dirt.

Next, just as we finished re-positioning the truck she dragged the kill right out into the open in front of us and into another bush 20 or so yards away from the first, but 2 metres from our truck! Charles is definitely worthy of his reputation as the best guide/driver - all other trucks had a blocked view behind us and no space left to re-position - we felt very privileged - and Fig did not seem to mind at all - casually going about her daily routine - she left the kill hidden from scavengers and went to a hippo pool for a crap before settling down in the shade under Richard Costin's van for a well earned rest - how funny that she chose the only professional photographers vehicle to hide herself under - totally out of reach of his lens.


Back at camp for lunch and the conversation was flowing much more freely from the shared Leopard experience - to the point where straight-laced New Yorker, Jennifer decided it was a good time to test out her use of the British word "w**ker!!!!" hilarious. Pretty sure she had no idea how rude a word it is in Britain!
Cleared and transferred my cards and Darren set up his camera trap outside our tent for us ready for the night watch. A 30 minute nap and I felt right as rain and ready for the afternoon drive. Caroline however cannot have felt as good as she mistook these two giraffes for elephants at one point! We saw quite a few elephants today, in a herd, young and old, scratching the ground with their feet to get at the minerals underneath, drinking seriously muddy water and splashing themselves to cool off and cake themselves in it like sunscreen. We also saw a massive troop of baboons, more lions with cubs, and during another non-existent sun at the sunset hour, we decided to stay with a large male lion called "Mohican". No sooner had we sipped our first and got the nibbles out when Charles suggested there might actually be a sunset after-all and so we grabbed hold of everything and sped off towards the open plains with moments to spare. We were going so fast racing across the grasses that Charles ordered Sam and Jennifer who were right in the back ~(the bumpiest seats) to ditch their wine out the side of the van in order to properly hang on - the look of horror on mine and Caroline's faces as Sam's full glass of white went sloshing to the ground told Jennifer all she needed to know about us two - we laughed and laughed but eventually we got our first sunset of the trip under dramatic African skies whilst the ladies polished off the rest of two bottles of wine. The perfect end to another incredible day.

Day 5 - Thursday, Malika and her cubs

Finally clear sky! when we left at 615am we could definitely see stars! not many, but they were definitely visible... our 1st sunrise of the trip!! closely followed by more lions and some hippos in the water. We spent a bit of time with one of the known female cheetahs, called Malika, and her four cubs - but they were pretty lazy and lying flat out on the plains for most of the time - worn out, so we left them and went for a picnic breakfast by a river under the trees which was just gorgeous. The rains had caused a few problems across the area as crossing points became a little more exciting than usual - this particular one we didn't bother with - Charles' gut instinct told him to cross further up - you didn't hear any complaints from us ladies in the back - we've already seen a massive Nile Crocodile disappear into the water as we plunged across in the truck a few just metres away.
There's been excitement in camp over learning (and subsequently managing to recall) the various names of collective creatures, such as a troop of baboons or my personal favourite, a dazzle of zebra... today we saw a journey of 12 Giraffes (when moving they are known as a journey and when stationary they become known as a tower). Camp guests have become so obsessed that Emma has printed out pages of lists for everyone - I can barely get the animal names right, let alone the collectives as well.

Kiki (Greek wildlife photographer) arrived today, but sadly, his luggage did not. We also have Richard Costin in camp at the moment, another impressive British wildlife photographer, here with his student, Dave, and his Nikon gear to try out - the same lens I have - 80-400mm f4.5. Excited to see what he makes of it.

Abraham, our Masai waiter, serving our table again today and since I am of course the piggiest of all the camp guests, I am always the first to the alfresco dining table with my plate of food -which also means I get to spend some time chatting to him about his life in the Mara and his family - truly fascinating. Depsite the leftovers being made available to these tribesmen, they prefer to eat only their typical diet of Ugali and Matooke with various relishes. Not the choice I would make given the delicious alternatives on offer here.
After a bit of a rest and the usual clearing down of cards and transferring to remote hard drive for safe storage we were off again at 4pm.... this time chasing Vervet monkeys, Olive baboons and Imani, an 18 month old Cheetah alone on the plains. Then by sheer accident we spent time with tiny lion cubs 2-3 months old... it seemed every place we chose for a pee stop, kept popping up lions!

We also had our first sighting of Fig the Leopard towards the end of the afternoon, and she didn't disappoint - bounding down the rocks in front of us, and pausing a few feet from the front of the truck before moving off on her way to hunt a baby Impala in the approaching darkness. Astounded how well the D4 performs in low light conditions - simply magic.

Whilst Kiki was shooting giraffe silhouetted against a lightning storm on the horizon (for his new book about light), we drank sundowners 200 yards away from Fig. What more could anyone want.

Day 4 - Wednesday's hangover and hailstorm

Ok on account of the camp manager, Tanyth, staying up drinking with us until the early hours, we were woken up at 545am by Daniel bringing our coffee as usual - Tanyth had completely forgotten to cancel him to allow us a lie-in!!! in a very grumpy panic I suggested to Caroline that maybe Tanyth had also forgotten to tell George and we were both therefore worried that he would be by his truck waiting for us at 615 - this called for our first use of the in-tent emergency walkie talkie - which I'm guessing Sean wasn't too chuffed about, but we just had to check George had been told. Sorry Sean!
We went back to sleep til 715am and thankfully found our coffee still hot in its little flask. We then had the most perfect hangover breakfast in camp under the trees at 830am - baked beans on toast with cheese and marmite - those Masai chefs are so obliging. We said our sad goodbyes to the camp managers and staff and set off for our second destination: Kicheche "Bush camp", across open plains, passing a Maasai village and school, and arriving around 1130am to another cracking welcome from Darren and Emma, the permanent camp managers from Leicester who have been living in Kenya for over 10 years. Unfortunately it wasn't until an hour later that I realised George had driven off with my well-traveled and well-annotated wildlife guide drying on the roof of his truck - oops.
After the obligatory welcome drinks and rundown of the camp rules, we were shown to our tent - Tumbili (monkey), which lucky for us was the closest to the mess tent, and absolutely huge, not to mention stunning.
Come 4pm, we were introduced to our new guide, Charles, who was not Masai, but Kikuyu, and had a reputation as the best guide in camp - something we later came to learn was 100% fact. We also met our two new truck mates, Jennifer and Samantha, from New York. If I remember correctly, Jennifer is some kind of teacher and Samantha a professional dog trainer. Both a little bit mad, but both great game drive companions despite not being fellow photographers. They seemed more than happy to spend time observing the same animals for hours instead of moving on after 10 minutes - they thankfully were a long way from the typical "list-tickers" most non-photographers are when on safari.

Our first game drive with them from Bush camp started with an incredible storm... a hail storm in fact. Bizarre. But one during which I spent a long and very frustrating time trying to capture a male lion shaking his soaking wet mane. After a number of failed attempts and then an unknown error message appearing on the camera I finally got the best chance I was going to get; - poised in position with the lens poking through a small gap in the plastic side windows, the rain lashing down, and backache from crouching in the truck for almost 2 hours in the same position, the lion
shook, and I shot - at exactly the same moment the female who was lying in front of him decided it was time to stretch her legs.... BLOODY HELL! better luck next time.
As the rain slowed, we left the mating lions and went for "sundowners" with wildebeeste and more lions elsewhere then drove back watching the lightning crack across the sky. When we returned to camp, the weather had proved destructive as we learned some of the tent poles had been bent and the power had been out for hours. A paraffin lamp had been placed outside our tent and dinner was to be served at 8pm as usual. Shortly after arriving back in our tent for bucket showers, the power temporarily came on thanks to some clever redirection of the generator. So so tired, hungry, and still slightly hungover, that we almost fell asleep at the dinner table.  We were both in bed and sleeping by 10pm.

Day 3 - Tuesday

Thankfully I slept from 1030pm til 540am - felt a little groggy, but the African plains soon blew that away. We set off at 620am and saw little until 730am when we stumbled upon a Giraffe about to give birth - what a find!
Captured the whole thing including the bump as the baby hit the ground from a fair height as the mother was standing the whole time! Took the kid 12 minutes in total to learn to stand - incredible...graphic, but incredible all the same.
Just as she was about to deliver the placenta, when a radio call came in with a Leopard sighting... we didn't hang around. Sadly by the time we got there the female Leopard (called Fig) had retreated into the bushes and the sun was truly roasting so we decided to go take some scenic shots of the truck in the beautiful riverine lugga.

We ventured a little further and found some more lions with cubs before heading back for lunch - the sun was too harsh to shoot anything anyway and we were getting burnt. It was so hot that I broke my habit of a beer at lunchtime and ended up having two instead. Which meant I was fairly dozey by the time the lightning storm started at 330pm and we were gearing up to head out again. The rains started just as we found a pride of lions with 9 cubs playing in the mud - hilarious to watch. Then we decided it must be beer o'clock and I leant forward to the front cab and noticed the cool box was missing - "George..." I started... "where have you put my beer?". He stumbled for an answer before suggesting that one of the other trucks from Kicheche must have it, he said he would radio the others and we would have to go find them to collect it!? very unlike George, but I didn't twig at all.
A few minutes of travel later and we arrived out on the open plains where all the Kicheche trucks and guests we were waiting for us with a blazing fire, nibbles and champagne on ice!!! Caroline had arranged a 40th birthday party for me in the Masai Mara! How amazing is that!?!? :-) The icing on the cake was the thunderstorm that started with a downpour of torrential rain to which Caroline and I, in typical camping fashion, simply grabbed the ponchos from the truck and sat back down - everyone thought we were mad, but they eventually did the same and we guzzled another couple of bottles giggling away under the African monsoon. Brilliant. Then when we had packed up and all the trucks were making their way back to camp in the dark George let me express my thanks over the CB radio which started a hilarious conversation amongst the slightly tipsy passengers of each vehicle. What an end to an amazing game drive.
A much needed hot bucket shower and we were back in the mess tent for dinner and more drinks, followed by an awesome birthday cake - accompanied by Masai staff dancing, drumming and singing. Then of course, more drinks. We crawled into our tent at 2:30am! I will never forget my 40th.