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Published: September 9th 2008
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Big Cat Diary
Day started once more with another shout of ‘Jambo’ (hello) from our tent guide and rousing to consciousness via enforced cheerfulness and a couple of mugs of hot chocolate. Just so that you know, the daily routine by now was: game drive - breakfast - mid morning game drive - lunch - collapse and try to force kids into a siesta - afternoon game drive - make self presentable for dinner - dinner - fumble around tent in half darkness getting ready for bed - fall asleep to the sound of bellowing/roaring/trumpeting/clumping/chewing wildlife. Pretty hectic! Anyway, Mandila was bright and ready again so we bounced off into the Mara.
The camp guard shouted ‘Jambo’ and saluted at us every time we left or entered the camp - in Mark’s mind he became known as’ Mr Jambo’. This morning’s viewings were different again - the popular antelopes were out, and buffaloes were too, but this time we also saw an African Fish Eagle (no fish), and a pair of lionesses (sisters apparently) out hunting along a ridge. Whatever they were looking for, they didn’t find it, so we pressed on to look for Jack’s most prized quarry
- the termite! Mandila pulled over at a freshly active mound and went at it with a screwdriver, returning with a handful of soil out of which (to Jack’s disproportionate delight) he pulled out termites, showing us soldiers (hanging off his hand by their pincers) and workers (who changed direction whenever they touched something that wasn’t soil).
More warthog, a herd of zebra and then we came upon something else that caught the kid’s imagination - a bleached white hippo skeleton, mostly intact apart from the skull, which had been robbed of teeth. After Jack had insisted on seeing inside the mouth of the skull Mandila propped it’s mouth open with one of its own bones (much delight at this) so that it looked like it was smiling or yawning. With a brief stop at a giraffe (they’re so lovely, elegant, quiet and seemingly quite contemplative), we pressed onto another surprise.
At a riverside viewpoint we could see a past crossing point for wildebeest across the Mara river - a pretty horrific sight. Apparently fifty per cent of Wildebeest during the annual migration, and this part of the river was still choked full of rotting and bloated corpses even
Carnage
Wildebeest rotting and being eaten in the river though the last crossing was a while ago. The stench was sickly sweet and almost stomach turning, but the view of wildlife was incredible. On the far bank hyena, marabou stork and vultures all vied for the best pieces of fetid flesh to pull off a wildebeest corpse. Crocs hung around, apparently too full to take part in the competition. Stuffed and waddling vultures lined our side of the river too. It was a macabre scene, but compelling.
Since we had been ribbing Mandila about wanting to see leopards, he had been gradually heading towards more leopard-friendly countryside and it wasn’t long before he was phoned (we love the fact that the rangers all use mobiles to communicate out here) and told of a leopard sighting. We headed off in the general direction indicated and eventually found a few other 4x4s parked up looking at some bushes. We drove up and down the line of trees/bushes for a while before having the location of one of two leopard pointed out to us. Mark and Annabel both caught a glimpse of the back of the leopard whilst it sat amongst the trees and then saw it get up and walk
away, to be seen no more. The kids were disappointed that they hadn’t seen it but Mandila promised that we would come searching again that evening.
On the way back to camp (late for breakfast) we saw some elephants and wildebeest just to keep the animal count up.
The second game drive of the morning was a short affair as it was hot and the kids were tired and bad-tempered. At a watering hole near the camp we saw egret and also signs of catfish swimming near the surface of the water. We then headed off the see a male lion eating an ostrich kill, slain by the females from the marsh pride. Chomp chomp, crunch crunch - yummy! The marsh pride were close by so we went and had a quick look to see what they were up to (cubs playing with sticks) before heading back.
However, the afternoon drive was the best so far, for a number of reasons. A sedate giraffe commenced proceedings, followed by the pair of female lions we’d seen before, loitering between camp and the airport strip. We drove further on, and passed by (and through) a huge herd of zebra with
Can you spot it?
there's a leopard on the rock some foals skittering around. One informative natural history lesson later and we continued our trek - we passed a lone hyena and drove through another herd of wildebeest before Mandila was told by one of the other scouts that more leopards were abroad. We had the choice of moving on to see some cheetahs, or looking for the leopards, so off we bounced to look for Mr Spotty. We rounded a bank of bushes and encountered a town (Mandila’s term) of 4x4 vehicles, with twitchers all pointed towards a rock that was slightly obscured by bush. On this rock was stretched our first, easily viewable and tangible leopard (a juvenile, one of Bella’s grandkids for those who know Big Cat Diary). A picture of nonchalance and laziness he was, too - flicking at the flies with his ears and periodically rolling over to sun each side. We were all entranced, especially Annabel, who kept muttering ‘here kitty kitty’ - although his coat was gorgeous and he was generally presenting himself as a very fine feline.
This wasn’t to be our only encounter though - another telephonic communiqué and we bounced off to another site close by - this time
Cheetah
Scoping out prey - not us we hope a juvenile leopard was luxuriating on top of a termite mound, completely shameless and only mildly interested in our presence. A lot more tabby-type stretching and rolling ensued, before Jack announced that he needed a wee and we had to depart to a nearby termite hill.
Usually for the human male, finding a place in which to make one comfortable is a fairly easy decision. Not so in this case, though - Jack, presented with an object of great interest (the mound) and a large number of targets (the holes in the mound ), took great care in positioning himself for greatest relief, camera pose (yes we did) and satisfaction of aim. This ‘marking of territory’ (Mandila’s term again) complete, we went back to complete our leopard viewing.
But the night was not yet over - once sated by the leopards, we asked Mandila if there was still a chance to see the cheetahs, which proved a great idea. We found them (all three) mooching about in a loose group and looking a bit disgruntled. They moved off (in front of our Land Rover - yay!) towards a herd of topi a little way off. Mandila pulled
Hyena moving in
and scaring away the cheetah away to give them some space in case they decided to exercise their instincts, and it paid off. Towards the horizon the herd of topi started running and accelerated up to full pace. In the middle of the herd there was a scuffle and a fall, and when the dust had settled we lurched of towards the kill point, to find all three cheetahs crouched around a partially dead topi, progressively gnawing into it, wrenching away flesh whilst looking around furtively for the perennially opportunistic hyenas. And in the end they came - ten of them, approaching from the horizon and moving around the back of the vehicles, running into the cheetahs and successfully driving them away from their own kill, towards a rocky outcrop where they sulked. More gnawing followed, this time from the hyenas. Politics, politics.
Back to camp for dinner, by which point we were in the midst of a spectacular display of thunder and lightning. The heavy rain erupted, just after one particular load crash of thunder made us all fall off our chairs, during dinner which wasn’t a successful affair as Jack wasn’t feeling very well and spent most of the time in the
toilet or viewing the hippo stood on the grass outside the toilet. Back to our tent for the kids to fall asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows whilst Annabel and Mark lay debating whether the thudding and rustling noises we could hear outside our tent was a hippo or not.
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