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Published: March 7th 2020
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Elephant
Maasai Mara Up a bit earlier today and leaving camp with Wilson at 6:50am to get to the park gates soon after 7am for a full day in the Mara. We spent much of the morning driving to and fro across the Mara following sightings of a leopard. The first we missed so had a brief detour to the river where we saw a baby crocodile and the stone marking the boundary with Tanzania (we didn’t stop for a photo as leopard!) - then shot off back to the other side of the Mara where a leopard had recently made a kill (wild dog Simba said). We passed lots of vans going the other way so were a bit worried it would have gone but there was still one van there who pointed out to us the bush the leopard was snoozing in before they too left. We could just about see spots in the centre of the bush so settled down to watch in the hopes that he would wake up again. Occasionally we got an ear twitch or a paw twitch, once or twice he sat up or rolled over but there were always lots of leaves in the way. I
Leopard
Maasai Mara started taking a video of his twitches and during that he got up & came out of the bush and flopped in its shade near us – amazing views! By this time two more vehicles had joined up, but one had driven around the bush and got stuck on the opposite side!
After this excitement we passed some cute banded mongoose then went to find a nice acacia tree for lunch. Wilson laid out his Shuka for us to sit on and we started lunch. Part way through a minivan pulled up & the driver spot hurriedly with samba whilst the tourists called to us that there were lions nearby! So we quickly grabbed out lunches and got back in the van. We continued eating but kept a close watch out and spotted two lionesses coming through the grass nearby. They came right up to the tree we were still parked by & flopped in our picnic spot! Poor girls were panting heavily and were obviously very hot, but we’re still very grateful to that other van for the warning as otherwise we might have been outside still when they arrived! Whilst it was a wonderfully surreal experience having
our picnic spot hijacked by lions it left us with a problem as we hadn’t peed before lunch and now there were lions and several other vehicles making it impossible to nip behind out van! Before long we found a suitable safe and quiet location thankfully!
Full list for the day:
• Leopard!
• Cheetah (3 single sightings)
• Lions (1 male, 2 females at lunch, plus another female)
• African wildcat
• Spotted hyena (4 single sightings)
• Silver-backed jackal (single and group of 3)
• Banded mongoose
• Elephants
• Buffalo
• Maasai giraffe
• Impala
• Gazelles
• Hartebeest
• Eland
• Topi
• Zebra
• Warthog
• Ostrich
• Crested cranes
• Malachite kingfisher
• Vultures
• African grey hornbill
• Ground hornbill
• Lilac-breasted roller
• Kestrel
• Falcon
• Crocodile (juv)
• Agama
• Nile monitor
• Helmeted guineafowl
• Shrike
• Kori bustard
Said goodbye to the park, Chavaunne slightly upset that we didn’t get the big 5 all in one day, but I was just thrilled to have seen so much! We had both got very dusty with all the driving across the Mara (Chavaunne especially!) so we showered before supper after which we were treated to a traditional Maasai welcome dance and jumping dance (he who jumps highest gets the most girlfriends!) & we were encouraged to join
in the welcome dance which was good fun in slightly embarrassing – especially as Simba was laughing the whole time! Overnight the hyena again were calling, I’m going to miss that sound when I get back home as it’s been a fairly consistent night-time sound in Malawi and Kenya.
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