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Published: September 9th 2008
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On Safari in the Masai Mara
The day started with our wake-up call at 6 am and we hurried into our clothes to start our early morning safari at 6.30am. First of all it would be fair to say that on any of the safaris we embark whilst at Governor’s Camp we will see Topi (with their markings making them look like they are wearing denim shorts and brown stockings), impala, grant’s gazelle and Thomson’s gazelle (tommies). Also to prevent repetition we should probably say that: breakfasts are great, full cooked etc.; lunch and dinner are also delicious, at least three courses; service is flawless; governor’s camp is a beautiful, beautiful place; and that we live in constant threat of being awoken or violated in the night by wildlife such as hippo, elephant and giraffe walking around the camp, although on the first night Annabel was so excited by the animal noises in the night she didn’t want to go to sleep for fear of missing them!
This first safari of the day had us encountering the marsh pride of lions (made famous in the Big Cat Diary series). Here we sat for a while watching the antics of
Lion Cub
A member of the marsh pride the 10 cubs and four female mothers/aunts/grandmothers. One of the cubs was extremely young and tiny and was constantly being picked on by the older cubs. It had been rejected by its mother who was incapable of looking after her cubs and the rest of its siblings had died. So instead the cubs’ grandmother (called white eye) was caring for it. Caring, that is, in a fairly loose sense of the word - the poor little blighter probably had more problems with its step-siblings than it ever would with predators! A beautiful scene, though, and no doubt diligently recorded by Big Cat Diary alongside us.
From here we eventually moved on to see a family of seven elephants - including two small ones - over by the river. Mandila also went a little off piste for us to satisfy Jack’s need to see some baboons up close (he seems to have some kind of affiliation with them), with different viewings of zebra, buffalo (big and black with horns that look like severe centre partings), ibis, a black-faced vervet monkey (aww!) and of course the ubiquitous warthog , who run off with their tails up - like radio antennae -
and then stop, forgetting why they were running. The other big features in the morning’s agenda were a rather grisly sight of a dead buffalo (it had apparently died of old age) being eating by vultures and marabou stork. Ugh! Beak in the eye, anyone?
Unfortunately Mark’s video tape ran out in the middle of a particularly nice hippo and croc river scene - Mandila promised we’d come back.
In the second morning drive he fulfilled that promise and from another river bank we saw crocs, hippo and a huge monitor lizard all ambivalently coexisting. It all looked very fragile but no fights broke out, with all parties trying to look very relaxed. On the Mara we saw more buffalo and a secretary bird (pencils in pocket) before coming across a pool with an large elephant in it, nonchalantly scoffing some reeds, and accompanied by an appropriately-named reedbok (small antelope with a preference for water margins). We also had a more extended viewing of hippos and crocs later on, with baby hippos to boot and a lot of hippo grunting going on (they sound like a bunch of angry old men shouting harrumph). However, the coup de grace of
Dead Meat
Anyone fancy a bit of steak this drive was the large male lion sitting on top of a grassy tump (no doubt an expired termite mound) - this apparently belonged to the marsh pride.
The afternoon drive was different once more (each seems to be a different experience). There was a litter of warthog piglets, ostrich, more zebra, some eland (the largest member of the antelope crew), yet more hippo and a moderately sized but exciting new addition, a serval. Picture an oversize tabby with spots towards the front of its body and stripes to the back, and you’d be about right, except this cat has the ability to completely disappear in long grass, even when you’re right on top of it, making it quite vexing for a little while.
We had the pleasure of a large hippo, out of the water, walk right up in front of us before being scared away by a herd of elephants. Lastly we added, yet another, new creature to our list in the form of the hyena. We encountered a group of around eight hyenas lazing about, including a mother and two suckling pups - how lovely. That rounded off our evening drive nicely, so it was
back for showers to remove the layer of dust, dinner and then bed. Just after we had extinguished all the lamps we were disturbed by an elephant trumpeting close by, followed by the answering blurbling bellow of a hippo. Obviously both were wishing us good night.
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