Amazing, incredible, outstanding!
We arrived back from Kenya last week to a very wet London. We had been in the Masai Mara for 12 days and had some really exceptional sightings. A trip report is being produced once we have sorted through our 11,000 photographs (!!!), but the highlights were:
1. Eleven crossings of the Mara River by Zebras and Wildebeest. Two of the crossings were for over an hour and nine with the animals coming towards us, which of course makes for much better photographic opportunities. As you can see from the snap above, our driver was able to position our vehicle in some really fantactic spots.
2. A Cheetah killing three young Tommies over the course of three hours. The first the Cheetah caught, but then was distracted and went off to kill another one within 20 minutes. This first victim was then finished off by a vulture. A couple of hours later the Cheetah killed again! We could not believe our luck.
3. Following a pair of mating Lions. Seeing them being chased off by a Buffalo and over the top of the hill, the Lions spotting that three Cheetah brothers had just caught a Tommie. The female Lion sped in, picked up the Tommie and ran off. Three very annoyed Cheetahs!
4. Our best views ever of a Serval. "Eagle eyed" Murray spotted the small and very shy cat in short grass and for a few minutes there was complete panic as we all tried to get some good shots. Fantastic stuff.
5. Following one of the famous BBC Leopards, Zawadi, one morning for about three hours. A troop of Baboons spotted the Leopard and gave chase. It ran up a tree and was followed by the Baboons! We held our breaths at the Leopard sat at the very top of the tree with about 20 Baboons looking up and thinking of ways of catching it. Thankfully the Baboons got bored and climbed down and ambled off!
Thanks to Wendy, Murray, Jackson and Makala for making this a really memorable trip.
Julie and Adam
Immediate impressions from the Masai Mara - 23 August 2007
Getting ready for the Masai Mara - 5 August 2007
In five days we will be right there in the Masai Mara with our guests watching one of nature's most amazing sights: over a million Zebra and Wilderbeest crossing the plains in search of good grazing. And if we are really lucky, we'll see some lengthy river crossings which will really get the adrenaline going. As we write this our guys at camp have updated us on the herds' progress - the migration has arrived in the Mara, having made the journey from the Serengeti. Late rains have slowed them a little this year - they were also late to have their calves, once again due to the rain, as we saw first hand from our trip to the Serengeti in February this year. But they have arrived in the Mara and small groups of Zebra have been crossing the river near to our camp so fingers crossed the large numbers of Wildebeest will be crossing by the time we arrive.
It seems a good time to be leaving London. The wettest summer on record has suddenly switched to a very warm one, and this is the time to get out.
We spent the weekend getting everything ready; cleaning all the camera gear, downloading the latest drivers for our cameras and computer gear, trying to pack everything into our "carry-on" Peli cases and check-in luggage ... we're not yet ready to weigh anything!
For the first time we are trying Garlic tablets as a way of keeping the insects away. There is a fair amount of research that suggests this does work. For example:
http://www.bth.se/fou/forskinfo.nsf/alfs/ef7b5b63b84666d4c1256e2a00340af5
In a few weeks we will report on how the trip went....
Julie and Adam