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
