Our last day of safari started well enough with the usual wake-up call of coffee, tea, and biscuits. We enjoyed them again in the cool moonlight outside the tent entrance.
Tea and Hyena cries
Moonlight in the teacup
Sami picked us up on time and we headed out again in search of the Rhino. It was particularly cold this morning, and so we were given Masai blankets to keep warm.
Toasty...
70 million Russian housewives can't be wrong...
Our efforts were again thwarted at finding the Rhino, and we again left the Rhino's turf feeling disappointed and with only one picture of a Sausage Tree to show for our attempts...
A small consolation
Thankfully, Sami was able to find us some action on the way back. We came across three male cheetahs heading away from a bit of scrub where some hyenas were apparently planning an assault (A hyena would eat a cheetah if it could get ahold of one). We followed them for a bit to get some shots.
Stayin alive
In it's element shot 1
And shot 2
All three cats
Feeling satisfied that we had gotten some good shots, we drove a little ways away from the three to some ostriches on a hilltop. It seemed like a morning of fast animals.
Run Away!
Ostrich in his element
While we were looking at the Ostrich, Sami noticed that the three cheetah were going to be coming around the side of a different small bit of brush to where some Topi and Thompson's Gazelle were grazing. He quickly put us in position to see what happened. The first cheetah around immediately perked up when he saw the game, and the other two cheetah caught his intentions and went straight into the scrub. What happened next was so fast and well-coordinated that my description won't do it justice, but the video I took will. The first cheetah acted as a distraction as all the game focused on him coming around the scrub. The second cheetah then burst out of the edge of the scrub a short distance to the Thompson's gazelle. The gazelle, being caught completely off-guard by a second cheetah, jumped straight up in the air and then ran quickly into the scrub to make his escape. What he didn't know was that the third cheetah was in the scrub waiting. The gazelle didn't have a chance. I finally got my still camera out when Sami got us in prime position to watch the feast, but the video is definitely worth seeing.
Cheetah 3 still killing the gazelle
while cheetah 2 starts to eat.
Everybody eating
Cheetah 3 on the lookout for hyena
The rest of the animals getting as
far from the cheetah as possible
We came back to the camp for another great lunch. Unfortunately, the bees also wanted a taste, and we were constantly swatting them away. I finally caught one and left him trapped for a while as a warning to others.
So angry
Finally! A photo of the Black Rhino!
The appetizer
Our main dish
Dessert
At lunch, our waiter told us that we would be leaving at 3pm instead of 4pm for the evening game drive. No complains here, as another two hours in the tent was all we could handle of the heat anyways. When we met Sami for the 3pm start, he told us that the reason we were to leave early was that there were some lions eating a hippo, and that it would take awhile to get there. I probably would have been okay with leaving at 1pm, but whatever. We quickly got to the car and set out on the long drive to the Mara River.
The scrub tunnel at the camp entrance
Move! Didn't you hear about the lions eating!
It took us a bit to find the right spot when we got near the river, but we were soon rewarded with the sight of a large pride of female and cub lions making their way down from the hippo to a water hole to quench that unavoidable post-hippo thirst.
"Man, that was good hippo..."
Simba
Female lion on the move.
Orderly drinking
Post meal nap
We asked Sami if we could see the hippo, and he agreed. He started to drive away from the area the hippo would have to be, but we soon discovered why when he drove us right up to not one but FOUR huge male lions resting in the shade. The lions are apparently brothers, and their father is the actual pride leader (but was off defending territory or something). We obviously spent a long time taking photos of them, and only left to see the hippo briefly (and check on any crocs in the Mara River) before returning to get some more humorous shots.
Bushed from eating hippo
Tummy rubs?
On second thought...
Nice teeth, who's
your dental hygienist?
Close enough, mom?
We thought about putting a lamb in
there to test the old biblical saying.
Hippo no more
The Mara River... Sans Crocs
Back to the four lions
Niiiiice...
"Don't mind my leg, bro."
Tickle Tickle
We left the lions and started the drive back. Recognizing that this would be our last game drive, we started requesting to see everything we could to stretch out the time. We actually ended up packing a good bit into the trip back, and it was probably the best game drive of the whole trip.
Baby hyena near their den
Momma elephant with baby
Proof I was there
Close-up of a protective mother
With the Mara clouds above
Back at the hippo pool
In case you were wondering...
I was there.
A leopard kill. We waited 15 minutes for
the cat to return, but it was getting too late
A stork. See? We even started
asking about birds... Desperate.
A commotion up ahead
Our final cheetah
Big lenses and cheetah at sunset.
This picture captures the Mara.
I forgot what these birds were.
I was just trying to make it last.
Really trying...
...As was Joe.
Masai herdsman with spear
Masai driver with ear
Me, accepting that it was about over and enjoying the evening.
Joe, accepting nothing and continuing to photograph everything.
Final Sunset over the Masai Mara
We went straight up to the lookout platform when we returned for a few more photos of the evening's arrival before dinner. Joe took a slew of pictures while I talked with Kate. Our old friend the hippo returned in the river below us, and we eventually headed to dinner.
MUST. CAPTURE. EVERY. MOMENT.
Brett, Kate, Kenya, and Tanzania.
"Yeah, honey. Even now
he's still taking pictures."
The hippo!
Dinner was great (I photographed it this time!), and we went to the lounge before bed to spend an hour or so drinking Tusker and chatting with some Canadian missionary pilots (husband and wife) we had met about their time in South Sudan. The wife had a pretty interesting story she told about them seeing the Sudanese women drying clothes on thorny scrub bushes. She said they set up clotheslines and taught the women how to dry clothes without tearing them on thorns, and that the women were very grateful for the aid. She then went on to say how disappointed she was when they returned to the area a short time later to find that the clotheslines were missing and the clothes were back on the bushes. The wife said she was really frustrated at first, but that this is how things are in Africa: you can spend years making changes that disappear as soon as you look away. It makes me wonder about how the nurse anesthetist students are doing in Kijabe now that we are gone. While we were talking, I got a shot of a bat that was happily picking at the myriad of bugs swarming in the tent above us. We finally went to our tent and packed before going to bed for the evening.
Dinner
Dessert
The bat is just to the left of the picture center.
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