Day 6 - 7 - Serengeti

23rd Aug'12 - Masai Mara to Serengeti - What started off as a dreaded journey to Serengeti turned out to be a thrill of a lifetime. That story is without pictures and so will be told another time.

We reach Lobo Wildlife resort around 21:00 hrs and they've kept the dining open (usually closes at 21:00 hrs) as we were reaching almost 4 hrs behind schedule.
The lodge is like a palace with rich decor and opulence personified in the middle of nowhere.

24th Aug'12 - Serengeti - We start our morning game drive around 09:00 hrs and its extremely hot. We're being driven around without spotting any major game and also being bothered by Tse Tse flies. These flies cause the dreaded disease Trypanosomiasis or Sleeping sickness.
After shooting a few birds - Superb Starling, Splendid Glossy Starling, Unidentified Eagle (?), Von der Deckens Hornbill - the flies and the weather gets to us and we decide to get back earlier than usual.

On our way back, we spot a Dik-Dik (the smallest antelope in the world) and a few Cliff Springers

Its kind of lackadaisical and after lunch, I decide to set off on the evening game drive on my own since TJ and the others decide to laze around after the morning fiasco.

I spot quite a few different birds and keep asking Ame to stop, ask their names and shoot pictures. Shoot! The flies are back again.
I shoot a Pygmy Falcon, a White - Headed Buffalo Weaver, a Crowned Plover, a Secretary bird on top of its nest on a tree, "Go - Away" birds. I keep shooing away Tse Tse flies in between.

As we are returning, Ame takes a different route and from the distance shows me a Pride of Lions. The male is feasting and I notice 2 cubs joining their father. There are probably 3 of them. To the left of the lion there is a lioness and to the right there are 3 more lionesses waiting for their turn to eat.

We are not allowed to wander off track in Serengeti like the way we did in Masai Mara and so not many good pictures.

I also see a herd of Eland (the largest Antelopes in the World) which are very shy Antelopes scared of any non-animal noise. They resemble a cow and you will see why!

The Masai people believe that the Eland are cows that have run away into the wild a long, long time back. They were hunted a lot for their meat and the milk as also their skin and so are very scared of humans.

As I near the resort, we suddenly stop to see a couple of "Topi" locking horns. The winner literally chased the loser. It was an entirely different experience to watch the fight.

And then its sunset time. I photograph one of my most memorable sunsets - a setting behind the trees! The sky's fiery!

As I reach the resort am bursting to tell the others about my sightings and boy! they will be jealous.

We also manage to catch the setting sun from the top of the hotel.

The hope of sighting a Leopard still continues....

Day 3 - 5 - Masai Mara

20th Aug'2012 - Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara - We left Lake Nakuru and travelled a distance of almost 200 kms. The last sensible road was at the town of Narok where we stopped at an Indian restaurant for lunch after which about 60 kms of torturous road to Mara took us almost 2.5 hrs of a back breaking drive.

We reached Mara around 16:00hrs in the evening, freshened up and got in for a quick game drive. Expectations are high as we are in Masai Mara - the most famous place for wildlife in Kenya and most popular world over.

About half a km into our drive, we saw lots of vehicles surrounding a clump of bushes. Isaac did not tell us but took us there and we spotted the spots. Two Cheetah's lazing in front of each other partially hidden by grass and the bush. Pulse racing we start clicking wondering if they would attack us. We were at a distance of less than 2 mts from the animals.

We were extremely thrilled that we got to see Cheetah's in such a short time. Within another kilometre distance Isaac stopped on the road and pointed out to us "2 ears" - partially black in the tall grass. We trained our eyes to look through the grass and realised we were looking at a Lioness. She had just woken up and was so well camouflaged it was unbelievable. She then got up, walked around a little,  stretched herself, sat down and gave us a beautiful yawn.

After a while, we assumed there was no more, when Isaac told us that she would mostly be hungry since she seemed to have woken up after a good sleep. So we waited and then we saw her crouch. Wow! There was a herd of Zebra right across her at a distance of less than 100 mts and she had got into the attack position. She attacked them in swift moves but they dispersed quickly. They probably had already seen her.

She disappeared out of sight and Isaac drove around to the other side telling us that she probably had hidden herself in the ditch across. As we were crossing the ditch, TJ standing at the back of the vehicle screamed out saying he spotted some movement in the ditch. Isaac inched back and we saw her getting out of the ditch. We were at a distance of less than 2 mts from her when she was coming out of the ditch.

If TJ had bent down and looked out the window he could have smooched the lioness :)

We realised that her target was a herd of Wildebeests on the other side of the road. I could not get stable pictures of her running across but managed to get the final kill shot - she had the Wildebeest by its throat. The kill was swift, simple, finished in less than 5-7 mins. No gore! No blood!

She then pulled the Wildebeest down and stood majestically alongside it before she settled down to eat it.

We were on cloud 9 or even higher. How lucky could we get?

Apart from Gazelles, we saw a new set of Antelopes called Topi. Very distinct and very different from anything that we had seen so far.

As we drive back to Rhino lodge, its sunset time and I click the first Kenyan sunset of my life.

21st Aug'2012 - Our 2nd day at Mara starts as early as 04:00 hrs. We have paid for a hot air balloon safari which leaves at dawn around 05:30 hrs. The distance to the balloon site is almost an hour's drive.

We see glowing eyes in the dark and there's complete silence all around except for the radio crackling.

We get off at the take off site and see the hot air balloons being filled with Helium - ready to be up in the sky.

As we start moving up, we can't wait to stand up and start looking at the world below. Its a completely different experience, being in a hot air balloon. We get to click pictures of the sunrise over Mara. In hindsight this is the only sunrise we have been able to capture.

Zebras, Topis, Gazelles are some of the animals we got to see from the top. 

We also saw Elephants and Giraffes.

On landing we were taken to an area where there was a beautiful buffet breakfast set up. We were welcomed with champagne and long tables were laid out with breakfast fare. (Skipping the photos here)

After breakfast, we were being driven back to the lodge when we came upon herds of wildebeests, wild buffaloes and zebras. We could see wildebeests as far as the eye could see and we realised why "the migration" is such a huge phenomenon.

We also got to see a pack of vultures which included Hooded vulture, white backed vulture and Ruppell's vulture. One of them had its head buried feasting on a dead wildebeest. A Ruppell's vulture and Hooded vulture having an argument I suppose while there was another one which lifted off gracefully to take flight.

It must have been the mating season, as a male ostrich was dancing in all its glory showing off its feathers trying to woo a female.

Post lunch we again got out on a game drive and boy! were we lucky. We came upon a female cheetah with 3 adorable looking cubs. The only problem was that both the mother and the cubs were well hidden amongst the bushes. It was an ask to click proper pictures what with grass, sticks and leaves being in the way between the camera and the animals.

22nd Aug'2012 - On our third day at Masai Mara we witnessed 2 mating lions. It is said that the lions go without food for a week during mating. It seemed ritualistic - the female was just going through the motions!

We had picnic lunches packed and were moving towards the Mara river. Excitement was high as we were hoping to catch some crossing and who knows maybe a kill?

Enroute to the river, we spotted the most colourful bird we had seen till date - a Lilac breasted roller.

As we reached the river we stopped on a bridge to photograph a monitor lizard. Whew! This was huge and eating the remains of a wildebeest.

We then came upon these hippos sleeping peacefully literally on top of one another and a giant crocodile which was also snoozing (usually what crocodiles do!). Check out the teeth.

On the way back from the Mara river, we spotted a couple of young male lions snoozing under the afternoon sun in the shade of a couple of trees. One of them woke up and gave us a yawn and then kept its mouth open. I felt like it was laughing at a group of fools!

Late in the evening we were taken to a Masai village. Will share a separate set of photos later.

23rd Aug'2012 - We left Rhino lodge at 06:00hrs the next morning on our long journey towards the vast plains of Serengeti. We were fortunate to see a teenage Cheetah dart across the road and gave us beautiful shots on the other side sitting on its hunches before walking off into the bushes.

We also spotted a couple of Hyenas at a close range.

3 days at Mara were thrilling and the only puzzle piece missing was a Leopard. Would we get lucky in Serengeti? To be continued....