Masai Mara - day 1

Last night we had a thrilling night game drive, the highlight being spotting a lioness who was trying to hunt. She was on her own and was calling the rest of her pride to come and hunt with her, and we heard the reply roar. We followed her for quite a way and she did chase a steenbok for a while but gave up as they are so small and barely worth the chase. We also found bush babies which are so tiny, and leap from tree to tree.

This morning I was up early to see the sunrise but then we packed up and after breakfast our wonderful guide took us to the airport. We learnt so much from him, he has an amazing knowledge of all the animals, bird and plants. The flight down to Mara was indeed like going on a bus, as we stopped off twice to let off passengers and let others on. Good to see that for the second time we had a female pilot.

Masai Mara is a very large area, and as far as the eye can see there is game. Huge herds of wildebeest, various antelope, zebra and buffalo. It has the highest animal density area in the world, animals dotted all over the vast plains. We were collected from the grassy airstrip by our new guide and we arrived at our camp in the conservancy in time for lunch. We are again in a tented camp consisting of 6 tents, and the camp is full. The owner is also here, he is a wildlife photographer and has just finished a photography week with some clients.

In the late afternoon we were taken out for a game drive - we saw a cheetah with her 3 tiny cubs - they are only 6 weeks old and sadly one was attacked by an eagle so probably won’t survive as his leg is damaged and he cannot walk properly. Then we saw the 5 boys - this is a coalition of cheetahs, I am told that is the correct terminology for a group of cheetahs such as this who come for different litters but choose to hunt and live together. Usually cheetahs are solitary hunters, but these 5 boys have attracted much attention as they are living like lions, going on group hunts. At first they were just lazing about after their kill from this morning, but then they got up and we watched them walk over to a huge herd of wildebeest - who really are such stupid animals - and it looked like easy pickings for them, but they were put off by a pair of lions a few hundred metres away from them who they realised would take their kill off them. It was like flicking TV channels this afternoon, on the left hand side of the vehicle we were watching the cheetahs, and on the right hand side of the vehicle we were being entertained by these tow lions who were mating. So much to see and all within about 25 minutes of our game drive starting. The cheetahs walked around marking their territory, and I have blipped this image of them at the tree which they all sprayed and one climbed up.

There was no wifi here, it has been off for days but they managed to get it working tonight so hopefully this can be uploaded. It is very frustrating with no communication and no wifi but I suppose we are in the bush and I need to get over that. We are off to bed now as tomorrow morning we are up at 4am to get to another conservancy for our balloon flight over the Mara - this was to be a treat for Adam’s birthday which is tomorrow and mine which is on Tuesday - but of course Adam is not with us!