Time to say Kwaheri (for now!)

It pains us to say this but sadly we have now left the Mara, and so unfortunately this is the last blog before we embark on our travels back to the UK. Home renovations are going to have to take priority for the next few months so it will be a while until our next update; but time moves fast, so it wont be long until we are back blogging again from the bush for the 2010 migration season.


 Within a few weeks we shall images taken from this trip loaded onto our website (www.imagesofwildlife.co.uk) so check back soon for an update on when they are 'live'


It would not be right to leave the blog without a final update from the Mara Triangle and what another great couple of days we have had. Rhinos are sighted fairly regularly in the Mara Triangle, but on Friday we were treated to not just one Black Rhino but two! (which continues our luck of the 'two's as reported in the previous blog!) The sun had barely appeared in the sky when before our eyes we had a mother and small calf in view. She looked to be headed for cover so we knew we had only a short time to get a few images and also enjoy this lovely scene. Sure enough she began to move with a little more speed and we knew that this was the moment to leave her in peace and let her continue on her way undisturbed. What a pleasant sighting and its wonderful to be seeing Black Rhino more often in the Masai Mara.

On the 'cat front' we had 2 sightings on Friday of two different Cheetah, one was seen trying to hunt on the plains some 400 metres or so away, which cheetah this was was impossible to say. Not too far away and within view we came across another female cheetah, young and very edgy. So, this leads nicely to an update on the 'missing cub' and the 'Sita' family. Since the lions chased Sita and her two cubs a good few days ago they have apparently all been sighted together. (although the last time we saw them the day before yesterday we saw only two, but perhaps one was hidden out of view) We have also found 3 other individual cheetahs, one of which we are sure was a male and the two others female, both young (at least 18 months +). The question is now is one of these 2 girls one of the missing cheetahs and which one was the one we saw on Friday!. We have already done quite a bit of work on looking at the spot petterns and many are matching to stills of the 4 together,. However, we have done all we can on trying to identify these guys now so all the photographic stills have now been passed to our contact and we will await news and if she can enlighten us further. Regardless of their identity its really quite fantastic to see so many Cheetahs. Given the dominace of the Notch clan in the area we noticed that for a short period of time a few months backs we saw less Cheetahs here than usual in this area and instead had located themselves nearer to the border. Given the sparse prey compared to migration season its apparent that many of the predators have at present moved to where the food source is. Lets hope in the next blog we can report on some more good news and perhaps even Cheetah cubs!

The latest news on Notch and Co is that they have AGAIN been crossing back and forth over the the river, According to reports from the Talek side they were sighted feeding on a previous Hippo kill in the night (Thursday).The next day 3 boys (Including Notch) graced us with their presence and had obviously crossed back into the triangle early in the morning. They must have been so full of Hippo meat as whilst resting under a tree they allowed 2 Thomson gazelle to walk within 6 feet of them, not even raising their heads!

Our last morning in the Mara (yesterday) was a fantastic morning (again!). We were meant to be departing early in the morning for the long trek back to Nairobi, these plans soon changed! Notch and two boys were down by the main crossing area, together with 4 females. A little bit of tension was evident between the group, likley due to the presence of the fermales, two of which may have been in oestrus. The 3 boys remained a distance apart and were trying to covert the females. This was soon interrupted by a small herd of male Buffalo that were unhappy with the lions presence and proceeded to chase them around the plains. The male lions choosing to run only at the last moment as if they were taunting the Buffalo. Notch and co are of course used to the presence of these huge herbivores, having been brought up in the Musiara Marsh. This confrontation went on for around 20 minutes before the lions decided to retreat away from the area and under a small bush where they looked sure to spend the rest of the morning. This seemed a fitting time to accept that it was now time to leave the Mara and embark on the 6 hour drive back to civilisation. What a great end to another awesome trip!

This is a great opportunity and a fitting time to thank everyone for their interest in this blog and we hope you have enjoyed. Please do keep checking back as we will continue to post when we hear news of the cats in the Mara and also when we have loaded our photos onto the web.

We look forward to posting more frequent news when we return in a few months for the ultimate wildlife spectacle in Africa......THE WILDEBEEST MIGRATION!!