A feast of spots

First thing this morning we had a wander down to Balloon plain to see if there was any sign of Notch and boys. They usually spend a few days at a time over the 'other side' so seemed unlikely but worth a shot. As expected no sign, they were either still over the Narok side or they did not wish to be seen this morning, their prerogative!

We surveyed the area high and low but our attention was diverted, the plains opposite were practically devoid of the large wildebeest numbers that we had seen some days ago. This was no real surprise as they have been crossing and heading south daily now in huge numbers since the mammoth crossings on Sept 6th. The numbers crossing in the last 2 days have begun to subside in comparison to the crossings a week before. Now only smaller numbers and the resident herds occupied the plains over the river. Although, there was of course a huge area of the Mara that could not be seen and it was still likely that there would be more smaller crossings in the next few days. We concluded a trip toward the border would be interesting to see where they were headed as we suspected they were still making a 'beeline' for the 'burn area'.

Before going south we made a stop was to catch up on the Mgoro pride, it was again possible the males could be there but as expected we came across the pride minus any of the boys in exactly the same spot as in the last 7 days. These lions are becoming too easy to find! They all seemed rather subdued and quiet this morning, the cubs not even playing in the morning sun. They had obviously been very active in the night as they slept off their nocturnal activities. They must have hunted again during the night as in first light as a few new 'additions' adorned the area, probably the poor wildbeest calves that were left loitering around the river from the crossings earlier that day.

Leaving the ladies and kids to a restful sleep in the golden light we ambled off toward the salt lick/burn area. Not even 20 minutes after we had left the Mgoro pride we came across 4 cheetah, a mother and 3 cubs (around 10-13 months old). It looked as if they may have hunted earlier given their reasonably nice size bellies and not to far from the rocky area where sighted we could see the remnants of what looked a small fresh kill which was now playing host to a couple of Maribu storks.

One of the cheetah cubs (male) sadly had a broken tail near to the top, which looked to have been done some time ago. We wandered if this could become a hinderance to this guy when hunting as its known they use their tail as a 'rudder' and to balance at high speed. However, Andy and I concluded its likely to adapt and find a way to compensate and hopefully prospective females will still be conducive when the time is right! Nature always finds a way.

Scanning the area we could see lines of wildebeest herds still heading South and a big concentration in the 'burn' and salt lick area. The grass is becoming lush in this area and with the recent rains it makes for a really palatable feast for the herds.

We stuck with the cheetah for a couple of hours but as the sun became harsh it was time to leave the cats alone and go off to get cooking, shower and have a nap. Although everything we touch is so dusty it seems a pointless exercise sometimes in trying to keep clean!

Returning later we again found the cheetahs in the same spot, the light looked beautiful on the distant plains grasses and the cheetahs resting peacefully under a bush. Occasionally allo-groming but mostly napping!. That was until around 6pm when the light became really golden the mother came out her rustic bed and up onto a mound around 40 metres away and posed quite happily for us whilst surveying the savannah before nightfall. A really beautiful family of cheetahs.