Notch has of course been enjoying the spoils of the kills, and is now absolutely HUGE, the first male lion that should be certified as clinically obese! He continues to stay close to the females, why would any male need to be any where else with a continually stocked larder!
The Mara river is now completely full of hundreds of wildebeest bodies, given the huge number that have gathered in the rocks in the last few days of crossings the Mara is casting a rather unpleasant stench across the plains, which we can even smell occaisonally from our camp when the wind is blowing our way.
Yesterday we had some interesting news, a distance away from their usually territory Notch's 4 boys had reportely had a fight with another male from the Oloololo pride. The male was apparently left in quite a bad way (but since we have had news he is fine). We trundled down to the area in which they were seen and soon came across the 4 boys. Their walk and posture carried an air of purpose before they then settled out of the harsh sun and under a tree. They are clearly pushing the boundaries of their territory and the testostorone filled lions are roaming far and wide. Grimace and 3 others were present but no sign of 'Notch Jnr', aptly named as he bears a striking resemblance to Notch 3 or 4 years ago.
As I write this post we are actually again sitting with the boys, we can see at least 3 of them, who are well hidden in a croton thicket in their usual haunt on balloon plains having returned from their troublesome wander yesterday and we have just left Grimace who is close to Notch at the crossing area. This morning we had seen 3 of the boys at first light after tracking the direction of their roars, we soon lost them but knew they were likely to be heading to their favourite area and sure enough here they are this afternoon just as predicated. One appears to have something wrong with his eye, exactly what it is hard to see at the distance we are at. Its likely it was as a result of yesterday, we hope its nothing too serious.
The weather in the Mara has been poor most afternoons, rain continues to travel from the Tanzania direction (driving the wildebeest back there) and has cast a shadow on the plains from around 3pm most days. Today was particularly dramatic weather. At around 2pm the thunder started and the rain came with impressive lightning. Then to our amazement huge lumps of hail pelted to the ground with a huge force and continued for some time, each piece way in excess of 1 cm big. It was time to park up and wait it out as you could barely see one metre ahead.
Once it had stopped we carried on driving and were quite stunned that even an hour after the bad weather the huge piles of hail were still pilled up along the road as it had turned very cold. It was very odd to see ice along the roads, something you really don't expect in the Mara!
Although we have spent all of our time with Notch and Co. we have also seen some other great things along the way and sometimes things happen when you least expect it. yesterday, whilst driving to the lion pride in the early morning suddenly a massive male Black rhino crossed the road and headed into the thicket before anyone else could see him, he had a truly impressive horn and was quite possibly one of the largest Black Rhino we had seen.
So, the moral of the story....always expect the unexpected!
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