Another afternoon with Notch

On the afternoon of the 27th we had heard that Notch had been sighted again, this time across the other side of the Talek from where we had left him the day before and quite a few kilometres away. We had very little information to go by so to a certain extent it was going to be like looking for the proverbial ‘needle in a hay stack!’. That’s all part of the fun so off we trundled. As we looked under what felt like every croton bush and ever Gardenia bush we saw grey ‘Cumulus Nimbus clouds again forming, another storm was on its way. So the grey clouds were again bad news for photography, the evening sun was not going to show its face (and the clouds were not even dark enough to give that dramatic ‘mood’ but instead a bit of a dull look!) Our only concern was that it may rain too much for us to cross back over the river and toward our camp for the night. Luckily this was not the case as the heaviest rain just missed us and came later in the evening.

A good hour or so had passed as we then came over the brow of a hill and saw two vehicles parked by a bush, given the area it had to be a lion! Ambling up to see what was of interest we saw the tell tale dark mane of none other than Notch again. Although this time he was a lot closer than the previous sighting we have blogged about a few days ago. 

At this point we cared little about the cloud, after all it was our ‘good friend’ Mzee Notch. Any chance to see him on this trip was gratefully received and was one of the reasons we had travelled to the North side. It gave us the chance to get a much better look at him this time. It became even more apparent that he was really showing his age, he looked ‘tired’, not surprising to be fair considering he had travelled some distance since the previous afternoon. 


On the positive, although he was now looking like more like an ‘old lion’ he moved with ease and not as stiff as we have seen him look on previous trips. He was confidently surveying the area with the majesty you expect from Notch and as far as he (and we) were concerned he was still king of the Mara and by no means ready to give up the thrown. Just 30 feet or so away we then saw a lioness with cubs, although we could barely see them in the long grass. Given the area and their age we suspected and deduced that they must have been the same cubs that we had seen him with on our last trip in February. There was no sign of Grimace or the other boys, they had quite possibly gone on a foray even further away and we had a feeling (which the next day proved to be right) that 'Grimmy' was still over the south side of the Talek with another female.

Soon after the cars left so we now had him again to ourselves. We sat with him for the entire afternoon, just enjoying his company from a little distance away. Deep down we knew that this may be the last time we would see him on this trip as we were leaving back to the South side of the Mara in a couple of days to spend more time looking for Cheetah and other game. After all the Mara is about more than just Mzee Notch.

However, given we are not back to the Mara for at least 3-5  months ‘reality bites’ that it could possibly be our last time seeing him for good. Truth is it looks like he has more than a few months left ahead of him but there is never the guarantee that we will always find him every time we come to the Mara. We both like to think that the 'inevitable' is long time away yet. Yes, he looks old and has deteriorated in the last few months but he is by no means on his ‘last legs’ at all, just looking old quite fast now. After all, look at Claude from the Marsh pride, who despite looking like he was falling apart in late 2010 is still going on and on! Even so, despite our optimism when it was time to leave for camp we said our ‘goodbyes’ just in case. I have to admit this time it was a more teary goodbye than normal Andy stood by with the tissues for me! [Sarah]. Really we should not be sad, he has already reached a grand old age for a wild male lion and has gone on to rule many prides. Tears soon turned to laughter as we could only laugh at what Notch must think (“Get a grip” came to mind!) His strong genes will still live on in the Mara for some time yet.

So we, (mostly Sarah!) admit that we have broken the ‘golden rule’ of getting ‘attached’ to a wild animal (something we always try and avoid!) but make no apologies for having a true love for wildlife, both big and small. Sometimes its hard not to get attached when you have followed their trials and tribulations for so long and he is after all the biggest four legged celebrity in the Mara! Lets hope we see you on the next trip big man.