It's been pretty quiet on the game front, with the long grass making it quite a challenge to locate the predators, although we have had chance to see some familiar faces, albeit random body parts and the odd glimpse of a head peeking through the grass! Three of the 5 male lions from the Notch coalition are around, with us seeing them on the first afternoon with some members of the Rekero/Maternity (and also called 'Ridge pride) Notch, Grimace were both there and another male, but who refused to show anything other than a leg and the side of his mane as he lay deep in the grass. They had huge bellies and clearly had been enjoying the 'lions share' of a buffalo that looked to have been killed that evening prior. Although the carcass was visible, not much was left, but just enough for some of the members of the other members of the Rekero Pride to feast on, deep off-road we sadly could not get any shots of these guys on the kill. A little nearer Notch raised his head for about a millisecond and just enough time to pap a quick (but pretty dire!) shot (below). The next day the males had left and it is belived Notch headed down to the Olkeju Rongai Pride further south as it seems no-one has seen Grimace and the other male since, we have a feeling they may have once again headed to the Maji Ya Fisi area.
As we found the Rekero pride again, having moved into deep croton thicket with just a couple of the subs from the pride occasionally popping their head up and from what we could see looked to be no more than 5/6 of the pride there. Here they have stayed for two days and it was only this morning they had moved back onto the plains, but again in long long grass. So we have yet been able to count up if all 12 members are 'present and correct' and given that the game is incredibly sparse its likely they will remain in sub groups, but never to far away from each other. It will be great if by the end of the trip we can see if all 3 adult females, 7 subs (4x male and 3 x female) and two cubs are all still accounted for and of course catch up with the other prides we have followed for some time. No doubt we will head to the Musiara Marsh at some point and base ourselves there for a little time.
Interestingly we have seen 2 of the '4km males', who are the Male lions who took over the Mugoro Pride late 2010 and they continue to advance into the Narok side of the Masai Mara, crossing back and forth across the Mara. They were around 2km West of the Serena pump house and this is the furthest I have ever seen them into the main reserve, with so many coalitions around on this side it will certainly get interesting when migration returns and the lions hotly contest the prime hunting areas. Speaking to some of our guide friends they also agree they are pushing their territory further and further now.
We have spent some time looking for the Leopard named Olive (Now around 11-12 years I think) she has not been seen for at least 4 days from what we hear and so we are still yet to find her and her one remaining cub. It's early days yet and we still have a good few days in which to hopefully see her. Although we have been fortunate to have caught up with her daughter, Bahati. Finding up deep up a tree, sitting in what looked like the most uncomfortable way in the fork of a tree (and partially hidden) before she slunk down and into the croton, shortly after 'losing her' for around an hour in the forest before finding her again just as darkness was falling around 1km away near Mara Intrepids. Talking of Leopards we have also 'seen' a male (and believed to be the one that hangs near the Serena Pump House) he was also in a tree but so deep that it was impossible to get a shot, but just enough to see it was most certainly a male!
So that brings us up to speed to today, which so far has been a really quiet one, no luck in finding Bahati or Notch but once again seeing 'body parts' of the Rekero pride sprawled out in the long grass (did I mention the grass was long!!) so again preventing any shots. Although we still continue to GPS the locations of the lions and continue building up a record of their territories throughout different times of the year. It's going to be likely that until the migration arrives the lions will limit any activity, in order to conserve precious energy so we have a feeling that unless we are lucky early am or late PM we are going to be seeing a lot of sleeping lions on this trip, but as its only day 4 anything could still happen for the next 12 days we have left.
One thing is for sure, that even though we have barely lifted the cameras out of their bags (and we are sure that everyone who knows us and reads this blog is not going to be surprised to hear this) it is just awesome to be back here! The place we truly feel is our 'second home'. We have both desperately missed hearing the iconic sounds of the African bush so last night when we heard the echo of a Hyena vocalising ('Whooping') it brought a huge smile to our faces just to be back in Africa. Not only that but great to catch up with good friends and great people here and let's just say we have had some pretty fun times in the last few evenings as the 'Tuskers flowed'!!
Until next time here is photo from Thursday 28th of good old 'Mzee Notch', papped as he popped his head up before returning to a motionless state!!
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