It has been a wundervoll time at Basecamp Eagle View Camp in Naboisho Conservancy, the nature in the Mara never disapoints and thanks to our great guide Seki the the sightings were amazing. One last short morning game drive is waiting for us bevor take of to the coast and Diani Beach.
What shall I say, the bush keeps me awake at night. No, it wasn’t buffalows this night but when the alarm clock of my mobile went on I hardly couldn’t believe that the night was over already; and it wasn’t. My mobile phone was still soundly asleep, it was the snorting of an animal that woke me up. Unfortunately sounding exactly like my alarm clock it kept on snorting and therefore waking me all night long. What shall I say, it’s nature…
Instead of a sunrise pic I’ve got some hyenas feeding.
Next sighting was the very active Ilkisiausiau Pride. They were in a hunting mood, what a sight!
Looking for a beautiful picknick spot for breakfast we thought, why not having it in the company of giraffs in this beautiful rocky place next toca small river bed.
Since there has been lots of rain recently the Mara is lush and green and full of different tiny flowers.
Heading back to camp for lunch we finally got to see the last of the ugly five, a Marabu Stork sitting in the middle of a bunch of Baboons just behind the staff quarters.
Just in case anyone thinks, it’s easy to take fotos of aniamls when there are so many around, believe me, it is not…
What shall I say, the afternoon drive started off with a new couple on the vehicle. We were all glad not to get any chineese people but it almost immediately showed that indians can be annoying as well. The girl covered in a cloud of heavy sweet perfume and nonstop chatting without ever stopping caused me a headache. Unfortunately having only one night here they were also stressed out to see everything on just two game drives, caused our guide to try and fulfill their whishes only. Therefore, to make things easier we just drove the very same route as in the morning and also stopped at the very same places….It wasn’t a bad drive, just not Sekis best. Especially also with the extended leopard search also requested by the Indians what everyone else on the car wanted to avoid. Honestly, it’s absolutely great to see this elusive cat, but you must also be aware, that searching for a leopard steals you any chance to see anything else we all would have prefered to rive trough Cheetah land…Enough complained, let’s have a look at the sightings…
What a night! Sleeping in a safari tent where you can hear all sounds of the bush is always a litte adventure, even after being on several safaris. But this night I woke up because my whole tent was shakimg. Finding my courage I got up and peept put of the tent, there were several buffalows around, one of them rubbing itself against my tent and shaking it heavily, not the perfect moment to go for a midnigt walk… .
The stories in the morning are anyway always interesting, one of the guys in our safari vehicle was scared to death when in the first night some warm fellow was waiting under his planket when he got to bed. Funny enough, it was just the warming bottle. However, an english lady had to wake up her sound asleep husband in the middle of the night exclaiming „there is something in our tent!“, well there were just some friendly giraffs paying a visit, ah ja, they were outside, but very close…Next night, I had this friendly visitors and even tried to take a picture in the pitch dark night.
After a beautiful sunrise the morning started slowly with some sleeepy lions of the Eneskiria Pride, only the cubs were wide awake and playing in the bushes.
Funny how manx hippos we’ve seen out of the water at daytime, very unusual…
OK, I admit, I love giraffs, they are my alltime favourits, therefore more giraff pics!
On rocks like these one can often find some lizzards taking a sunbath. Unfortunstely I never got a foto of a male of this read headed lizzard and the female is a bit dull in colour.
Not only the big but also the small animals are part of the safari adventure, like this feisty mongoose. They live in large goups and kind of never stay still.
After this all to short morning drive we unfortunately headed back to camp for breakfast. I personally prefer the breakfast in the bush, but some people wanted to enjoy the luxury of the camp. However, when our guide realised how sad and disapointed I was about the shortend drive, he offered me an additional drive. This is how Eagle View and his staff looks about their guests.
Said and done, the two of us headed our for a midday drive. Well, truth said, drives at midday are rarely exciting cuz of all the cats sleeping, but being alone on the vehicle gave me the possibility to also stop for the more common animals to take some fotos. Funny enough, you see a hunderts of impalas but hardly take any pics, but only one cheetah and you take 100 pics…Meaning, at the end of a safari you’ve loads of cat fotos but no gazells and I wanted to avoid this trap.
Hm, did I say something about not exciting?
Noooo, not exciting at all, how can one be so wrong, the elephants playing in the mud made my day, love it.
Actually right on time for our sundowner we stumbled over Olseki Pride, 15 lioness, 2 male and currently 8 cubs. Unfortunately the light was already fading, but the experience still great.
Wenn me zum Kafi trinke mit de Mamma bis Kenia flüge mues, lohnt sichs uf jede Fall, au en kurze Zwüschetstop für e Safari izlegge. However, the strech could be done with an 8 hour flight unfortunately the pilot wasn’t keen to fulfill my desire for a direct flight from Zürich to the Mara. Meaning I had 4 hours time in Amsterdam to talk to strangers, a lady from Korea and a guy from Luxembourg, Markus would have been laughing, cuz I’m always chatting to strangers. And then 8 more on the flight to talk to an italian lady and another 3 at Wilson Airport with local people.
Arriving in Naboisho after a 20 hours trip feels like coming home. Already the short drive from the airstrip to the camp provided the first wildlife sightings.
Driving off after lunch we almost immediately stumbled over the 14 heads of Ilkisiausiau pride.
Afterwards also a Schakal, a Waterbuck and a Volture showed up.
Unfortunately the leopard was high up in a tree hiding
The elephants with the calf and the stunning sunset were a highligt of a long day.
