Furaha in Ruaha (and Selous) Aug/Sept 2013

[graceland]

Wow @@stokeygirl, the cheetah kill absolutely awesome! I've never had the luck for that one....and though saw a cheetah as soon as we left for our rather long drive towards Lunda, we never had the chance again...

 

The Super Saturday was indeed supa! Must have been the sat before we arrived. Ruaha is definitely a land of contrasts and we so enjoyed it.

 

We also met Fasto and Piertro!

 

What a fantastic time for you....looking foward to more.

You know I am not throwing a Trip Report into this Lot; I am clearly waiting for things to slow down LOL!

[stokeygirl]

After this, the lioness walked off into the bush, possibly hunting, and we left them.

 

[stokeygirl]

@@graceland - cool, where did you meet them? At the airstrip or out on a drive?

 

I think our super Saturday might have been 2 weeks before you arrived- I think you were due to arrive while we were on Zanzibar.

[stokeygirl]

The rest of the morning we had another nice lesser kudu sighting, and a nice sighting of 7 impressive male greater kudu.

 

[stokeygirl]

After our breakfast stop, we watched a couple of herds of elephants drinking (classic Ruaha scene), and also found a nice black chested snake eagle on the ground drinking.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Wow @@stokeygirl, the cheetah kill absolutely awesome!

You know I am not throwing a Trip Report into this Lot; I am clearly waiting for things to slow down LOL!

Just what I was thinking, hard for my little Kruger safari to compete with some of the other trip reports on here at the mo!

[stokeygirl]

In the afternoon we heard another vehicle had spotted a male leopard up a tree, so we went to investigate and briefly saw it in the tree from a distance before it jumped down. We went searching for it only to find not a male but Furaha again. She seemed to be hunting and we spent most of the afternoon following her. She would stop and pose nicely occasionally, and later seemed to be more seriously stalking a herd of impala. It was fascinating to watch her tactics, and how low her body got to the ground when she was stalking. At one point she rolled on the ground, perhaps to get the smell of impala on herself. For a small leopard, apparently she was quite a successful hunter and the guides had seen her with a kill of a full grown lesser kudu. Eventually it started getting dark and we left her.

 

[PCNW]

Wow SG beautiful photos and a great report, you had it all in the first few days. I'm just getting on board with all of the current reports. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[stokeygirl]

The next morning started with, you’ve guessed it, more lion cubs playing. As on my previous trip, it seemed hard to avoid seeing these lions especially first thing in the morning on the way out from camp. Fortunately I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of watching lion cubs playing. This morning it was just the cubs and the lionesses.

 

 

[stokeygirl]

Afterwards, we saw a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl and a nice Tawny Eagle and a pair of African Hawk Eagles.

 

[stokeygirl]

We also came across the same baboon that had narrowly escaped the lion the day before. It was sat in the riverbed where a herd of elephants had dug for water. It was behaving strangely again- it seemed to be very unstable but we couldn’t see any obvious injury, although one of its front legs seemed misshapen. It seemed to be displaying similarly suicidal behaviour to the day before, trying to approach the elephants to drink from their water hole. Of course they chased it away.

 

[stokeygirl]

Some more baboon watching.

 

[graceland]

@@graceland - cool, where did you meet them? At the airstrip or out on a drive?

 

I think our super Saturday might have been 2 weeks before you arrived- I think you were due to arrive while we were on Zanzibar.

We met both guides the same day as we went on a long game drive from where we were based in Lunda; it was fun as they were all excited to see Moli's special retrofitted vehicle ~ actually it was a "Moli sighting day" as everyone stopped to chat with him. I was wondering what the guests were thinking esp. when one lady kept saying."YOU PROMISED ME LEOPARDS!" I can only imagine spending a few days with her in the car

 

 

I could tell Moli was happy that was not him hearing it. Must get so tiring!

[stokeygirl]

So now we're at the last afternoon, so just one more lion-fest.

 

[stokeygirl]

On our last morning, we headed out in search of the fearsome Bushbuck pride, who Lorenzo had found the day before with a baby elephant kill. We found the remains of the kill easily, which had been left to the scavengers, but we spent some time watching squabbling jackals and vultures, and the hyenas who had taken their scraps away from the main body of the carcass.

 

[Sangeeta]

The bumper crop of TRs gets better and better! Great photos, SG, and your lion fest produced some real beauties. I must say, you (and soon Graceland too) are making me rethink Ruaha!

[stokeygirl]

Festo predicted the lions had headed to the river to drink, so he navigated through the bush, taking what he thought would be the most direct route from carcass to river. Sure enough, we reached the river at the exact spot the lions had chosen. The pride was to our right, with some impressive looking lionesses and several sets of cubs of different ages. One of the dominant males was to our left.

 

[stokeygirl]

@@Sangeeta - yes, I recall you commenting that you weren't that impressed with Ruaha- was that on the Flycatcher's trip?

 

My first visit was in 2010, staying at Mdonya camp and whilst I was impressed with the amount of game we saw, often by the time we saw stuff the sun was fierce and the cats lazy and the light harsh- because we had to drive quite a way to get to the main areas. I think my subsequent trips have been more productive just because we often had great sightings on our doorstep nice and early when the light was nice and the animals active.

[stokeygirl]

Back to report-

 

We then continued our drive- zebras and ground hornbills, stopped for breakfast, then headed to the airstrip for our flight to Selous.

 

[stokeygirl]

Overall impressions of Kwihala and Ruaha- more or less the same as my opinion after my last visit in June 2012 (8 nights). In terms of the camp itself, it hits all the right spots as far as I’m concerned and the guiding is great. On my last visit, it was right at the start of the season (most camps close April and May) and I hardly saw any other vehicles, and I was concerned Aug might be a lot busier. However, I didn’t notice much difference. The maximum number of vehicles we had at a sighting was 4 and that was less than a handful of times in 7 days. Mostly it was just us or two Kwihala vehicles together. I did hear the guides say that they do make an effort to steer clear of any crowds.

 

As for game viewing, I didn’t think there was much in it between June and Aug and I’d happily return at either time. In fact, I will be returning to Kwihala next year for a few nights (as well as 5 nights with Kichaka). I have looked at other camps in Ruaha, but nowhere has really appealed. Some are too big, some start game drives too late (7 or 8am). Kigelia looks nice but looks quite similar to Kwihala but more expensive. So I have to say, I'm not much tempted to try anywhere else.

 

My friends, one a first timer on safari, the other on her second trip, also loved Kwihala. It was their favourite of the 2 camps and they particularly commented on the food at Kwihala being excellent.

[stokeygirl]

Next stop Selous, and bird-fest.

 

Might take a few days for me to get round to it though!

[stokeygirl]

Oh, and some might have noticed there has been one animal conspicuously absent from this trip report (clue- not dogs, I don't expect them at this time of year in Ruaha)......................

[Game Warden]

The GW?

[Super LEEDS]

Buffalo?

 

Great stuff, SG, thank you for sharing. Can't wait for more.

[pault]

Yes, where are the buffaloes and tsetses? And zebras?