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Self Drive Kenya Safari - July 2013


Safari Cal

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Day 11 23 July 2013

 

Maasai Mara

 

The next day started with the 4x4 being surrounded by a host of Dwarf Mongooses, great little things to watch and we spent a while watching them before eventually leaving the lodge grounds as the sun was rising.

 

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We headed down to the nearest crossing points and no sooner had we arrived when our friend Musa called to say he had the morning off and could join us on our Game Drive. We headed back to the Lodge and picked up both him and his wife Betty.

 

Musa is a Ranger and knows the Triangle like the back of his hand, so we set off hoping we'd get lucky this morning. We headed south towards Tz in search of Cheetah. There were so many Wildebeest in the area, it really was such a pleasure driving through the herd listening to their calls, and those of the odd Zebra.

 

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After a while we headed of again in search of a Cheetah, luckily Musa stopped to chat with one of his colleagues who told him about the 3 brothers, who flit between the Lamai Wedge and the Mara Triangle, mentioned many times in other recent TRs. We set off in the right direction eventually finding them in the shade of a tree.

 

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It was at this point we realized we had possibly got our bearings wrong and had ventured too far south. So we quickly took some photos and headed north back into Kenya.

 

The rest of the day was spent checking out Kuinana crossing point, where the action was fairly slow for the rest of the morning in sweltering heat! They came, had a look, went on a huge loop away from the river, came back, had another look, stood around, went away etc etc! As lunch was approaching, we had to get Musa back to the Lodge as he had to work in the afternoon. On the way back we saw a Monitor Lizard sunning itself beside a culvert and some Hippos in the murram pit pool next to the lodge with terrapins sunbathing on their backs.

 

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After lunch we headed south to Kuinana crossing again, but it was a repeat of the mornings to-ing and fro-ing! We didn’t really see much of note during the afternoon drive, perhaps we should have headed north, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. On the way back up from Kuinana we did see a lone Giraffe that really stood out against the golden colour of the grass.

 

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We had booked a night game drive and headed out with 2 brothers Ravi and Ashock, lovely guys from the UK. Unfortunately we didn’t see anything of note, it was very quiet with a few Hippos, Nightjars and a glimpse of an Owl.

 

Even with the lack of sightings it was a great safari, great conversation, great enthusiasm from the brothers and it was great to catch up with our friend Nicholas who was our guide on the night game drive the previous year and whose wife comes from the West Coast of Scotland; and coincidentally is called Laura. With @@laurab with me we couldn’t forget that!

Edited by Safari Cal
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Saving the best ones for last eh @@Safari Cal

Love the mongooses

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Great updates - a lot to catch up on. Some fantastic shots there - love the B&W zebra and the wildies (trying to exit and touchingly dead especially) but there are many to like.

Ah, those three brothers.... nice to see them doing well. There is yet another three cheetah coalition (young ones) that we saw out (well out from where you were) towards Talek.

 

 

 

Edit: I originally asked a question to which on reflection I knew the answer.....it's reallty early morning here!

Edited by pault
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  • 4 weeks later...

Really enjoyed your photography. Some wonderful black and white shots. Do you shoot in bl/wh or convert them later?

Thanks for a good read and lovely pics.

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  • 10 months later...

Really enjoyed your photography. Some wonderful black and white shots. Do you shoot in bl/wh or convert them later?

Thanks for a good read and lovely pics.

 

Hi @@KaliCA , I shoot in raw and convert in Adobe Lightroom on my Mac afterwards. in my opinion there's no real need to shoot in mono with digital, can't quite grasp the Leica strategy with their mono only offering!

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Well I'm only about a year late...but as you said at the outset, better late than never! Great TR, really enjoyed the tawny eagle kill, the cheetah awkwardly climbing over the bush (which was still impressive to me, as the bush didn't look substantial enough to be climbed), and hearing about the close call with Sam the ele. I hope you didn't beat yourself up too badly about sharing the leopard sighting, as it was a gesture of goodwill/safari spirit...the behavior of others ganging up on the leopard is surely their own fault, though I know what you mean.


Also appreciated seeing the interactions between hyenas in the Mara, and your lovely bee eater photos.

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