The (wild) dog regurgitated my trip report - a SafariTalk Hong Kong-Italy Mara-Sundowner-get-together and other things

[michael-ibk]

Wow, intense Giraffe scenes. Really glad you dog is sick that much and keeps regurgitating good stuff. Love that Gerenuk-Dik-Dik. The drought is really bad, though - last year in September the river had lots of water. Looking forward to more.

[johnkok]

@@johnkok - quick question ............. John, was it easy to find the Samburu 5 in the private conservancy or did you have to drive a long way even for that?

Hari - I'm afraid I cannot remember enough to give you a precise answer. I know that Sasaab was a bit of a drive from the Reserve (around the 1 hour mark or thereabouts). I don't remember the details of whether we were in the private conservancy or in the Reserve because it did not matter to me much at the time.

 

I do recall that there were often sightings (Gerenuk browsing on their hind legs say) and which were not that great and Eric (our Guide) would tell us not to worry, that there would be numerous better sightings to come.

 

The thing is that sighting the Samburu 5 was not difficult for us just spending 3 nights with only 2 morning-till-lunch game drives.

[johnkok]

I did promise (in the title) that there would be a Mara Sundowner ST GTG so I thought I'd better speak to that dog ...

 

We asked James, our Guide, to pick a spot that would be almost equidistant between and ourselves. James suggested this spot. You know the one. The tree in jackal valley below porcupine ridge? Next to the field where the herd of caracal brought down a hippo 2 years ago? And where the Guide had his wedding reception? Yeah - that one

 

Turns out - Ping was not as familiar with this particular tree as he had thought and James had expected. So we waited. And waited. And amused ourselves. We asked James to pose for us, but I thought this candid much better. A Masai man walking, what could be more natural a pose than that?

 

And much yakking

 

And then they showed up. Further amusement ensued. Together with a real sun-down

 

Of course, our redoubtable Italian ST'er had chosen basic heat-wave gear, and had his own version of a wardrobe malfunction as it were. The wind was really blowing, and the wind chill brought the temperature down a further few degrees. So here he is with his own Masai shuka (on loan from our vehicle).

 

In the event, James had not only chosen well (it was a beautiful spot), both parties ended back in their respective camps at round about 7:45pm

So it was really equidistant.

 

More tk. Dog willing

[johnkok]

 

No need for explanations. We were only worried you would miss the tree. There are always reasons to dally on safari

 

As for wardrobe choices - over to you 

[johnkok]

 

I think you may well have converted me to shukas

Edited December 14, 2018 by kittykat23uk

[pault]

Great get-together photos (pity we didn't take any, but our spot wasn't nearly as nice) and an excellent explanation by .... It was all a cunning plan! .

[johnkok]

Your mileage may vary (YMMV)

To put my trip report(s) in context, I again say a few words about us (my wife and I). After numerous safaris, we now hope for the rare sightings. Being able to follow a hunt is on the top of the list - these are things one can plan for. Of these, the cheetahs and dogs are the obvious choices. They hunt during the day, when you can see them (mostly) and photograph them.

There is no predicting when a leopard might even be sighted, let alone watch a hunt (we have only managed two successful leopard hunts - both times of birds - a francolin and a duck). And of course they were pure luck. Right place, right time. We nearly managed again with a leopard this time - but that's another story.

Lions? They are more predictable. But they hunt at night. Day time hunts cannot be planned for in advance.

In my trip reports, I will try my best not to gush about the best guide ever, the best manager, the best salad, the best vehicle, the best sighting, the best... you get the picture (of course I started badly on ST as I wrote about my best safari day). I now know enough to know that my experience is limited, and my best whatever may be rather meaningless.

So I try my best to put my observations down as objectively as I can, but obviously with my personal biases. I will put down details if I can remember them, usually with reciprocity in mind. I have been helped by trip reports from others on ST where some small detail helped me a lot with my own plans.

Most of us lean towards the positive. We leave the negatives unsaid. Sometimes, knowing some of the things to guard against can also be helpful. It is a tricky balance. The exhortation to be constructively critical sometimes cannot be applied. Example: Some particular safari camp is located "poorly". There's not a whole lot that can be done about that by the operator. But if I can back up that opinion with my own no-doubt biased reasons, then it may be useful to others who share the same biases. One thing I am not is a tour operator/agent. I do not go around safari camps to compare them with others. So I often cannot tell if the "poorly" located camp is actually the best located among all the others.

I will say my enthusiasm is genuine, as I value others' enthusiasm. But if my TR's end up being weird and boring - well, YMMV...

So after that long winded rambling preamble, here's a little continuation of the Mara section of the safari. It actually felt like a continuation of the Ndutu (southern Serengeti) safari we did in February this year, and will do again in February 2016. We spend long long days sitting with cheetahs if they look like they are not so full (fat and lazy) that they won't be bothered to get up and hunt :-)

On our first day in the Reserve, we spotted this female with two cubs. I don't often go for the whole predator naming thing so CWTC (cheetah with two cubs) it will remain.

This session started just before 11am, and we loitered with them until 5pm, when we knew there would be no more action. Plus we also had to start leaving the park. It wasn't just cheetah throughout though We did drive off a ways to have lunch under a tree round about 1pm. On the way back to the CWTC (Cheetah with two cubs, remember?) we detoured slightly to a very very red male ostrich (full mating plumage). This was around 2:15pm.

 

Then we sat and we sat. Just before 4pm, mummy probably decided to take pity on us and went for a little run after some gazelles. Her heart was never in it. Way too open. She could be seen for miles. And her cubs tagged along. It was never on. A few minutes later, she was plonked back down.

And that's when we spied Mr and Missus Ostrich a little way off in flagrante delicto. We we sped over for a bit of ostrich porn.

 

Not complaining at all. CWTC had whetted our appetite. Her cubs had put on some grand playing. We have thousands of shots from this day alone.

 

Yucks! Did I just lick that?

 

Checking the shock absorbers (or something)

 

Not to mention walking all over mommy

The next day, James found us CWTC nice and early (since he knew where we had left them the day before). We were with them from 7:45am. And we finally left them at 3:45pm - 8 hours of loitering with cheetahs. Bliss

Not really loitering. The cubs never stopped playing (or so it seemed). Climbing the tree. Harassing mummy.

 

Until at about 9:45am, mummy got serious. A few stops and starts. Hunkering down. Little trot. Down. And then at 10am, she was off. I must admit, it never really looked like happening to me. Again - she did not have enough intermediate cover, and she had gone too soon.

Mummy's reputation as a hunter in my mind had nose dived. None for 2 since we had stayed with her. Back to teh shade of the tree trunk. Back to the playful cubs. Back to sitting and sitting. We had lunch in the vehicle. We were not going t leave, not even for a moment :-)

And then, at 1:52pm, she was off again. Up. Wait. Up. Wait. And at 1:56pm, she was off to the races. The tommie would zig. She would zig, only just tighter. Cutting off the angles. The tommie would zag. She would zag. And while the start of the action had her moving away from the vehicle, the zigging and zagging was bringing her towards us now. Front on cheetah hunt. National Geographic moment. International Geographic even.

And there I was cursing at my own ineptitude (OK OK I was swearing at the camera and lens). The 800mm is a beast to try and keep zigging and zagging cheetah in frame. And in focus. So I do not have the best of shots. Jill? She was going into overdrive. The trusty 300mm had the action in focus. Almost all of them. Until it went into melt down.

Say what? You must have read about machine guns running so hot they jam up? Well, our trusty 10 frames a second Nikon D4 went into buffer-full. "Aarrrgh $^#@*&^W", Jill screeched. "Squeak", the tommie squealed (well it might have). She got all the zigging and the zagging. And one final frame where they were turning towards us. Fortunately I managed some where they were heading straight at us.

 

The zig

 

The zag

 

And the tag

 

I shall leave out the expletives for the misses. There are quite a few shots, too blurry to show you, which I shall pine away for. (Ahh - that's why we have to go again).

And so that's our very own boring safari. Wait and wait and wait. And in 2 minutes, it's all over bar the shouting.

 

Except in this case, CWTC made us wait. She took a full one and a half hours before she started to feed. She had had the tommie by the throat at 1:56pm. She dragged it to the closest bush around (there were not too many) by about 2pm.

 

Did I mention they looked cute waiting for lunch?

 

She finally took some skin off the rump at close to 3:30pm. I don't know how the cubs didn't pester mummy for dinner all this time. Maybe they did and we just don't know the cheetahrish for "Mom! I'm hungry". Mum had a few bites. And then immediately let her cubs at it. That's the longest I have had to sit with a cheetah before she started eating. Except that time in Ndutu when the cheetah dropped her kill not too far from the vehicle and left it for a bit. That bit turned out for us to be a while as the battery in our vehicle totally failed and we could not start (we could also not radio the camp because all the electrical stuff would not work). How did we get out of that? Well - that's another story

 

More tk. Dog willing

 

[michael-ibk]

Thanks Doggy!

 

Your hunting patience paid off big time, even if she tested you. Interesting that they wouldn´t feed straight away, did your guide offer any explanation as to why?

[johnkok]

Thanks Doggy!

 

Your hunting patience paid off big time, even if she tested you. Interesting that they wouldn´t feed straight away, did your guide offer any explanation as to why?

 

I have seen a sub-adult eat while mommy was still strangling the prey. I've also seen them wait. I think they really need to catch their breath. But nobody could say why she waited for 1.5 hours.

 

Of course, this area of the Mara was not crawling with hyena like Mara North Conservancy. And no lions to be seen in the heat of the day. So this gave her time. And whatever vehicles there were around soon left. I think by the time she ate, it was only us and (I believe her name was Elena) the white Maruti Cheetah Project vehicle.

 

That was the long winded way to say "I don't really know, and neither did James (our guide)".

[Bush dog]

Great cheetah sequence !!!

[pault]

Maybe she was leaving it as bait for the Martial Eagle who got one of her cubs?

 

You saw one too! Fantastic. Excellent catches of the hunt.

 

Not so sure about the font - looks classy (Ron but it is hellish difficult to read on an iPad for some reason.. Perhaps you are insisting in a gentle way that we should at least be viewing on a decent laptop screen? @@johnkok I shall view so, but thought I would let you know. Maybe a couple of points bigger and even bold (if I may be so bold) but I am no calligrapher.

[Atravelynn]

Good thing this report was regurgitated. Lots of gems here. That dik dik as gerenuk is fascinating. I wonder if extreme weather is bringing out extreme behavior, though droughts in Samburu are not uncommon.

 

I got that "dog willing" caption.

 

Your cheetahs at full speed and at rest are both great. The camera problems could not have been too bad.

 

Did you write that you took a video but focused on one frame? That would be a nice option.

 

Rarely do you see necking giraffes draw actual blood.

 

The equidistant red table in the open belongs in that camp's brochure!

Edited November 17, 2015 by Atravelynn

[xelas]

@@johnkok

 

The font is great just the size is too small , for my eyes at least. Could you revert to the one you have used in your opening post ?!

 

D4 in "meltdown" ... there must have been some heavy machine fire involved ! The results are extraordinary.

[Alexander33]

Wow! Great cheetah shots. First the adorable cubs and then the hunt take-down. Doesn't get better than that!

[Kitsafari]

stunning zig and zag shots, especially the latter when the tommie looked like it was flying! i'm sorry you missed the moments of the capture but what a capture with what you got.

[madaboutcheetah]

John, just catching up with your report again - what an awesome sighting and cheetah chase!!!

[johnkok]

Not so sure about the font - looks classy (Ron but it is hellish difficult to read on an iPad for some reason.. Perhaps you are insisting in a gentle way that we should at least be viewing on a decent laptop screen? @@johnkok I shall view so, but thought I would let you know. Maybe a couple of points bigger and even bold (if I may be so bold) but I am no calligrapher.

 

@@johnkok

 

The font is great just the size is too small , for my eyes at least. Could you revert to the one you have used in your opening post ?!

 

Thanks for the feedback but I have to admit I do not know what you mean (but I can guess). The font is ant sized on an iPad. I have one from each generation sitting on my table gathering dust. I never used them. Definitely did not use them for any posts and did not change fonts from previous posts. So some bad juju must have entered the system

[johnkok]

Did you write that you took a video but focused on one frame? That would be a nice option.

 

#21 was a still from a 16Mpixel camera.

 

The posts in #23 were extracted from video taken by a 36Mpixel camera. This is the first time I tried this and so I probably made many rookie mistakes.

[pault]

 

Not so sure about the font - looks classy (Ron but it is hellish difficult to read on an iPad for some reason.. Perhaps you are insisting in a gentle way that we should at least be viewing on a decent laptop screen? @@johnkok I shall view so, but thought I would let you know. Maybe a couple of points bigger and even bold (if I may be so bold) but I am no calligrapher.

 

@@johnkok

 

The font is great just the size is too small , for my eyes at least. Could you revert to the one you have used in your opening post ?!

 

Thanks for the feedback but I have to admit I do not know what you mean (but I can guess). The font is ant sized on an iPad. I have one from each generation sitting on my table gathering dust. I never used them. Definitely did not use them for any posts and did not change fonts from previous posts. So some bad juju must have entered the system

Yes bad juju. Font is different on my PC - normal. If you saw it in my iPad you would be surprised... it has replaced your font with a curly one. Anyway, all is well on the PC.

[SafariChick]

I got the smaller font for about three of John's posts too - and I'm looking on my laptop. Strange things are afoot here at Safaritalk - I still have the strange font (not the same one as John's though) when I type that magically fixes itself when I post also!

[johnkok]

Yes bad juju. Font is different on my PC - normal. If you saw it in my iPad you would be surprised... it has replaced your font with a curly one. Anyway, all is well on the PC.

 

 

I got the smaller font for about three of John's posts too - and I'm looking on my laptop. Strange things are afoot here at Safaritalk - I still have the strange font (not the same one as John's though) when I type that magically fixes itself when I post also!

 

So it is not pixie dust in the ST system. Just some strange juju

[Super LEEDS]

Really enjoying this @@johnkok, up until the funny writing took over meaning I had to focus on the lovely images alone - by no means a bad thing!

Edited November 23, 2015 by Super LEEDS

[pomkiwi]

Late to arrive but really enjoying this. Stunning cheetah photos.

[johnkok]

For those who are interested, what follows is not read-it-and-weep

so much as I-read-it-and-wept

 

:-(

 

Here is the entire sequence (warts and all, uncropped) from the 300mm which I wife Jill wielded. Right up to the time it went into melt-down

The last one also uncropped but is the odd-man out from the "film strip" (and being a singleton, is very large). The time stamp on this file (1D4_2437 is 13:56:42.40)

 

Cropped and processed a bit, it looks like this

 

As you might have seen, the action started with the cheetah heading away from us. 30 or so frames in, the action turned left. Another 30 frames later and the tommie u-turned and headed to the right, before heading straight towards the camera. And of course, that's the moment that the buffer became completely full and the camera stared to cough. And Jill's forceful language filled the air.

 

Post melt-down, when Jill thought to try the shutter again, we have 1D4_2438, time stamped 13:56:49.80 or 7.40 seconds later (cropped)

The good news from this is that there are quite a number of sharp action filled frames (once cropped). The bad news is that it requires quite some cropping as it was a 300mm lens.

And now for my woeful performance (I'll blame my tools) ...

Spectacular action. 800mm and so requires minimal or no cropping. If only they had been in focus (sob)

From the "flick" (D4S_8635 timestamp 13:56:43.26) to the roll over is all of 8 frames, then D4S_8644 ts 13:56:45.75 where mommy is heading for the throat, is 2.49 seconds. Then the next frame D4S_8645 ts 13:56:46.78 I have mommy with the throat hold, 1.03 seconds later. This is all of 3.52 seconds from the flick on the hind legs of the gazelle.

With such a woeful performance, it's back to the drawing board. So Ndutu February 2016 here we come. And I'm still agonising whether to wield a 400mm for any chase scenes or try the 800mm again. Arrrggghhhh.

To console myself, here are 2 shots with the 800mm, and actually in focus! Yay!

This one is cropped

But the uncropped is hardly any different

I was juggling the whole thing in portrait mode. The cheetah was filling the frame and walking towards me, getting ever harder to keep in the frame.

And here is a cropped picture of one of the cubs walking up to mommy, thinking about lunch no doubt.

 

More tk, dog willing

[xelas]

@@bettel

 

You do have 2 fantastic photos! What more do you want?! But being a D4S one would expect the camera been able to hold the focus on the target at all times! Technology fails sometimes.