The Offbeat circuit safari in Kenya, January 2016

[Game Warden]

@@mapumbo Fantastic sighting of the lion in the tree. I have great memories from my trip with @@Safaridude. Simon and Rosie at Sosian were most excellent hosts and it felt more like staying with good friends in their house than being guests in a lodge. I must say the bush braai we had with a lunar halo above us was something else. And we were lucky to have some great sightings of the Offbeat leopard in Mara North as well.

 

You had good luck in having Kapeen. 4 men Kapeen...

 

 

Such a character and I really enjoyed talking with him. In fact, reading your report @@mapumbo has prompted me to go back and read through our joint Offbeat report: fantastic times... thank you

[mapumbo]

Yes, Kapeen, or Kapen (the way his name is spelled on the Offbeat website) was quite the companion. He always had a smile on his face. He related a story about being attacked by a lion and had the scars on his leg to prove it. @Gamewarden in your TR you mentioned how much he enjoyed your Fishermen's Friend mints. We had a mixed bag of peppermint and butterscotch hard candies to share and both he and David always chose the butterscotch.

Edited March 10, 2016 by mapumbo

[PT123]

I had a good chuckle as a completely recognized the wire rhino at the Nanyuki airstrip - brings back some very happy memories! Also, agree with the Warf=den - lovely shots of the lions in the tree - I can never get enough of those. The lions never seem quite comfortable in tress.

[mapumbo]

We left camp early the first morning in the MNC. Just shortly out of camp the morning light was hitting the top of the ridge and there was a lone young male lion by himself. He looked pretty lonely and lost. He had gotten split off from his pride by cattle herders recently. We felt sorry for him and hoped he would find his pride or they would find him.

 

We then drove to the river crossing to head to the east side of the river of the Mara North Conservancy.

There were many species of plains animals scattered around.

Topi and baby.

We spotted this adult bat eared fox out in the open.

We then saw it's mate and they went over to their den where the cubs were out in the open.

This was my first sighting of bat eared fox. They are really neat creatures. They always look so curious.

Next we spotted a pair of jackals and they also appeared to have a den but the young ones never showed themselves.

[deano]

@@mapumbo - I'll add to the comments about the lion in the tree - great stuff. Quite a climb for a even a leopard so even more impressive for a lion although she didn't look too comfortable sitting in the fork. Really like the bat eared foxes and the last image above of the two jackals in their front yard.

 

kind regards

 

deano.

[TonyQ]

I really like the Bat-eared foxes - great pictures.

Also what an excellent picture taken in the vehicle as you approach the river - it really brings back what it is like

[Safaridude]

@@mapumbo

 

The Meru hartebeest is very, very close to Coke's. It's just that a genetic study found that the Meru hartebeest has some Jackson's hartebeest traits.

 

Very difficult to explain, but there is a slight difference in the horn curvature, especially viewed from the side. Luckily, you can only encounter the Meru hartebeest in Meru Natinoal Park, so there will be no confusion.

[mapumbo]

@@deano, @@TonyQ, Thank you for the comments on the photos. I really love the expressive faces of the bat eared fox.

 

@Safaridude Thank you for the explanation of the Meru hartebeest. Would not have known about the distinction without being a safaritalker. Gives one a distinct advantage over your average safari participant.

[Alexander33]

Count me as another bat-eared fox fan. Your photos of them are great. All I've managed thus far are shots of their blurred tail-ends as they ran away from us!

[mapumbo]

Count me as another bat-eared fox fan. Your photos of them are great. All I've managed thus far are shots of their blurred tail-ends as they ran away from us!

I missed my only other chance at bat eared fox on a trip to Tanzania. It happened to be the only day I have ever been sick on safari in Africa. It had rained very hard and after it was over Mama Ndege and our three friends we were traveling with went out for a drive while I stayed back at camp. They said there were bat eared fox all over the place escaping their wet dens. For some reason, that did not make me feel any better.

[nhanq]

Forget the Rhinos - the Naked Mole Rats are a much more special sighting. Seriously, don´t think any report here has featured one. They are actually big stars of our Zoo in Vienna - people are fascinated with their ... uglyness. :-)

Agree, they are fascinating. One of few videos of Naked mole rats are from Meru. Enjoy!

[Game Warden]

@@mapumbo Did you get to see the aardwolves close to Offbeat Mara camp? Well, at least they were close a couple of years ago...

[mapumbo]

@@nhanq Thank you for providing the video of the naked mole rat. Was interesting to see how they live underground.

[mapumbo]

@gamewarden Unfortunately we did not see the aardwolves. Another vehicle, while we were there saw one on their night drive. I think @@offshorebirder saw one. Was it at Offbeat Mara???

Also, another couple saw an aardvark on their night drive. They were first time safari goers and did not realize what a special sighting it was as well as the family that saw the aardwolves.

[offshorebirder]

@@mapumbo and @@Game Warden - yes, Tommy and I were very fortunate to have a multi-minute sighting of an Aardwolf near Offbeat Mara camp. I got a few documentary photos but it was early on a cloudy morning...

 

@@mapumbo - nice Bat-eared Fox encounter - looks to be a good bit closer than the family sighting we had.

[Marks]

Very nice fox sighting! Still waiting for my first.

The "treed" lion also makes for a good shot, as others have said. Made me do a double-take!

[mapumbo]

Very nice fox sighting! Still waiting for my first.

The "treed" lion also makes for a good shot, as others have said. Made me do a double-take!

Thank you @@Marks both sightings make the days special in ones memory.

[mapumbo]

After our sighting of the bat eared fox and jackals we continued on exploring the east side of the river from camp. We had sightings of many varied species. All of them were quite calm and gave us an opportunity to observe their behavior.

 

Except for the warthogs. They always seem to throw their tales in the air and scurry off into the distance.

 

Hildebrand's Starling looking very stern.

Rosy-Breasted Longclaw

Finally by 11 AM we decided to stop for breakfast

After breakfast we slowly made our way back to camp. When arriving we were advised that lunch would be at 1 PM. For some reason we weren't very hungry. We had been wanting to take a night drive so we decided to eat an early dinner and head out afterwards foregoing an afternoon drive. While eating dinner it began to rain. Kyle said be patient, often it rains for a short time and then clears off. This was not to be today. It continued raining very briskly so we slogged back to our tent for the evening.

 

Missing out on this afternoon and night drive was not too disappointing. We had been hitting it pretty hard so we could use the down time.

[mapumbo]

After the heavy rains of last night we got up wondering what this day would bring. We didn't expect we would be able to cross the river and hoped we could get around on the tracks on the camp side of the river to have a drive. Little did we know that this day would be filled with wonderful sightings from start to finish. As for the driving, I should not have been concerned with David's accomplished skills we were able to travel where we needed to go.

 

We headed south out of camp as we had the previous morning and again saw the young lion on the hill top that had become separated from his pride. Only this morning he had a mate with him of about the same age and they both looked pretty forlorn and lost.

 

Everyone in camp who had seen these orphans was getting concerned, and we felt sorry for them as well. With the high water we weren't sure the rest of the pride would get back over to them if they were on the other side of the river, as some thought. These youngsters were too young to know how to hunt for themselves. They needed their pride to provide for them. After watching the two lions for awhile scanning the area looking for their friends, we drove up onto the plains to the west.

 

[mapumbo]

While driving west towards the next valley, Mama Ndege saw something on the other side of the valley and asked if that was a cheetah. We stopped and she looked through her binos and said, no that's a gazelle. David said, no that's a cheetah. This went on with the two of them disputing each other for awhile and Ndege finally asked David where he was looking. He eventually got us to see where he was looking and sure enough it was a cheetah.

 

We had found Amani again. She was sitting in some tall grass with not much game around her.

 

This was the first view of the valley from the other side where the gazelle/cheetah was spotted.

Amani sitting in the tall grass.

You will have to excuse the multiple photos of Amani. She was in the classic African scenic panorama moving around presenting different poses.

There is no cheetah in the shot. Just a panorama of the area.

[TonyQ]

What a beautiful series of photos of Amani - I really like the mix of wider view in environment and closeup - and the one with the elephant behind her.

I hope your lions were OK

[mapumbo]

What a beautiful series of photos of Amani - I really like the mix of wider view in environment and closeup - and the one with the elephant behind her.

I hope your lions were OK

Yes, I will resolve the wayward lions in the next installment. After seeing your rather thin lions in your last report, I don't think these two guys had been abandoned for very long.

We were the first to find Amani, and then shared the view with the other Offbeat group with offshorebirder. It was interesting to watch her thought process on her morning jaunt.

[mapumbo]

After leaving our wonderful time with Amani we headed on towards Leopard Gorge that I had heard so much about on Safaritalk. Along the way we saw these animals.

 

Lappet-faced vulture

A view back when entering Leopard Gorge.

@@offshorebirder saw a Verreaux's Eagle-Owl in Leopard Gorge the same morning we went there. We thought this might be an immature Spotted Eagle-Owl but it would be unusual for two species to be in the same general area. What do you think??

[mapumbo]

We left the beautiful Leopard Gorge and continued our drive towards our breakfast spot. It was hard to believe that it was now just breakfast time after all that we had seen already. As we approached the tree that David and Kapen had chosen for our breakfast site we saw one of the iconic bull elephants of the MNC. It was Hugo. He had a collar on so they could keep track of where he was since he had some pretty massive tusks.

 

Our view from our breakfast site.

After breakfast we headed back in the direction of camp taking our time to stop and look at anything of interest.

As you can see these buffalo are shoulder deep in grass. David said that this is the most grass he had seen in 10 years. It was most definitely the land of plenty.

[mapumbo]

When we had returned to the open plains above the camp we saw Amani in the distance. We drove up to her and she was on a fresh kill. We probably missed the action by a mere 5 minutes. She was very hot and panting loudly. She had just started to feed and would have to stop and catch her breath frequently. She was totally out in the open but there didn't seem to be any hyenas or lions in sight. We left her to her lunch and we headed to camp for our own.