Kenya (Amboseli, Ol pejeta, Naivasha, Mara) - Sept/11 to Sept/20, 2017

[Gilgamesh]

16 minutes ago, Kitsafari said:

@Gilgamesh what a teaser you are! you are giving clues in dribs and drabs and hanging us on a thread! I can't wait to see what it's about and i hope you have tonnes of photos of it and this mysterious lion (or lions?). 

 

what time of the year was this trip in? 

 

I think I've broken the record for posting the quickest trip report. I started the report the day after we landed. I gave myself three days to do nothing and recover from the jet lag. I really suffer from it. Using that time to post this report.

 

I am kind of rushing through it for now, and posting it as means of sorting it through. I will pick the best and do some serious processing later, if I decide to print anything.

 

My trip was from Sept 11th 2017 to Sept 21 of actual game drives - so, not including flight time.

[Kitsafari]

that's super speed, but psst don't tell GM about it, otherwise he'll use you as the gold standard for TRs!! 

[Gilgamesh]

Bird ID..

 

These are 100% crop...posted for bird ID

[Gilgamesh]

Recap:

 

So far we've had a total of only 6 game drives. 2 evening game drives and 1 morning game drive at each Park. That's it! 

 

We are thoroughly pleased with all we've witnessed, and couldn't have asked for more. We felt like each game drive was showing us new encounters and activities and it just kept getting better and better. It was more than what we ever imagined.

 

However, I understand images/encounters posted so far are almost routine here...nothing special...may be except the Black Rhino. Those can be hard to find and some don't see it even after multiple days of game drives. But for us, every animal, bird and insect we saw (except those damn millipedes in our room) was all new and throughly fascinating. I have to fight so hard not to post hundreds more photographs. But, I know it will be boring for most here.

 

When we reach Mara, it will get more interesting. 

 

Day 9 at Porini lion camp was not the highlight just for that last image or a sequence of images depicting the event, but for the whole day. One major reason was our guide. Meshack was simply superb!... I cannot say enough good things about him. He made it all so easy for me....he knows light and composition and he thinks like the animals we are after and thinks way before anyone else out there, ... like a chess master. A lot of the credit for pictures on day 9 goes to him. There were two other events on Day 9, which are superb too. But both quite common, but thanks to Meshack the pictures should be interesting. But not just those, Mara was all great!...I'm sure almost all of it will be of interest to everyone here. After all, the last image happened after dark under infrared lighting, and we had a whole day with Meshack prior to that.

 

Naivasha was just a stop gap. As we were driving, we needed to break one night there. That will be next...

[wilddog]

Hi @Gilgamesh I think the bird is an immature Martial Eagle. 

 

Really enjoying your report so far. I remember all your questions/queries and concerns when planning this trip. It is always nice to read and see that the trip met, and probably exceeded, your expectations.

 

Looking forward to the Mara section when you have time.

 

 

[Gilgamesh]

3 hours ago, wilddog said:

Hi @Gilgamesh I think the bird is an immature Martial Eagle. 

 

Really enjoying your report so far. I remember all your questions/queries and concerns when planning this trip. It is always nice to read and see that the trip met, and probably exceeded, your expectations.

 

Looking forward to the Mara section when you have time.

 

 

Thank you for confirming the ID @Geoff made. 

 

I am glad you are enjoying the report.

 

Yes! I posted my first question a full year before my trip. You and many others were very helpful. My wife has been telling me to thank each and every one of those who helped us plan this vacation. I'll take this opportunity to thank you for all the help you gave us. It was invaluable. As you may recall, my wife was apprehensive of Kenya. Now, she and I both agree, this was the best vacation we've had to date. She even agrees, conservancies, where we can go off road is the only way we will see Mara again. She will put up with the tent shower for that pleasure.

 

It might take a bit of time, but I can't wait to write and post pictures of our time in Masai Mara - what a magical place!

Edited September 24, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

Day 5 - Naivasha

 

We drove from Ol pejeta conservancy to Naivasha.

 

There was a few miles of a "connecting road" that was quite bad. The rest of the drive was on good roads. I enjoyed every leg of our drives, as we never repeated a route and there was lots to see and photograph. I enjoy that type of photography too...there's plenty of subject matter in rural Kenya, and each photo has so much going on.

 

Rough Connecting road:

 

 

Glimpse of rural Kenyan Life

Boda Boda - These are motorcycle Taxi's you will see everywhere.

 

Markets

 

tuk-tuk - Another mode of taxi

 

Corner store

 

Runners

 

Donkey Cart driver

 

We stayed at Enashipai Lodge - five star accommodations, the best of the entire trip. Frankly unnecessarily posh for us. The food was out of this world. This is a resort many can spend weeks relaxing.

 

Forecast called for rain and we could see black clouds moving in. We still decided to go with our prior plans to take a boat ride in Naivasha lake and visit Crescent Island. We had to rush through the boat ride and Crescent Island. However, frankly there wasn't a whole lot to see. But it did give us an opportunity for some birding.

 

Hippo

 

It's so hard to take good pictures in a boat on water. I also had the telephoto with the wrong, older camera which is worse for these types of photography. It did ok!...however I had the right camera and lens on day 9 for some great action. That great action sequence shots are on top of the surprise imge ....stay tuned!

 

These are some of the birds we saw.

 

Cormorant

 

Fish eagle

 

 I went to a Crescent Island to take pictures of us on foot with herbivores, especially Giraffe in the background. The giraffes have moved on, just a herd of some type of antelope (I forgot which one) and one Bushbuck and one Wildebeest were the only occupants. It was ok! but can be skipped. But we took some shots of ourselves with the animals that were there. It was nice!

 

This giraffe was in the Sanctuary farm grounds

 

 

There were a few birds.

 

Yellow-billed stork and African Spoonbill

 

An Egret fishing

 

Then we had to rush back to our hotel, and caught the rain for the last few minutes. There were lots of birds in the hotel too...these came out ok to post, but a lot more can be found there.

 

The Superb Starling again, but with a treat in the mouth this time...

 

I think this is a Taita Fiscal Shrike ?

 

This looks like a Hornbill of some sort?

 

Tomorrow we are heading to Mara...Yippee!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

Day 6 - Drive from Naivasha to Maasai Mara.

 

These pictures are a little different...I suppose that's what makes it "my" report, I guess....hope someone likes it....I think @Tom Kellie would enjoy the street scenes.

 

A few at Enashipai lodge, Naivasha

 

Enashipai Lodge Gift shop

 

Then we were on the road again...so many interesting things to photograph

 

Vegetable stalls - it's not just the shop, it's the people...

 

Cows and goats by the road

 

Donkey cart

 

 

Some of the 18 wheelers are slanted like this. Even more pronounced from the front - they look like they are taking a right turn even when they are travelling straight at high speeds.

 

Mount Longonot from the highway

 

They have these displays of crashed cars as deterrent.

 

The Maasai

 

Now, a different kind of people and animals - Kenyan Arts & Craft

 

Fabrics

 

Paintings

 

Each drive involved a stop at various craft shops filled with great art pieces like these...much better variety, quality and cheaper than the lodges and certainly Nairobi. (I love the rendering of the  Volna 9 macro. A Russian m42 mount manual lens...Zeiss like for $100)

 

Approaching Mara the road definitely got horrendous...didn't bother us though, rather very interesting.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2017 by wilddog

[Gilgamesh]

I'll have to get back to work tomorrow and will try my best to finish the rest as soon as I can. But, it may have to wait a bit...

 

WARNING; Just to get this out of the way...We did not see the Mara river crossing. Even prior to the trip, I had decided not to spend hours waiting for the famous Mara crossing. I told our driver the same, nevertheless the Mara river crossings happened a little earlier than usual this year....so, don't expect to see pictures of that.

 

In the mean time, I would love to hear comments on the report thus far and what photographs/sightings were your favorites...Thanks!

Edited September 24, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[offshorebirder]

19 hours ago, Gilgamesh said:

In the mean time, I would love to hear comments on the report thus far and what photographs/sightings were your favorites...

 

I liked a lot of the photos @Gilgamesh - but the ones that really really grabbed me were the Amboseli landscapes and the elephant you captured in mid-dust.

 

Incidentally - the Fiscal in post #32 is Grey-backed rather than Taita.  Grey-backed has a grey crown (rather than black like Taita) and Grey-backed shows the longer tail with half-white outer retrices (outer tail feathers)

[Gilgamesh]

2 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

 

I liked a lot of the photos @Gilgamesh - but the ones that really really grabbed me were the Amboseli landscapes and the elephant you captured in mid-dust.

 

Incidentally - the Fiscal in post #32 is Grey-backed rather than Taita.  Grey-backed has a grey crown (rather than black like Taita) and Grey-backed shows the longer tail with half-white outer retrices (outer tail feathers)

Thank you!...I do enjoy landscapes and cityscapes the most to photograph. But, looking at many trip reports with clean telephoto images, I am tempted to spend some money, but the enjoyment is fleeting. Landscapes, I can print and enjoy for years.

 

After posting the picture only I noticed that elephant taking the dust bath is missing it's right tusk...a bummer.

 

Thank you for the ID...I don't know anything about birds. I looked it up on this book I have and wasn't too sure. I appreciate your help.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Marks]

Fantastic photos and report. You did a great job with landscapes, and I like the fish eagle on this page a lot. However, what strikes me the most at this moment is the focus you've given to the crafts and curios on this page. Gorgeous photos of some really nice work.

[Gilgamesh]

Day 6 - The Mara

 

Let's kick this up a notch....the big cats of the evening drive

 

Our first male lion  (young adult)

 

Just chilling...

 

Insects were bothering him

 

Swapping with the paws didn't help much...

 

Lets try to sleep

 

Nope...those damned flies

 

See!!!, it's not easy being a lion

 

 

 

 

Our first Cheetah

 

Sitting pretty

 

Just love the way they move

 

Pass right by our vehicle

 

A half decent pose

 

Bye!

Edited September 26, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

9 minutes ago, Marks said:

Fantastic photos and report. You did a great job with landscapes, and I like the fish eagle on this page a lot. However, what strikes me the most at this moment is the focus you've given to the crafts and curios on this page. Gorgeous photos of some really nice work.

 

Thank you so much....glad to see someone here enjoying that kind of photography too. Appreciate your response very much.

[Gilgamesh]

Day 6 (cont'd)- The Mara Reserve

 

I posted the big cats previously, this is the rest.

 

Pumba (Warthog)

 

The look

 

 

Showing off his tusks

 

If the above weren't close enough

 

Love the way they bend their front legs to feed

 

Never done panning before,... lucked out here

 

I know this is just a flower, but it was growing out of a large tree. Never seen this before...ID?

 

 

Dwarf Mongoose

 

Birds

 

Agama Lizard

Not so colorful

 

 

Some Mara elephants

 

A whole herd

 

 

He posed for me here, with a lovely composition...note how his posture matches the trees

 

It was getting dark and we were racing back to the Mara Serena Lodge and we saw this lion very far away, we watched him walk for quite some time...

 

Then we realized what he was walking towards...

 

What a loving pair

 

Gift shop at Mara Serena

 

 

Mara Serena: An excellent facility. Never felt crowded. Prime seating areas, swimming pool etc were always empty. The food was simply phenomenal. Lunch boxes were great too.

 

Tomorrow we will have a long morning drive and an evening drive in the Mara reserve. We still haven't seen a Leopard, which happens to be one of the big five. That's one of the targets for tomorrow - but, we never were about ticking off things, we just wanted to see any and all animal activities. Every single encounter was breathtaking. Nevertheless, just wanted to see all the main animals in the reserve prior to Porini Lion. We have tomorrow and another morning drive to do so.

 

Jake (Founder of Porini camps/Game watchers) identified the last bird on post#32 as a female African Grey Hornbill. Thank you Jake. Jake was very helpful with arranging our various special requests and last minute things. More about that later. We, In fact, met him at the camp and he is a member here as well. I will elaborate more about our wonderful experience at Porini Lion camp when I get to it on day 8,9 and 10 when we were there.

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by wilddog

[pault]

Great start to the trip report - especially considering how quickly you got it up! 

 

You got some great photos, and Amboseli looks so nice with a bit of water and green.

 

Sick as the proverbial dog at the moment so not sure when I will next be back, but I'll certainly be looking through all of this in time - you've missed few opportunities for a photo and I really like that approach. The souvenir shorts are surprisingly effective and pleasant.

Edited September 27, 2017 by pault

[Gilgamesh]

6 hours ago, pault said:

Great start to the trip report - especially considering how quickly you got it up! 

 

You got some great photos, and Amboseli looks so nice with a bit of water and green.

 

Sick as the proverbial dog at the moment so not sure when I will next be back, but I'll certainly be looking through all of this in time - you've missed few opportunities for a photo and I really like that approach. The souvenir shorts are surprisingly effective and pleasant.

Thank you Pault...I am enjoying reliving all the moments, so I can't stop going through these pictures. But, I know I'm rushing a bit. I am not proof reading my writing either and am now seeing so many errors - I've even missed words in a sentence, yikes!...too late to edit though ....hopefully a moderator can help...I reached out to Game warden last night.

 

I am quickly rough processing the images and posting, but will spend more time only on those I am printing.

 

Amboseli was lush and wet...lots of elephants and hippos in the water. Lovely, lush landscape with interesting mountain range in the horizon. I missed a lot of nice landscape compositions as I was hesitant to stop the driver and reverse. It's a dream for a wildlife landscape photographer.

 

I hope you get better soon. 

 

I have to thank you for advising me to take my small favorite lenses. I almost didn't take the Volna 9 macro, but took it anyways, thanks to your advice. I'm glad I did...Its good to know you are enjoying the souvenir shots - That! I can say, is not just point and shoot. 

 

Also, you may have noticed me mentioning the image I took at the end, and having the readers wait in anticipation for it...I learned that from you with  your last trip report  ...but, I am not going to drop any celebrity names ..ha! Ha!

 

Anyways, hope you'll feel better soon.

[Gilgamesh]

Day 7 - The Mara Reserve (Part of the Morning drive)

 

It was still very low light. Our first encounter was taken in poor lighting....high iso, low shutter speeds.

 

It's a couple of Hyenas on a carcass...from the horns, it looks like a wildebeest. But, the action was mostly behind long grasses, and poor light.

 

Here's part of what we saw...Hyena with the head

 

They are always on the constant look out...every few seconds they scan the surroundings.

 

Another Hyena looking on

 

Behind us were a pair of jackals with the reaming parts of the body

 

A little encounter...

 

The jackal scurried away...

 

We also had to scurry away, as some wheels of our vehicle may have been slightly off the designated path.

 

 

As you can see, we kept seeing and experiencing new things on each drive....we were having an absolute blast!

 

It's time for lion on a carcass...we haven't seen that yet..

 

Zebra with it's guts spilling out (reds might be a bit off in some of the images...too lazy to fix them)

 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[wilddog]

Some great sightings! Africa in the raw

 

It looks like that female jackal is about to produce pups, with her swollen belly and prominent teats.

[Gilgamesh]

2 hours ago, wilddog said:

Some great sightings! Africa in the raw

 

It looks like that female jackal is about to produce pups, with her swollen belly and prominent teats.

Yes! The sightings have been fabulous, and the day is still young 

 

Thank you for pointing out the pregnancy part, it adds another interesting element

Edited September 27, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

Day 7 (Mara Reserve, Morning drive cont'd)

 

Soon after that lion sighting we saw a cheetah running at a distance (The colors are a bit different between shots for some reason)

 

Then she climbed on a short mound...I was hoping it will turn around and give me that iconic pose

 

Nope!

 

But, that's ok...On day 9, I'll not only get the iconic pose, but one with a special twist.

 

She ran and disappeared among high grass. Rangers were following the whole group the whole morning as there were a lot of activity. They didn't want anyone going off-road.

 

We went to look for possible crossing...some wildebeest gatherings, but nothing major

 

A Hyena was eying us...Yikes!

 

But, just walked away...

 

 

Later, we realized that cheetah had made a kill out of sight of everyone. Then brought it back closer to the road. But, still wasn't visible. Just needed a 10 foot off-roading to see it. The rangers were right on top. But after a while of allowing the cheetah some space, it appeared the rangers were ok for the vehicles to move in a bit.

 

First we couldn't see anything and then the cheetah lifted it's head up...the red on the face confirmed what she was doing...but didn't know what the kill was

 

Something tasty

 

Cheetah's also scan the horizon constantly...I guess, in fear of lions.

 

Then we moved a bit more forward and got a better angle

 

But still not good....but can see something on the ground. Then once a vehicle in front left we moved in to a better spot

 

Still not sure and then a leg popped up....young Impala?

 

gave me a nice look

 

Then after a while, the cheetah got up and moved on to a mound to rest....belly full

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

Day 7 - Mara Reserve (Morning drive cont'd)

 

I don't even remember seeing this gorgeous specimen, but it was close enough to fill the frame at 500mm

 

Masai Giraffe

 

Just to show we saw Hippos in Mara too

 

Impala

 

Hartebeest

 

Topi

 

Then we went to this bridge where carcass of all the animals that drowned during the river migration collects...

 

Carnage

 

Some Marabou Stork

 

This Vulture is living up to it's notoriety

 

Lets try to redeem with some better pictures of vultures

 

That finished off our morning drive and we went back to the lodge...we still haven't seen a Leopard, and the evening drive will be all about trying to locate one.

 

[Alexander33]

I really like the photo of the hyena and black-backed jackel in post # 43 because it shows the huge size differential between the two.  I would never have guessed that the hyena was so significantly larger.

 

Thrilled that you got your first cheetah -- definitely a favorite!  

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by Alexander33

[Gilgamesh]

On 9/28/2017 at 5:02 AM, Alexander33 said:

I really like the photo of the hyena and black-backed jackel in post # 43 because it shows the huge size differential between the two.  I would never have guessed that the hyena was so significantly larger.

 

Thrilled that you got your first cheetah -- definitely a favorite!  

 

Thank you...I went to Kenya wanting to see and enjoy all the animals. I was telling myself not to be one of those that are only after the big cats. We enjoyed all of it, but on day 8 when 'Little John' of Porini asked me what we wanted to see, to my own surprise, these words came out of my mouth... "Lions, Leopards and Cheetahs", lol!...they are magnificent - Impossible to resist their lure.

 

A trip to Kenya will be the ultimate destination even if there were only the herbivores with a few hyenas and jackals here and there and you are viewing it all with an eye patch and with both ears plugged tight....what it actually is, is beyond comprehension.

 

P.S: Can anyone tell me how to reach the moderators out there?...the errors I've made in haste is embarrassing, I need to fix a few. I pm'd @Game Warden but he is probably away.

 

@Gilgamesh These items have now been dealt with for you. @Game Warden is quite busy at the moment

Edited September 29, 2017 by wilddog

[Gilgamesh]

Day 7 (Mara Reserve) - Evening Drive

 

Prior to the evening drive, a few shots from the Serena lodge

 

Hyrax

 

Birds

 

It was raining and our evening game drive was delayed by about 20 minutes...cutting into our Leopard search time.

 

We spotted these sleeping lions very far away

 

Giraffes 

 

We went to a location where the driver/guide has seen a Leopard a few months ago. We inched through the area back and forth and couldn't spot any. Now it's about 6pm. We went back to the main road. We heard from a driver passing by of a Leopard sighting not too far off, ....couldn't believe our luck....we sped towards it.

 

On the last day of our stay at the Reserve,  after 6pm we spotted our first leopard

 

Soon followed by another

 

The light was very low. For the rest, I had to increase iso to 3200 and still was barely getting shutter speeds of 1/250 at times dropping to 1/125 at 500mm. Surprised how well the gear held up. We were so enamored by the pair, I am going to post quite a few images.

 

 

Then they approached closer to our vehicle, crossed right in front and disappeared on to the other side

 

On our way back, we spotted those sleeping lions, barely waking up

 

We have one more morning drive in the Reserve and then onto Porini Lion Camp.

 

Day 8 will be a Lion day....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2017 by Gilgamesh