First African Safari: It was about time!

[JCC]

@Atdahl, @monalisa @CheetahFan  Reading this TR makes me feel as if I were there, but without the hyena fart and rotting eland smells - many thanks! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[Atravelynn]

Through page 4  -  Lions and eles, lions and cheetah.  Those are some powerful pairings!  What productive night drivew with an actual photos of a spring hare and that fascinating hyena kill.  The daytime hyena action was impressive as well.  I hope the wildebeest calf found its mother.  You did all you could.  Porini provided!  And yet another day.

[Kitsafari]

awwwww over the lion cubs.

you had great sightings for your first safari! a hunt is always exhilarating but I find it hard to watch or listen to the kill especially when the hyenas eat the prey alive. 

But a lion chasing cheetahs! wowser! I was so glad and relieved they got away!

 

so where next in Africa?? (forget borneo). 

[Atdahl]

@offshorebirder, @JCC, @Atravelynn, @Kitsafari, thanks so much.  I am glad you are enjoying the report.  It certainly has been a great 1st safari so far.  But, can you believe that it gets better....

 

@Kitsafari, the answer to your question is Madagascar in October!  Another return trip to Borneo is not in the cards right now although not seeing a darn Tarsier in two trips there still haunts me...

 

Alan

[monalisa]

Unfortunately I am officially behind now with photos, but I have made a special effort to contribute.....

 

...this pooping gazelle! Look at him looking right at us. Standing his ground, not even bothered to move out of the way of the vehicle. Priorities, right there.

 

 

 

 

And my failed lion pano 

 

 

 

And lastly a clip of the poor wildebeest calf that thought the jeep was its mama and chased us. It is incredibly fast for one just born.

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by monalisa

[Atdahl]

Ha, that's too funny!  I remember we talked about you vast "collection" of photos showing animals taking care of business.  I am expecting a "Show us your pooping animals" thread any day now .

 

That's weird but I don't remember the lions being that looooong...

 

Ah, that poor little wildebeest.  I don't have high hopes that it reunited with its mother but you never know.

[Atdahl]

Day 9 (Part 1) - Porini Mara to Porini Lion

 

The skies were bright pink as we set out for our last morning drive at Porini Mara:

 

 

This made everything around us pinkish including these lions that we saw just at first light:

 

They were just sitting so we continued on and came upon a fresh hyena kill.

 

But, they didn't have it to themselves and were on high alert as some jackals approached:

 

The jackals out numbered the two hyenas so they were very bold:

 

 

Not wanting to share, one hyena picked up the carcass and trotted off thinking that would be enough to get rid of the jackals:

 

 

As soon as the jackals figured out there was nothing left behind to eat...:

 

They went right back to harassing the hyena:

 

This one actually got a bone:

 

So, the hyenas decided to move again to see if they would be followed:

 

And of course they were:

 

At this point, the jackals harassed the hyenas so much they stopped fighting the inevitable:

 

 

One leg for me:

 

And, another one for you:

 

But, nothing for this vulture that flew in:

 

A bit later we had another Bat-eared Fox encounter.  As usual, they started running from us right away but one did stop to look back:

 

 

We ended the morning drive at 8:30AM since we were having breakfast at the camp before our transfer to Porini Lion.

 

We did have one last great sighting.  I love the chocolate brown strips on the little zebras:

 

 

When we first arrived at Porini Mara, Tim and Andrea has seen some sort of mammal (not a monkey) in the trees by our tent.  When I asked Jimmy the Manager about it he said it was likely a Tree Hyrax.  Since that first day, all of us had been scoping out the trees whenever possible.  But, we had all struck out.  But, Porini Mara had one last present for us. I had wandered over to the other side of the camp scanning the trees and there staring right at me was this Southern Tree Hyrax:

 

After taking a picture or two I went to get the others and we all ended up seeing it.  That checks another mammal off the list. Nice!

 

Fittingly, the last sighting at Porini Mara was of our friendly neighborhood burglar the Vervet Monkey:

 

We had an amazing time at Porini Mara.  The camp itself is in a beautiful setting but it's the staff and wildlife encounters that we had there that really made things special.  The food was great and they once again catered it to all our needs.  Heck they even provided Karen with bananas as often as possible.

 

Despite the great setting in the trees, there wasn't much bird life around the camp which was surprising, but the wildlife outside the camp certainly made up for that.  Tim and I also appreciated that the vehicle we had was the roomiest so far.  I am not going so far as to say it was spacious but we were able to fit our long legs in OK.  It really helped that there were only 4 of us among the 6 seats so that we could move around and had places to stow our bags instead of having them at our feet.  They certainly don't make safari vehicles for tall people.

 

At 10AM we left on our ground transfer to Porini Mara.  The camps were supposed to be less than 2 hours apart and we were hoping that this would be as much a game drive as it was a transfer.

 

The "action" heated up relatively early in the drive:

 

Oops, we've been caught peeping:

 

But, then it calmed back down.  I don't have any other pictures for the bulk of the drive but we did see an Olive Baboon family and the usual assortment of ungulates.  After leaving the conservancy, we passed through some sparsely populated areas so we saw Masai people herding cattle and goats although none were wearing traditional clothing like our guides did every day.

 

We did see an example of how today's modern society had corrupted this part of the world.  We were driving along a very open area with nothing of note in sight anywhere. We noticed someone walking ahead of us diagonally approaching the road.  But, instead of him stopping as we approached, he continued to walk slowly across the road right in front of us.  Our driver had to tap on the brakes to prevent us from running him over.  It was at that point the person sensed something, turned, saw us and kind of stepped back unexpectedly.  We had obviously startled him.  He smiled at us and waved and that's when we saw that he had earbuds in and was playing on his cell phone.  That's why he didn't see us.

 

Porini Lion is located in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy.  The scenery here was different than the other camps which was nice.  In fact, there is a large hill you go down to get into the conservancy and the view from the top is great:

 

There were also quite a few Topi around and they liked standing on top of old termite mounds:

 

The camp itself wasn't in as picturesque location as Porini Mara but it had its own charms.  We were put in another family tent:

 

The camp had signs out naming all the tents and after seeing a sign labeled "Mess Tent" it reminded me of one of my favorite old TV shows from the 70's:

 

 

Radar's Tent (Media Tent):

 

The Swamp (Lounge):

 

Inside the swamp there was no still, but there was a fridge around back that had the cold drinks:

 

The fire pit area which wasn't used much during our stay due to afternoon rain:

 

Here is the view from our tent.  With all the luscious grass around we were visited nightly by hippos and buffalo. More on that later:

 

Our room:

 

One thing that was great about all the camps is that they had plenty of room for storage and to hang clothes:

 

By popular demand I included a toilet shot again. You're welcome:

 

 

And finally, here is the common area connecting our tents:

 

 

OK, that's enough non-wildlife photos.  My hands are starting to twitch at the lack of critters so here are some shots I took mid-day as I wandered around the camp.

 

Yellow-breasted Apalis:

 

Dwarf Mongoose:

 

Holub's Golden Weaver:

[TonyQ]

Superb photos throughout. The lion cub sequence is wonderful.

[monalisa]

5 hours ago, TonyQ said:

Superb photos throughout. The lion cub sequence is wonderful.

 

@TonyQ the cub cuteness is about to go through the roof!! 

[Galago]

Excellent! I loved the jackal/hyena action. This report is making me consider Kenya. I went a long time ago and found too many vehicles for my liking but this looks good.

[Atdahl]

@Galago, the lack of crowds is another great reason to stay at a conservancy camp.  They limit the number of beds and therefore vehicles.  We had a couple encounters with maybe 5 or 6 vehicles (all of the ones in the conservancy likely) but that was about it.  Many others were just us another another vehicle or two.  It never even came close to being an issue for us.

 

Alan

[Atdahl]

Day 9 (Part 2) - Porini Lion

 

At about 4PM we met at the lounge to go out on our afternoon game drive. That's when we met our guide and driver for our stay; Julius and Nelson. Just like all the other Porini guides, they were good.  So, with introductions done, we headed out.

 

Young zebra close up:

 

 

Two Black-backed Jackals splitting a gazelle:

 

 

We think this was Mom looking on...

 

Right off the bat we noticed that this conservancy had a huge population of zebras.  It was so cool to see so many of them:

 

 

We came upon a couple of lions that appeared to be a mating pair.  So, we decided to hang out a bit to see what would happen.  I think we only waited a few minutes before the female rolled over and signaled she was ready:

 

 

 

The male took her up on the invitation but I realized I had the wrong camera body/lens combination because they were too close for photos at my minimum of 200mm.  Before I had a chance to dig my other camera out, they were done.  I was a bit disappointed at having no pictures.  But then Julius mentioned that lions tend to mate every 15 minutes so we could wait for them to do it again.  Well, I was a bit doubtful that they would cooperate.  But, about 15 minutes later this happened...

 

The female got up and stretched signalling she was ready again:

 

Invitation accepted:

 

 

This was not a soft love bite from the looks of it:

 

 

Within seconds, she had enough and did the old growl and roll out of the way technique.  I mean, we've all used that before right?...Anyone?:

 

 

 

 

 

It was so nice to have such cooperative lions.

 

Next we were driven to a pool filled with hippos.  But, unlike the relatively clean pool we saw at Porini Mara, this was a cesspool.  But, the hippos didn't seem to mind.

 

Look at this tiny little baby hippo!!

 

This hippo one was not so tiny:

 

Mass Pink Eye (must be the water):

 

 

The hippos were so crowded together that there were tussling for space the whole time.  They grunted and groaned and I could swear they sounded just like Jabba the Hutt.

 

Next up came an animal that I hoped to see at Porini Lion.  It was a Leopard.............

[Atdahl]

No, really it's a leopard this time!!  

 

 

See, I am not that big of a tease after all.

 

But, let me back up a second here.  Because I am a huge planner, I do lots of pre-trip research.  So, I knew that Porini Lion has probably the most famous Leopard in Kenya.  Fig is her name and she is not that shy around people.  Most people that go to Porini Lion for a few nights end up seeing her.  So, while it was not guaranteed, I knew we had a good chance to see her.  Plus, I also knew that she had a cub.  So, when our guides talked about what we wanted to see as we started that first game drive I mentioned Fig.

 

Earlier in the drive we had seen a dead baby Impala by some bushes.  Our guides mentioned that Fig killed the Impala and probably left to go get her cub and was going to come back to it.  There was a film crew in a vehicle and they were staking it out waiting for Fig to return.  So, our guides would listen for the signal on the radio and come back if she was spotted.  This gave us time to wander around and see the mating Lions, Hippos, etc.

 

Well, the call came that Fig was spotted so we hustled back over to the area.  As we got close, Julius said "There she is". In the distance, Fig was walking through the grass and behind her was the cub.  

 

It was an awesome sight and it's burned into my memory.  Our first ever leopard!

 

So, Nelson drove the vehicle to an area well ahead of them and waited.  It just so happened that there was a fallen tree between us and Fig.  When I saw this I was hoping that she might jump on the tree for a moment so I could get a picture.  Well, not only did she jump up on the tree but so did the cub.

 

And amazingly they decided to hang out for a bit and pose for us.  Get ready for lots of Leopard!

 

 

 

 

 

Probably my favorite shot from the whole trip:

 

 

 

Even big cats need a play toy:

 

 

The cub was the most adorable thing I have ever seen.  Bear cubs used to be #1 but this cub knocked them down a notch:

 

 

What was especially amazing about this encounter is that we were the only vehicle on this side of the tree.  There were probably 3 or 4 other vehicles around but they didn't have this view:

 

Fig was comfortable enough to let the cub roam around on its own.  This despite apparently losing her other cub to baboons within the last month or so.  So, the cub decided to have some fun and jumped around a bit:

 

 

 

 

Eventually, they did leave the fallen tree and kept walking toward the area where the dead impala was.  But, they still posed for pictures along the way:

 

 

 

 

Hey, where's the cub?

 

There it is!

 

I guess the cub got a bit too far away for Fig's liking so a little discipline was in order:

 

For the remainder of the time it stayed close to Mom:

 

 

Dusk had come at this point so the light was getting really low.  But, none of us were leaving the leopards until they dragged us away:

 

 

 

I should mention that there were probably 6 or 7 vehicles by the end of this sighting which might have been the grand total in the whole conservancy.  But, each was incredibly respectful.  The vehicles would leap frog each other so everyone had a turn watching the leopards walk towards and then by them.  Fig actually walked under the back of our vehicle.  She wasn't phased by our presence at all.

 

When it got pretty dark they stopped walking and Fig nursed the cub.  But, I was a bit far for pictures of that.  Here they are right afterwards when we got closer and had our sundowners.  Not a bad view:

 

Well, it was at this time that two hyenas came trotting up and Fig sent the cub up a tree.  The hyenas weren't scared off though and confronted Fig who hissed and growled at them:

 

She then went to the tree, gave a last look at the tenacious hyenas...:

 

And realized that she best climb up too:

 

At that point it was close to pitch dark and we needed to get back to camp.

 

Wow!  Just...Wow!  What an incredible evening with the Leopards.  I don't think anything else needs to be said today.

[offshorebirder]

Congrats @Atdahl - Fig and her cub certainly put on an excellent show for you.    Nice when things like the dead tree "posing platform" work out as planned.

[janzin]

Just re-catching up after my travels...wow incredible encounter with Fig and the cub, and fantastic photos! Indeed that "favorite" of yours should be printed large and hung on your wall.

 

The lion cubs were awfully cute too

[Galago]

Your first ever leopard and you had views that many of us would die for, despite having seen leopards many times! And your lion mating sequence is superb. Easy to forget your opening sequence of the jackals dividing the impala but such great views there too. Me? I'm envious! 

[Galago]

Oh and I meant to say that junior zebra in post 112 is a lovely portrait!

[CheetahFan]

Great post @Atdahl, that was definitely a great drive! Now it's time for some moving pictures:

 

Mating lions (including the elusive first mate, which turned out to be almost identical to the second one!)

 

 

Fig the leopard and cub

 

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by CheetahFan

[Alexander33]

You really had some great sightings, Alan — and we’re not even done yet!

 

You certainly had your share of interesting jackal action. And, with so much attention on the mammal sightings, it’s easy to overlook the birds, which would be a shame because you got some very nice shots. I especially like that long-crowned eagle. 

 

I’m actually quite a fan of the leopard....tortoise. (That second one had to have some age on it.)

 

But, I’m also very much a fan of the leopard — and Fig, especially. She is quite the poser, and you really had a knock-out sighting of her and her cub. And to imagine that was your first leopard sighting ever!  Well, it just doesn’t get much better than that. 

 

We we saw Fig in February 2018 when she was just separating from her then-cub Figlet. Was there any mention of her?  I’ve always wondered about Figlet, since she was rather low-profile compared to her famous mother (and also was fairly young, relatively speaking, at the point they separated). 

 

It was around this time last year that I heard from the Kicheche camps (where we stayed) that Fig had given birth to, as I recall, two cubs. But it wasn’t long before we saw photos of her with just one, which is obviously the same one you encountered.  She must have lost that second cub fairly early on. Did your guides mention anything about that?  Just curious. 

 

In in any event, it’s going to be hard to top that sighting. But I’m going to sit here and wait for more posts from you anyway!  Thanks for taking the time to do this report.  And that goes for @monalisa and @CheetahFan as well!

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Alexander33

[CheetahFan]

40 minutes ago, Alexander33 said:

We we saw Fig in February 2018 when she was just separating from her then-cub Figlet. Was there any mention of her?  I’ve always wondered about Figlet, since she was rather low-profile compared to her famous mother (and also was fairly young, relatively speaking, at the point they separated). 

 

We saw Figlet high up in a tree behind branches once, but it was not much of a look. Maybe she's shier than her mother, which explains why the guides don't spend as much time trying to find her. But, she's still around!

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by CheetahFan

[Alexander33]

@CheetahFan

 

Thank you!  Good to know she’s still around and doing okay. She must have taken after her (apparently more reticent) father. Must be tough having a super model as a mother — always  overshadowing you.

[CheetahFan]

1 hour ago, Alexander33 said:

Thank you!  Good to know she’s still around and doing okay. She must have taken after her (apparently more reticent) father. Must be tough having a super model as a mother — always  overshadowing you.

 

Hah!

 

Actually I might be wrong that we saw Figlet in the tree and not a different male leopard, maybe Alan wrote the name of the leopard in his notes, but at the very least the guides spoke about Figlet as if she was still a presence in the conservancy.

[Kitsafari]

I'm not jealous at all. Nope. I'm not turning green that you saw Fig on your first safari , not envious that you saw Fig and the cub, totally not jealous that Fig and the cub posed so much for you. 

Utterly  not envious that I've never seen Fig despite having two three-night stays in OMC.

 

I just have to return. and stay at porini and get great shots like you both.

so not green with envy .

 

(sob sob and wail)

[Atdahl]

Thanks everyone.  That encounter with Fig and cub certainly was incredibly special and we were very lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

 

I am not sure I gave enough credit to our great Porini guides and drivers.  Throughout the entire trip, they put us in great positions.  But, even more importantly they did not harass the wildlife to do it.  I never felt that we were altering the behavior of the animals at all which is really important to us.  That goes for all the other vehicles we saw too.  I think that is just one more reason to support Porini and other lodges in the conservancies. 

 

Tim, according to my notes you are right in that we did drive through Figlet's territory on at least one occasion and she (he?) is supposedly doing fine. The leopard we saw curled up in the middle of the tree was named Tito.  Also, I love the "moving pictures" you posted.  From the "carbon copy" lion mating to the Fig and the hyenas it shows great behaviors that I just can't show in photos.  So, thanks movie man .

[Atdahl]

@Kitsafari, I guess the bright side is you are now motivated to go back? 

 

I have to admit that our trip was so good I think it would be very difficult to top on a future Kenya trip.  So, it's a good news/bad news situation in that a return trip isn't high on our list right now since the first trip was so satisfying.  I bet our opinions will change over time though as we read other trip reports and get jealous of what they saw.  I think that's the natural order of the travel bug that has bitten all of us.

 

Alan