Kenya finally (deferred three times for COVID): our 25th safari was the best ever!

[Tdgraves]

Day 3: Tortillis PM drive

 

I found some birds around camp between drives.

 

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We had our first chance at the classic Amboseli elephant herd photos today

 

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These two bulls sized each other up and we thought that we may witness a fight, but I guess they realised that they were evenly matched and nothing transpired!

 

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Today was also the day for Kilimanjaro sundowners....

 

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[Tdgraves]

Day 4: Tortillis AM drive

 

Whilst introducing himself to us at the start of our safari, our guide acknowledged our interest in birding and as our vehicle mates were only in camp for two nights, suggested that we save the serious birding for the last day when we were alone, starting early and driving further into the park to where the water was. A very sensible idea that managed our expectations for the other drives. Unfortunately, the weather did not play ball and it was extremely overcast all morning, meaning that we would not be able to get the nice reflection photos that we thought.

 

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As we were near to the airstrip, we saw a couple of landings and take offs

 

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There were lots of different birds though...

 

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There were some mammals, including these wildebeest doing impressions of buffalo

 

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and some actual buffalo

 

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when it got a bit later, the reflections started coming out of the grey

 

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We went back into the drier area and slowly made our way back to the conservancy where we could have breakfast

 

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After refreshments, we stopped at a small lake where a herd of elephants had just arrived

 

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We also had a glimpse of black-backed jackal, but no photos. Back to camp for lunch.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Tdgraves
typo

[Atravelynn]

I saw some nice reflections despite the clouds.

[Tdgraves]

Day 4: PM drive

 

A few birds from camp

 

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And we are off

 

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It was still quite overcast, although a bit brighter than the morning

 

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After the elephants, we turned around and had our second Amboseli special sighting

 

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a pair of golden jackals!

 

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and the light became a bit golden to celebrate! We passed the site of the lion kill and got a glimpse of them this time

 

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you know you are a "big yearer" when you spot this at a lion sighting...

 

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then it was time to move off for sundowners and our guide found us some silhoutte subjects to boot

 

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The OH had the angle to get this shot...

 

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And I noticed movement out of the other side of the vehicle, to see these people also taking photos of the distant silhouettes 

 

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[madaboutcheetah]

Amboseli is on my list - What month is good for a clear view of Kili?  September?  I'd like to get that classic shot of Elephants with a kill background one day ......  

[Tdgraves]

5 hours ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Amboseli is on my list - What month is good for a clear view of Kili?  September?  I'd like to get that classic shot of Elephants with a kill background one day ......  

I have no idea! We went in September and as you can tell from the photos, it was cloudy/overcast every day.

[AndrewB]

June 2018 (and at Tortillis), Kilimanjaro visible every day, mainly in the evenings if I remember correctly. Elephants pretty uncooperative however!

 

[Toxic]

Beautiful photos @Tdgraveseven with uncooperative clouds! I really love your (and the OH's) silhouette photos - beautiful contrast with the deep red. 

 

On 2/17/2023 at 2:44 AM, madaboutcheetah said:

What month is good for a clear view of Kili?  

 

I was there for a few days in November 21 and had clear views most evenings, but mornings were a wash! Photos here - 

 

 

[Tdgraves]

Day 5: Transfer to Meru

 

As I mentioned above, the Air Kenya Express flights all seem to be very early and mean losing the morning game drive. So we had a small breakfast before leaving for the airstrip. This trip I actually took some photos of the rooms, so here is our tent...

 

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This morning was the only time that we could see Kilimanjaro from camp

 

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We had an aborted start to the drive, as I realised that the motion camera was still attached to the tree next to our tent. So we had to turn around and I had to run down (and up ) the hill to the tent to retrieve it. The drive to the airstrip was therefore fast, with lots of frantic radio messages from the vehicle in front of us who was already at the airstrip, appeasing the pilot, who had already arrived! There were only a few of us on the plane back to Wilson. When we arrived we were separated and passed through security to get straight onto the next plane. We were the only passengers!

 

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The drive to camp didn't reveal much, apart from the change of scenery and vegetation and this lovely giant kingfisher - the only one of the trip.

 

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[Tdgraves]

Caught on motion camera, Tortillis camp

 

Ignore the date/time - forgot to reset it!

 

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[Tdgraves]

Day 5: Meru - Elsa's Kopje evening drive

 

This lodge is stunning. Placed on top of a kopje, there are long-ranging views and the rooms are built into the rocks

 

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As it is rocky, there are dassies

 

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We were paired with an American couple on their first safari. They were glued to their mobile phones in the game vehicle, but by the end of their two days, they seemed to "get" safari. Our guide took the birding seriously, perhaps a little too seriously. We stopped literally outside of camp to look at a drongo, when another vehicle from camp overtook us, laughing! I heard their guide telling the guests "a small bird"....

 

The drive was fairly quiet, but we did get our first glimpse of a gerunek as well as reticulated giraffe

 

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They were keen on a proper sundowner stop here

 

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Back for dinner, which like in Tortillis is on a room by room basis, with no set times.

[AKR1]

Beautiful Twilight shots 😀

[madaboutcheetah]

Yay!! Thanks for writing this up ..... Meru is another on my to-do list.   @Tdgraves ........ Flew over the park last March when we had stops to make there on the way to Samburu and back.  It looked stunning! 

[Tdgraves]

Thanks @AKR1 and @madaboutcheetah it is indeed stunning. A very beautiful park.

[Tdgraves]

Day 6: Elsa's Kopje morning drive

 

We had a long drive orientating us to the park and saw many birds.

 

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our first Somali ostrich

 

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However, the first sighting of the day was a brief glimpse of a lioness

 

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who crossed the road that our driver was not going to take

 

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some other mammals

 

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our first glimpse of lesser kudu

 

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We also saw eland and Cooke's hartebeest, but they did not want their photo taken

 

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It was very hot by the time we got back to camp.

 

[Tdgraves]

Day 6: Elsa's Kopje evening drive

 

It was windy as we left camp and so it was quiet. We did see a new bird though, an Augur buzzard, but I didn't take a photo!

 

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There were more Northern special sightings though...

 

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We met a spotted hyaena outside of camp.

[TonyQ]

A beautiful sunset. And Gerenuk are always wonderful animals to see.

[Tdgraves]

Day 7: Elsa's Kopje morning drive

 

Our vehicle mates left early to go to their next camp, so for the next three drives we would have the vehicle to ourselves! A good job, because there were lots of birds to see and the skies were clear

 

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Today was our trip to the rhino sanctuary. I was a bit sceptical when Richard talked about this, as I had no desire for a zoo experience, but in reality, this is just a very large fenced area (c. 80 square kms)  in the centre of the park to afford more protection to the rhinos. You are aware of a gate and cattle grid on entry, with the fence and the security detail, but once you are inside, it is just like any other game drive.  It was very nice to see them somewhere other than the Kruger.

 

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Today was also the day for the proper bush breakfast, which was next to a small stream

 

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note the menu!!! Hot food cooked to order...

 

And there were a few more birds

 

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And then it was time to go back to camp

[Tdgraves]

Day 7: Evening drive

 

this African goshawk visited us at lunch

 

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This was our quietest drive so far, but we got a couple of new birds

 

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we saw the lesser kudu again

 

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and there were group sundowners

 

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[Tdgraves]

Day 8: Game drive transfer

 

A dassie came to say goodbye...

 

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Again we were on our own, on a gentle drive to the airstrip. It was very cloudy and there was some light rain

 

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We stopped for breakfast and were quite close to the airstrip when we received a call from the other vehicle that the lion pride had been spotted - sleeping right next to the road. Luckily we had plenty of time to spare....

 

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This lioness set off

 

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She had spotted the approach of a giraffe.

 

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and some of the others roused

 

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and we thought we may see a hunt

 

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But it backed out and left

 

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and it was time for us to leave too

 

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[TonyQ]

A lovely section on Meru, it brings back many memories.

Excellent photos, and it looks like the camp was a good one

[Tdgraves]

Day 8: Kicheche Mara Evening Drive

 

The flight was quite long, I think we had 4 extra touchdowns around Samburu en route.

 

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I couldn't get any great wildlife shots from the plane as we landed, as the "game" eating the grass was in fact cows.

 

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It was very shocking to arrive at the Mara North airstrip, as the area was so green. Compared to the grey dust of Amboseli and the red dust of Meru - a real contrast. A quick pit stop and a soft drink and we were off. As it was close to lunch time, the transfer driver was very keen to get us going as soon as possible and implied that we would not stop much, although we did a few times, but nothing to make me lift my camera. I did see a pygmy kingfisher, but felt that I couldn't ask him to stop (and it would probably have flown off anyway). Once we had the tent tour, it was lunch time and then back to the tent to unpack and relax (a.k.a. birding) before the afternoon drive.

 

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We were paired with a couple of older female friends from the States and it was a good match. They had been on safari a few times, had a similar background to us and were excellent vehicle and meal mates. The plan was that we would share the vehicle for two days and on our last day, we would be back on our own again. Literally just outside of camp we found a large male elephant.

 

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We saw a couple of jackal and then two distant lions walking, but our guide had a better idea...

 

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two sleeping cheetahs

 

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We stayed for ages, willing them up after every roll or yawn, but they were still tired

 

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this one looked interested for a while, but then went back to sleep

 

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until finally it looked like there would be some kind of action

 

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This one set off in the direction of a dead tree...

 

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"A cheetah up a tree silhouette would be good" I jokingly said to our guide. He had the same idea and we relocated to be the correct side of it. However, as the sun (very) rapidly set, it looked like we were not going to get the opportunity, so he moved again for "Game vehicle silhouette"

 

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As the few other vehicles that were with us all peeled off to find a sundowner spot, the cheetahs did, as predicted, move towards the tree and very obligingly, jumped up doing what I had wished for and with no one else around!

 

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Sundowners were brief and taken in the vehicle by some very happy campers and this a portent of what the next three days would behold....

[Tdgraves]

Day 9: Morning drive

 

First, a look at the tent...

 

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It was very dark as we left camp and we were rewarded with a sunrise silhouette just outside of camp

 

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after that, the first sighting was a leopard!!
 

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which was very active

 

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a big surprise!

 

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the sun rose as rapidly as it departed the night before

 

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We were making our way along the top of a raised area, with our guide clearly looking for something, when I spotted some different spotty cats

 

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A mother and 3 cubs, also very active

 

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They went into an area where we couldn't follow, so onwards...

 

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To four lions on a kill!

J19A0029 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0046 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0066 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

with jackals on the prowl for scraps

 

J19A0067 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0079 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

We saw this brave one bite the males' tail once and were in fits of giggles, but I waited to see if it did it again, which it duly obliged. Something we have not seen before.

 

J19A0096 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0104 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0121 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0169 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0172 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0212 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0224 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0281 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0296a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0292a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

Time for some breakfast

 

Untitled by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

And then back on the road, to the cheetahs, who were still on the move (skirting around the lions)

 

J19A0383 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0390 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0394 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0416 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0452 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0463 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0466 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0467 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0472 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0478 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0493 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0499 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0504 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0515 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0528 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0553 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0579 by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

Phew! Our guide knew immediately where to put the vehicle at each sighting and the evidence of the specialist photographic training that they receive was very apparent. Time for a few birds en route back to camp

 

J19A0423a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0426a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0428a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0587a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0600a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0617a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0621a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

Including this very obliging short-toed eagle, which caused consternation in the field, as none of us knew what it was - a rare sighting in the Mara

 

J19A0630a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

J19A0630a by tdgraves, on Flickr

 

Wow! What a drive. Are they all like this in the Mara conservancies? 

[TonyQ]

What a great drive!

The cheetah cubs are lovely , and beautiful photos 

All of the Kicheche guides we have had were excellent, and as you say, know about positioning and light. They also know about the behaviour of the animals 

[Towlersonsafari]

lovely photo's. We once stayed at Kicheche Mara and thought it was one of the best camps we have stayed in-although we were not as lucky as you with the sightings @Tdgraves