Ol Pejeta and Olare Orok October 2011

[COSMIC RHINO]

LEWA AND OL PEJETA

 

I was reading some lewa publicity material, one of their major financial supporters was checking things on the net and came across a notice to sell ol pejeta broken up into small farming lots.

 

the supporter contacted lewa about it, and ol pejeta was purchased in bulk 1/3 to the supporter ,1/3 to lewa and 1/3 to someone else to be kept as a game reserve.

 

 

also, lewa sends surplus animals to ol pejeta

 

one of the craig family sons is the boss of ol pejeta.

[pault]

Thank you Cosmuic Rhino... presumably what you are desacribing is what happened in 2004 or 2005?

[madaboutcheetah]

What can i say???? Phenomenal!!!! and you are a great photographer!!!!!!

[pault]

We drive and catch up with the column, which is still stretching as far as we can see behind us, although getting thinner now. I can hear their bleating now and the sound of their hooves. After a few minutes of driving we reach the place where they have paused, about 100m from the Mara River. Over the next 40 minutes they start to move in two different directions towards the river but stop before they get there so there are now basically two herds, 150 meters apart but difficult to observe from a single place. So we choose the left herd and ignore the right. Some of the wildebeest turn around and head away from the river, only to stop and then turn back 10 minutes later, mingling with new arrivals. Some run between the two herd, seemingly unable to deicde which to join. At first there are only Kicheche vehicles and some of the guides' friends fromother camps - what we'd seen was the start and I suppose a lot of people had rushed from far away to see the first crossing of the day and were not anywhere near this aprt of the Mara, even if they had heard of the possible crossing. As time passed more vehicles arrived and I'd describe it as very busy, except that compared to when we were here in September 2008 it was relatively quiet and I knew from pictures that it had got busier since then - so let's call it "a little busy". No minibuses at all.... not one on our side of the river.

 

A little later Nelson announces that a crossing is not imminent so let's go down to the river and get out of the vehicle - maybe look at some crocodiles. Seemed like a good idea and so we did that and it was nice to get some shade too - it was very hot and there was no shade where we were waiting watching the herd. Down by the river we met Ben, our guide from 2009, discussing crocodiles with the couple who had shared the vehicle with us for a couple of drives in Laikipia - he was guiding them. All had come from the new Kicheche Valley Camp in Naibosho Conservancy - quite a drive from there to here.

 

Our little break was disturbed by the sound of hooves - the wildebeest were moving and Nelson's friend was confirming by radio that he better get back out. At this point nobody could say where they were going to cross (if at all) and so nearly all the vehicles were waiting in the open. But the alarm was a false one and the movement stopped, reversed and then reversed again. As we were! Across the river about 15 vehicles pulled out of Serena within five minutes of each other (again only two of these were minibuses). They all parked on the opposite bank and two were moved on by a ranger patrol that arrived two minutes later, as they could have been blocking a wildebeest exit point.

 

A while later there was still no action and it was 4.45. No way we could wait beyond 5.30 anyway but we all agreed to wait until 5 and then call it a (good) day. At 4.52 my wife and Mr B suggested we just go, but the rest of us said "5". At 4.56, I started to get ready to move. At 4.58 the radio crackled and it was Nelson's friend, who had a different view to us. They were starting to cross.

 

We zipped the 150 meters to the riverbank - could have got ugly in a wacky races kind of way, but everyone more or less behaved and Nelson had his spot identified and made it there first. The wildebeest were already streaming down into the water and the scene was already heavily obscured by dust. The water was quite deep in the middle and there were three huge crocodiles nearby, one of which was clearly moving into position already.

 

I won't describe the crossing as you have all seen one. I can't deny that it is a special and intense experience, although a hunt on land beats it. This particular crossing was 99% wildebeest and I would think quite big for the time of year but certainly not one of the really big ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the crocodile incident the swimming got a bit more intense...

 

 

 

I didn't think there had been any fatalities but there was so much going on you could easily miss a lot. This picture suggests at least one wildebeest went down - single horn next to crocdile head in the background.

 

 

 

That's enough for today. We saw four young lions out on their own, a clutch of newboorn goslings, two pied kingfishers hunting (they were hovering at our eye level) and a caracal on the way back to Olare Orok.

 

 

Yes, a Caracal. At last...

Edited November 10, 2011 by pault

[samburumags]

Excuse my ignorance but is Olare Oruk in the vicinity of the Serena or closer to Governors area? I have a Mara map but cannot find it,

[Jochen]

Of all the great shots, even the river-crossing ones,... this one strikes a chord with me:

 

 

 

[Kavey]

Wow!!! I mean really, just wow. I was utterly captivated by the jackal pups in the early light and then went on to see the rest of your day's viewing. PHENOMENAL and with photos to match! But the jackals are still my fave!

[twaffle]

OMG!!!!! What a day, but even more was the way you managed to describe it so that I could feel the excitement, smell the animals and feel the sweat trickle down my face. And your photos are seriously fantastic. That is all I've got to say. Phew!

[pault]

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone, and for managing to ignore the persistent typos and the occasional end of a sentence in mid-thought.

 

Excuse my ignorance but is Olare Oruk in the vicinity of the Serena or closer to Governors area? I have a Mara map but cannot find it,

 

It's the area north of the reserve west of the Talek Gate, north from Intrepids rather than Governors (although I think north from Governors should take you somewhere close to the more western part of Olare Orok, where the Porini and Mara Plains camps are).

 

Of all the great shots, even the river-crossing ones,... this one strikes a chord with me

 

Yes, I thought it was a great photo-op too! Unfortunately, I was too exhausted to think straight and the light was fading badly so I didn't take full advantage - the picture is a rather blurry at a larger size.

 

Your comment made me think. I really wanted to take more pics of the less "spectacular" stuff, environment and etc. I fear I failed. I still hope when I get around to going through the pictures properly I have more than I think. 70% of the selection here is dictated by what my wife wanted for her netbook. Another thing is that flying camp to camp and just doing the game drives you really miss a lot of interesting things (and on the plus side you get to see more of the stuff we did see).

[stokeygirl]

I am following this with much interest as I am visiting the other two Kicheche Camps- Kicheche Mara and Kicheche Valley in February. Hopefully, I can write a report to "complete the set". However, this trip report is going to be a hard act to follow!

[Atravelynn]

You really captured the angry look on that lion's face. Must have been a scary moment. You might have been too stunned to find the charging lion setting on the camera anyway. Wild dogs and rhino in one view, no wonder Ol Pejeta exceeded your expectations.

 

I'm glad the rangers in the Mara are becoming more enforcement oriented. I wonder if some of the atrocious Youtube videos of tourists behaving badly at river crossings prompted the new procedures.

 

I recall one of your previous reports was entitled "Boring Kenya Report" or something like that. I'll taking boring and unimaginative any day by your standards.

 

That shot of the Egyptian Goose family is adorable. I saw young Egyptian Geese chicks for the first time in Tanzania.

Edited November 12, 2011 by Atravelynn

[Atravelynn]

Extra post in error. The charging lion still has me rattled.

Edited November 12, 2011 by Atravelynn

[Sangeeta]

Big fan of the jackal pups too! And those topi showing real attitude. You caught their mood and stance wonderfully. My fav so far is still the hyena pup, and though the buffalo looked suitably anthropomorphically disgruntled, they always look that way, so that one doesn't count

[samburumags]

I think my badly shot little video of the leopard incident shows how badly people can behave, both tourists (and myself with bad language!) and drivers. It really has got to stop.

[pault]

One important addition to the Day 8 sightings. There had been uncomfirmed reports among the guests of an African Wildcat in camp, and even in the tents. We tracked down this elusive creature rubbing itself against co-manager Emma's legs. It had apparently just shown up (from where nobody knows) and even had kittens (father from where?) that were doing well despite all of the obvious dangers for a pussycat in the Mara. Emma said they didn't feed it (but there are quite a lot of staff so I ahve my doubts as to whether nobody ahd evewr fed it) and it survived on the many mice around - even brought her one occasionally in her tent. My wife tried to persuade the cat to follow us back to our tent, but I think it had it worked out that our tent at the end of the row was not as safe as the others.

 

 

(It's an feral African cat rather than an African Wildcat with capitals, in case anyone hasn't seen either before).

 

Photos thin out further here but the trip conclusion can't wait another week for them. I'll try writing more.

 

After the previous day, the last day in Olare Orok was going to have to be an anti-climax, but it turned out to be a very stylish anti-climax that in any other circumstances would have stood out.

 

Not far out of camp we come across a Monico pride mother out walking alone with her two cubs. The male cub even did some tree marking for us before they moved on. It is a sign of how completely spoiled we had been for lion cubs that we didn’t even follow them.

 

 

 

Next there were some browsing elephants to watch for a while, and some buffalos.

 

 

 

Then Nelson our guide (aka: the man who doesn’t know when he’s beat) takes us out to the lugga again. However, a short while into today’s leopard search we come across a big Monico male enjoying the morning sun on the edge of the lugga – presumably taking a break after a hard morning marking pride territory.

 

 

There would be no leopard spotting in this area, so we moved down the lugga and restarted the search, finding only more dik-dik. Nelson reluctantly abandoned the search to head for breakfast, which we had among croton bushes. It is amazing that there are few if any flies at breakfast in Olare Orok, whereas meals in the reserve are attended by dozens if not hundreds. It is hard not to conclude that the green and orange leaved croton is not an effective insect repellant, although the wildebeest surely bring their own plague of flies to the Mara and it would be interesting to see what the fly situation is like in Olare Orok when the migration is there.

 

 

After breakfast with such reflection we can across one of those sights that can’t be photographed in any meaningful way. The two pride-less mothers and their four cubs were sitting in the shade (croton I observed as breakfast settled in my stomach) next to a lugga, in which a hippo was maneuvering himself gingerly but determinedly over rocks that separated one pool in the lugga from another much longer and deeper one. Of course hippos are rather clumsy mountaineers and the cubs were fascinated by this slow giant, but not quite brave enough to investigate with noses and paws.

 

Once the hippo completed his little journey and disappeared underwater in the new pool, the cubs returned to suckling, two on each mother. Once they had finished with milk, in the late morning heat the action quickly slowed to zero. We were about ready to leave but one of the lionesses stood up, fully alert. My first thought was the Monico pride, and I was very much hoping not to be around when they eventually found the cubs and overcame the mothers. They had already been very fortunate to make it to four months (one of the females was still carrying a wound from defending them the week before). But it was just an impala feeding obliviously in a clearing on the other side of the lugga. She watched for a while and then trotted slunk across the lugga, keeping low but moving rapidly. As we couldn’t see the other side of the lugga for bushes and trees, we quickly lost sight of her and Nelson listened intently instead, ready to drive around to the other side if there was any incident. But after a while he saw the impala running away at too slow a pace to be interesting – the hunt was a bust.

 

 

The lioness returned to her cubs and we slowly headed back to camp for our last lunch.

 

It’s our last drive (well, not mine as I want to go out for a little while in the morning – the others want to lie in and spend time scrubbing out the dust) and Nelson is not a quitter. Here we are at 5.00 p.m. and where are we going? We’re off to see the leopard…. After the day before I didn’t really mind where we went and so had said “Your call, Nelson.” When he’d asked what we wanted to do on our last evening. To be fair we had spent half an hour looking for a cheetah with a cub that had been in the area in the morning, and on the way to the lugga we had stopped to look at more Eland and scenery. Nelson also spotted a distant hyena in the trees at one point (eventually after two minutes of binocular gazing and pointing everybody in the vehicle had spotted it too).

 

What happened next I am not quite sure, but I think Nelson got the idea to see where the hyena was going so purposefully and at the same time was heading in the general direction of a part of the lugga we hadn’t explored yet. Somehow the two things came together andwe found ourselves down by the lugga with three hyenas. Two were lying down but one was sniffing hopefully around under a tree. We looked into the tree and saw nothing, but that was partially because the leopard was actually in the grass, watching the hyena when Nelson spotted her. I could tell he was quite pleased with this one and his pleasure increased when he put the rest of the story together and reexamined the tree from another angle. From here we could see that the leopard had a kill in the tree and that the reason the leopard was not in the tree with the kill was because her half-grown cub was up there with the kill, almost invisible in the branches. So the hyenas had come and the youngster had fled into the tree while the mother stayed down protecting the cub, and whatever noise this had produced had attracted the hyena we saw from afar.

 

Then the hyena got a little too close to the leopard, or maybe the hyena just got too stressed by the whole thing, but she attaclked, spitting and cursing and sending the surprised hyena into a retreat. No photographs as the vegetation didn’t permit . The story was being told by occasional flashes of the animals together with shadows, tails, moving grass and sounds that made the heart beat faster.

 

 

Then the mother disappeared again. Some claimed to be able to see her behind a fallen tree, but I couldn’t . We watched the cub for a while at this point, and during that time the leopard and the hyenas moved away and another vehicle from our camp showed up, having been alerted by Nelson. The cub eventually decided to move a little and as a couple more vehicles from Mara Plains arrived we decided to move too, making way for them to have a look. But we weren’t exactly being altruistic as we had worked out that if the cub was going to descend it would be only visible from the other side of the lugga, which is where we went now (requiring a circuitous route).

 

Sure enough after a few minutes the young leopard gave a big yawn and descended the tree.

 

 

The light was challenging to say the least but it was a nice sighting, as she descended and then ran up the lugga, still wary of the possibility of hyena. Having decided there were none she stopped and dozed a little, giving more vehicles time to arrive, from both Porini and Mara Plains. This was the closest we got to a traffic jam in Olare Orok, but we had been there for 45 minutes or more by this time and the fact that the young leopard was hidden a lot of the time meant that people were staying . We certainly had nowhere better to be, especially as we knew there was a second leopard somewhere nearby who might come back to see her cub.

 

We got another nice view of the cub at around 6.15 when she came out of the lugga, but it was becoming clear no action was imminent and around 6.30 we decided to call it a day and head for our sundowner. The last of the vehicles was arriving for the leopard sighting as we set up a table and chairs on a kopje to enjoy a very pleasant sunset.

 

[pault]

On the last night we had a little more to drink than usual (that means that it was quite a lot) but I was still getting up at 5.30 for a 6.30 start on my own. I just wanted to visit the jackal pups again or, if they were not active, look for the Moniko pride. I also wanted to photograph some trees down by the lugga in the morning light (stopping to photograph trees isn't something people looking for a leopard always appreciate, but here was my chance - they were the most amazing, twisted trees.

 

Things didn't quite go according to plan though. First the jackals were being waaaay too cute and I couldn't tear myself away from them. Then when I finally did get awy our route to the lugga was blocked by a herd of elephants. Nothing to do but to wait without causing some real disturbance and by the time we got past them it was nearly 7.45 and I was supposed to get back by 8 so i had time for a shower and breakfast before departure. So the trees will have to wait....

 

 

 

I asked for more hot water when I got back to camp, but there was some mix-up in communications and we got a bucket in the shower instead of a bucket shower... literally!

 

 

 

On the drive to the airstrip we saw a jackal, White-headed vultures and of course numerous zebra and wildebeest and gazelles, but then it was over. The plane was delayed again and we watched the Mombassa crowd arriving in their bright and skimpy beach attire, wondering which of them was going to have the worst sunburn by the following day. Fig Tree Camp's huge truck (for the baloon I guess) was there to pick up one large group of uniformly blond people.

 

Anyway, that was it. We had a day room at the jacaranda, had lunch at the Pizza Garden, went shopping at Sarit Center and then sat in the outside bar to wait for our pick-up at 7 pm. Nairobi traffic is awful at the moment while they replace the roundabouts with something more sensible for Nairobi drivers, but we made it in plenty of time, checked in, waited two hours and were then taken to the Panari Hotel because the door of the plane wouldn't close, finally leaving 12 hours late and arriving home 10 hours before I had to next be at work. There was an interesting incident at the airport but since it involves both race and class I will reconsider whether to tell it.

Edited November 14, 2011 by pault

[twaffle]

Paul, I love your photographic style. Not sure how you do it but it works for me as well as anything I've seen. What a stupendous trip and thanks for not making us wait too long for all the action. Add extra photos when and if you get around to editing them all. Where to next?

[samburumags]

Great trip Pault, I have thoroughly enjoyed your report and photos. Must hear about the incident at the airport it sounds fascinating. Hope you are still keeping dry. Can you pinpoint Olar Oruk for me I cannot find it on my map.

[pault]

On 11/11/2011 at 8:50 AM, stokeygirl said:

I am following this with much interest as I am visiting the other two Kicheche Camps- Kicheche Mara and Kicheche Valley in February. Hopefully, I can write a report to "complete the set". However, this trip report is going to be a hard act to follow!

 

Having the full set will be good! And I really look forward to hearing more about Naibosho. There were a lot of cheetahs there in September but they weren't all there in early October. Hopefully they will be back again for you in February.

 

 

On 11/14/2011 at 9:13 AM, twaffle said:

Paul, I love your photographic style. Not sure how you do it but it works for me as well as anything I've seen. What a stupendous trip and thanks for not making us wait too long for all the action. Add extra photos when and if you get around to editing them all. Where to next?

 

I blush (really). Next is supposed to be NCA and the Serengeti and something else next January - never been there - but my wife is already trying to get a Bush Camp add-on and then she starts saying how such-and-such said Naibosho is going to be great conservancy in a few months when the animals get used to people coming so close. I really don't want another uninteresting trip so I am standing firm so far.

 

I am just not sure if this is the genuine article or a mix with a domestic. I thought it must be the latter as it was so tame, but if you have a precedent (and I've seen that before with a Genet at Mdonya Old River in Ruaha) then we shall give it the benefit of the doubt and call it an African Wildcat with capitals. It certainly makes for the better story!

 

On 11/14/2011 at 10:41 AM, samburumags said:

Great trip Pault, I have thoroughly enjoyed your report and photos. Must hear about the incident at the airport it sounds fascinating. Hope you are still keeping dry. Can you pinpoint Olar Oruk for me I cannot find it on my map.

 

Still dry amazingly. I better not tell you about the incident at the airport, although I will if we ever meet somewhere - it requires me to do an impersonation of a very large lady (possibly - and I mean it literally - a witch) from Southern Africa which I am not sure I can do in writing.

 

My previous assitance in finding Olare Orok was shockingly useless. i always think of the Mara as running North-South which it doesn't really do. The map on this page will help... Here One of the i's is Olare Orok - just roll your mouse over until you find it and some other familiar places.

 

And again apologies for the typos! I wish we had the edit option in Trip Reports for a bit longer.

Edited December 15, 2018 by wilddog

[stokeygirl]

They saw wild dogs in Naboisho in September as well.

I'm there the very first week of Feb- if your wife gets her way we might even meet!

 

Your African Wildcat could be pure I suppose. However, I've seen some crosses and they also looked quite like your photo- Tafika Camp in South Luangwa has two Wildcat-domestic cross cats that give guests heart attacks by jumping on them in the middle of the night.

[Leely]

Excellent report with stunning photos. The jackal pup is indeed waaay too cute. Based on your rec a few years ago, I stayed at Kicheche Bush Camp--and loved it.

[Treepol]

Fabulous report and amazing photos, I have really enjoyed your safari tales.

 

Like you, I wouldn't want to be around when the Monico pride run into the lionesses with cubs. The photo of the buffalo calf and ox-pecker is so whimsical.

 

Thanks for sharing,

 

Pol

[pault]

Thanks Leely. If I remember right I just confirmed your decision for you..... I have to fight this perception that I am a Kicheche fan boy, you know!

 

Fabulous report and amazing photos, I have really enjoyed your safari tales. Like you, I wouldn't want to be around when the Monico pride run into the lionesses with cubs. The photo of the buffalo calf and ox-pecker is so whimsical.Thanks for sharing,Pol

 

Thanks.

 

Unfortunately it already happened, a couple of weeks after we left. A sad postscript and the reason I didn't post many photos of them. There will have been a lot of guides with very long faces in Olare Orok, as they watched them almost daily since they were born, for well over four months. I could tell by the number of times that Nelson told us it was bound to happen that he was really, really hoping it wouldn't.

 

Yes, the oxpecker is definitely telling the buffalo calf something. I have a series which makes it clear it is some kind of admonishment (all right, it requires some imagination ) but I have to work out what to do with the mother in the background.

Edited November 15, 2011 by pault

[Brian's Art for Animals]

AMAZING report and photos. I looked at all the beautiful photos but have not read all the text.. was guide/manager Sean Hartley still apart of Olare Orok?

[Atravelynn]

Love the jackal pup. The bucket in the shower and the photo proof is precious. You can't make that stuff up and it adds to the overall trip.