Kenya 2024: Long grasses, lazy lions, lounging leopards - but where’s the action?

[Zubbie15]

The next morning dawned bright and very nice out.  When we had arrived in camp we had agreed originally to leave in the mornings at 6:15, but when Jennifer saw my big lens she insisted we try to leave earlier (haha, another reason to appreciate her!).  So we had aimed to leave at 6, but as always with the kids it's longer than expected so it was closer to 6:15 when we left.  Our original plan was to go look for the Offbeat pride, but a truck that had left at 6 let us know they weren't around, so we shifted to looking for leopard.  No luck there either, so we decided to head across the conservancy to where the River pride was expected to be.  Along the way, we saw various plains animals, notably a jackal that seemed to have been fed by other people as it came basically right up to our vehicle with an expectant look. 

 

 

 

 

Begging jackal, he got very close to us

 

Another topi photo, I was leaning way out the car to get a lower angle.  I had to be fast, he didn't stay long.

 

We did find the River pride, or at least a couple of them, both lying up in trees.  

 

Not a great pillow

 

 

Any food out there? Unfortunately, no. 

 

Not far from them was an elephant with some of the biggest tusks we've ever seen. It was kind of amusing, he clearly wasn't particularly bothered by our presence, as he kept eating and never looked at us, but whenever we tried to put ourselves in front of him he would slowly turn so that his behind was facing us.  After a couple of attempts we got the message, and decided to move on. 

 

Not a great photo in pretty awful light, but nice big tusks.

 

After a stop for breakfast, we slowly made our way back to camp.  Word was there was a male cheetah (Milele) lying in the grass, so we went and took a quick look at him, but he seemed really well settled and we were fairly far from camp so we left him pretty quickly.  

 

Relaxed cheetah, giving an idea of how long the grasses were and how easy it was for animals to disappear!

 

Edited June 27 by Zubbie15
Photo in wrong location

[Kitsafari]

you're starting photographic training your kids early - good on ya and good on them for taking it on!

Not a bad start in the Mara although the long grass wasn't helping. funny that lion trying to cool off and sleep on that tree. 

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @Kitsafari, the kids are very enthusiastic about photography, which I'm happy about (except when they are stealing my cameras ).

 

The afternoon drive on this day was fairly quiet, there were a lot of storms and strong winds around that seemed to keep the animals under cover.   We heard that the cheetah had disappeared and no one could find him, so thoughts of heading in that direction were shelved.  So we searched for leopard instead, but ended up only finding some nice elephants.  

 

Pretty handsome animal

 

So in that case we seemed to always have a backup plan - what's the Offbeat pride up to?  We found them, and they were just finishing up a wildebeest kill. Mostly we saw lazy lions lying around, but occasionally something would happen.

 

Clean up time

 

Sleepy time

 

I really like the look in this animal, she's really giving off unhappy vibes!

 

Fully animal

 

We stayed with them until it was dark hoping for some action, but the full bellies and poor weather didn't help our hopes and so we left as darkness fell.   We were the last ones to leave the pride, after the couple of other camp vehicles who had also been there headed off, and so as we drove back in the dark we were alone and saw movement on the road.  It turned out to be the leopard Ndoto, who had been hiding from us up to then.  Having seen some really nice photos of her online, I was hoping to be able to get her in a nice position, but this was the only option we were going to get.  Our guides called back the two other camp cars, and our group of 3 spent a fairly good amount of time with her as she patrolled her territory.  

 

 

All in all, not a bad day!

[Zubbie15]

The next morning we were again out a little later than hoped (getting the kids ready for 6 is always a challenge!).  We had hoped to search for Ndoto but she wasn't around according to people who'd left before us.  So... let's see what the Offbeat pride is up to.  Along the way we stopped for another Topi posing nicely for us.  

 

Backlit Topi looking good

 

Unfortunately, a theme for this trip was lions melting into the bushes, and that was what we experienced on this day, as we were just in time to see one lion of the pride disappear for the morning.  So we moved on, and found a female cheetah (we were told she is the daughter of Kisaru, I'm not sure of the ID).  But for the time being she was another cheetah lying in tall grasses. 

 

There was only one small opening in the grass to see her, and when she moved we would lose her quite easily

 

Following on from there, we came across a smaller breeding herd of elephants and enjoyed some peaceful moments with them. 

 

Youngster who got quite close

 

 

One for the "show us your bums" topic.

 

From there, we were taken to a bush breakfast set up, which was quite nice.  The Offbeat pride actually showed up on the hills a little ways away, so we managed to watch them while eating.

 

Look over there, lions!

 

After eating a big breakfast (as always on safari, the amount of food you are offered is amazing - bush breakfast around 9:30, lunch at 1, snack at 4 and dinner at 7:30 makes for some tight pants at the end of two weeks!).  

 

Our female cheetah had moved on while we were eating, so we set out to find her.  Our first sighting was of a giraffe in a very immodest situation, but he wasn't shy.

 

Awkward moment...

 

When we found the cheetah, she was in hunting mode, and stalking a herd of mixed antelopes. 

 

Using what little cover there was

 

We moved off to give her space, and then waited.  Unfortunately the herd contained a fair number of hartebeest, and they noticed her early on so she didn't have a chance with that group.  She eventually moved off and headed off to lie under a tree.

 

Giving up and moving off

 

If we hadn't had the kids with us I would have asked/insisted that we stay with her, as a hungry cheetah that's already showed an interest in hunting is presumably going to try again.  However, with the kids it seemed they would prefer a break, and in any case it was never even brought up by our guides so I'm not sure if it would have worked ultimately. So back to camp for more food! Maybe we could find her in the afternoon, if we were lucky...

[TravelMore]

Loving all your photos. I think the sleeping lion with her chin on the opposite branch could be an award winner!

[Zubbie15]

Thank you @TravelMore, that is actually a photo my wife took.  I agree I've been wondering if it would be a fit for a photo contest, just need to figure out which one might make the most sense. 

 

The afternoon was about lions, we started off with the Dik Dik pride where 5 of the lions were out but mostly just lying around being lazy.

 

Meditating lion?

 

Not a lot of action

 

But not entirely asleep either...

 

They really weren't too far from the Offbeat pride territory, and so when it appeared they weren't going to be moving we headed over to where the Offbeat animals had been hanging out during our stay.  There were a lot of juveniles around, and in fact they were very active, but weaving in and out of the bushes meant that we sat back and watched them rather than taking many photos.

 

More active, somewhat

 

 

 

This guy was a real goof, playing with his siblings and cousins. 

 

But even here the action wasn't particularly strong

[ElenaH]

@Zubbie15stunning photos, thrilling reading, I enjoy it a lot! 

Looking forward to next posts!

 

The lioness on the tree - it always makes me laugh what the poses found as comfortable by cats. Domestic cats including ;-)

Tell us also please which pics are taken by your kids. I am just curious how the kids see the safari, how it looks from their perspective.

[Zubbie15]

Thank you @ElenaH, I agree cats can be quite amusing!  I'll try to flag posts from the kids, I have to admit all the pictures have gone into one "pot" so I haven't kept the kids' photos separate.  I do believe the wider photo from the previous post was likely taken by my daughter when the photo I posted of her earlier on was taken.  

 

The next morning I woke up, and everyone else decided they preferred to sleep in.  It was already our last morning at Mara North, and so there was only really time for a shorter game drive, but I was ready to go so I went alone.   No points if you guess where we went... of course we tried to find the Offbeat pride.  In the end, I think this was the best view of them that happened during our time here.  It started off very foggy, so the lions were like shadows walking along.  This was actually a situation where the autofocus really struggled, and so photography was a bit of a challenge.

 

Fog, first light - lovely

 

A bit more sun, more haze

 

They ended up in a lower area of the valley where the fog had cleared, and we were able to get much better views of the cats.

 

Early morning lion portrait

 

They continued along, most of them stopping to get a drink.

 

Time for a drink

 

Wait for me!

 

Where did everyone go?  I was really happy at this spot because I was able to get a low angle. 

 

Everyone making their way in this direction

 

 

The adults who were keeping the youngsters in check

 

This was definitely the best view of this pride during our visit, it was sad I was the only one there (although I did appreciate the ability to move around more to get the composition I was hoping for).  After the last of these pictures, the lions started to melt into the bushes.  Benson had been looking around with the binoculars, and he said "I see a leopard near where we started."  So we headed off quite quickly, with the 3 or 4 other vehicles that were there following us.  We could see the leopard walking along the ridge, but in areas where the vehicles couldn't reasonably pass, so we fanned out and kept following him.  After a while, we figured that if he continued on the same route he would cross a road, so everyone zoomed ahead and put themselves in a place that they thought would be close to him.  We actually got lucky and he passed right beside our vehicle - he was backlit, but I actually like the look it gave.  He was really moving fast, and so I only had a fraction of a second to get anything, so I was fairly happy with the result.

 

Leopard in a field of gold

 

This was the sighting where the guides were hoping to take a photo and the camera wasn't set up properly...

Once he had continued on, we decided it was time to return to camp to get ready to move on.  Overall I think we had a really good stay in Mara North, some days were fairly quiet but there were some very rewarding sighting as well.

[ElenaH]

Fantastic last morning drive! How did you manage to get a low angle? Was a vehicle a bit down or did you sit in the front? Excellent pictures! And gorgeous leopard!

Adn now I am very curious about Porini Lion camp and sightings!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @ElenaH, I was often leaning out the vehicle and extending my arms as far down as they would go, relying on the flip screen and eye focus af to get shots in focus and reasonably composed.  It does take a bit of practice, but works ok.  I will say it can lead to surprises, in Naboisho I was doing that when we were with some lions, and focused on my camera. I happened to look up and there was a lion coming around the back of our truck... I got all of my arms back in the truck very quickly!

 

We're off to Paris for a few nights (I'm actually in the plane now), so porini will have to wait a few days. 

[John M.]

Very nice low shots! I once had the cheek to get out and lie under the vehicle, but there were no lions in sight🙃 just a lot of grass. Yes, I got permission from the guide.

[Atravelynn]

I see some rainbow action too.  Lovely backlit photos, neck hairs and all.  You don't need good light for tusks that big; I think they generate their own light source.  A little fog for variety, why not?  Your choices for B&W are exquisite.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @John M. - there may be a few shots in this report where I might have done something similar.  Not many, but a couple of times I think I was sighing that I couldn't get lower and the guide may have suggested a solution.  

 

@Atravelynn, really appreciate the kind words!

[Zubbie15]

Alright, I'm back from my non-safari holiday (the horror, and even worse the kids enjoyed it a lot so they might not want to always go on safari!).  Haha.

 

Once back in camp, we ate and finished our packing up, and then waited for our guides from Porini Lion to come pick us up.  While waiting, we played Uno with Jennifer, the camp manager.  I can get quite rather competitive when playing board games, and I think she was surprised, but we had some pretty intense games.  Eventually Julius and Edward from Porini showed up, and we headed off to our next destination.  It was nice that all of the camp staff came out to say good bye to us, as I've said before even though it was our first visit we felt like long-time, repeat visitors at Offbeat. 

 

Our drive to Porini was through Mara North and then Olare Motorogi, so technically we were on a game drive the entire time, but the only thing we really stopped for was a couple of giraffes mock fighting.  It was cool to see, but tough light.

 

Fighting in the sun

 

Apart from that it was hot and sunny, and while we saw a lot of the standard plains game nothing seemed overly worth stopping for. There were some baby wildebeest around that Sophie mentioned possibly stopping for, but the guys suggested we come back in better light.  I got the impression that we needed to get to camp fairly quickly, and indeed we arrived as lunch was already being served.   

 

We then headed to our tent for a break, I have to say the family tent was very large and impressive, although very hot in the afternoons!

 

We headed out for our afternoon drive at 4PM, and started off again seeing a lot of plains game.  It started off rather quiet to be honest.  

 

Look, a Topi

 

 

Wildebeest were around, but definitely not in huge numbers

 

A jackal enjoying the afternoon breeze

 

Now checking us out

 

But as the sun started going down, it seemed like we had a destination in mind - we obviously had no experience with the conservancy at this point, so we had no idea what it could be.

[Zubbie15]

Given the theme of the trip, it wasn't a surprise for us that we ended up with a pride of lions.  We ended up spending the rest of the evening with them, enjoying their antics as they woke up and started their night's work.  Be prepared for a lot of lion photos...

 

At first just looking around, with the setting sun lighting up the dust in the air

 

Once the sun had set more, the big male (I believe this is Osupaat) started yawning, which is always a good sign

 

More yawns, joined by his queen

 

Yawns again

 

Yoda lion

 

Hello my lady

 

If we didn't know better, it was like he was playing up to the camera

 

Yoga poses

 

One final yawn

 

A shake

 

And he's up!

[wilddog]

Some great lion portraits there. 

[Bush dog]

The shake.  What makes the quality and originality of this photo is the fact that the lion has its head raised and its gaze upwards.  great shot!

 

[offshorebirder]

Thanks for this trip report @Zubbie15.   You have some great photos indeed.

 

I have fond memories of the Offbeat Pride and Offbeat Mara camp from two stays there.    Looks like the camp has changed a bit - and they may have changed locations slightly after having two major floods wreak havoc.  I am puzzled by the "guide and spotter using camera" behavior you described.    Must not have been Kapeen for the spotter/tracker - he would never do something like that.

 

 

[KaliCA]

Just wonderful lion shots! My lion heart is happy.  

The King and Queen shot is my favorite. 

Thank you!

[Atravelynn]

Very expressive lion shots.  The pair could be a couples pose in a studio.

[John M.]

   The "loving" couple is my favourite. I've seen lions mating and a male showing affection to a small cub, but not a scene like that.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @wilddog, @Bush dog,  @offshorebirder, @KaliCA, @Atravelynn and @John M. for the kind comments!  

15 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

I have fond memories of the Offbeat Pride and Offbeat Mara camp from two stays there.    Looks like the camp has changed a bit - and they may have changed locations slightly after having two major floods wreak havoc.  I am puzzled by the "guide and spotter using camera" behavior you described.    Must not have been Kapeen for the spotter/tracker - he would never do something like that.

 

It's possible they rearranged the camp somewhat - in the trees near the dining area there was a sign related to the high water mark from a flood from a few years ago (I don't remember the exact year). It was hard to imagine the water getting that high, although the flooding that happened in Nairobi this year shows just how much rain they can get.  No, not Kapeen. 

 

Hopefully everyone isn't tired of lion pictures, because the male lion getting up and starting to walk led to the rest of the pride following him, and they emerged out into some really nice light. I won't overload things here, and to be honest I haven't processed all of these photos yet, but it was hard to ask for a better setting.  In particular we got some good poses from some of the younger males - you could tell that they were soon going to be kicked out, as if they ever got close to the king there was a little bit of a snarl that would emerge.

 

Nice golden light

 

Getting better, and stepping in front of a darker background is always appreciated!

 

Now really getting into Andy Rouse's "Red 5" light

 

Sun's almost gone. Funnily enough about this photo, I didn't even flag it originally as a potential photo of interest (my process is to go through all photos and flag any with even remote possibilities, being very generous).  When we were in Paris last week I decided to look to see what was on the memory card I was using, and it was this sighting.  As I scrolled through, I stopped at this one photo and said to myself I think it has potential.  I'm glad I did.

 

We, unsurprisingly, decided to have our sundowners here - I'll talk more about the camp and guides in some other post, but just a note here that we had asked for G&Ts, and these were prepared for us by Edward.  If you ever have him watch out, he makes an extremely strong drink - we were rather tipsy driving back to camp all three nights!

 

Sunset

 

Heading off for the night.

[janzin]

wonderful lion shots...love the sunset!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @janzin!

 

Well, I think the next day is going to be a let-down after the previous posts, it was overall very quiet and can be dealt with in its entirety in one post.  It was quite cool and foggy when we woke up, which seemed to offer some interesting opportunities.  In retrospect we made a strategic error here (one of two I can think of on this trip, the other to come near the end), in that Julius and Edward suggested that we go look for the hammerkop pride to try to get them in the interesting light conditions.  Because of this we hardly made any stops on the way.  Of course, if it had worked out it would have been great, but when we couldn't find them I did wish we'd just taken the time to stop for everything we by-passed.  We did stop a couple of very brief times for topi that were in good position, but I think both were for maybe 15-20 seconds each, and so I didn't come away with photos that matched the promising conditions.  This was the best of the group, a young topi as the sun starts to break through the fog.

 

 

For those who have read my other trip reports on ST, you'll realize that our trip prior to this one was to the Pantanal, which almost forces one to become a bird photographer.  I had wondered whether this would increase the number of bird photos we would subsequently take in Africa... well, I've gotten this far into this report without a single bird photo, so I guess that's a clear no!  We did stop today for a Bateleur, a bird that I had never seen particularly well up close.  It was fairly shy and took off pretty much right after we stopped, but I was reasonably happy with this shot (even if it is against a blue sky):

 

 

The only other photo I bothered to process from the morning was of this lone wildebeest:

 

 

It really was a quiet morning, and the afternoon drive started the same as I have no photos worth sharing for the first 90 or so minutes.  We did stop for a small group of zebra, so I captured a quick shot of one.

 

 

With the kids "different" animals always are of interest, and when we came across a leopard tortoise we had to stop for a few minutes.

 

 

From there we spent the rest of the afternoon staking out a series of rocky outcroppings looking for a specific pride of lions (I had written down that this was the Lemek pride, but not 100% sure).  It was a pretty hopeless search, we really didn't see any sign of them, so we parked at an overlook and had our sundowners while scanning for lions. In the end, we had a brief view of a female moving far away, and then after the sun had gone below the horizon one of the pride males came out rather distantly and posed for us on the rocks.

 

Handsome boy, wish he'd come closer for us!

 

And that was it for the day, really quite a quiet day searching for, and not having much luck, finding lions. Hopefully the next day would be more productive!

[Zubbie15]

Continuing along, the next morning dawned nice and bright, and we were out early on the hunt for lions.   We headed out to the open plains where there had been lots of herbivores, and started scanning for tawny animals.  Something looked promising pretty quickly, so we went to check it out

 

 

We weren't the only ones who were aware that she (and a sister or two) were out on the plains, the word had gone out amongst the prey animals as well.  

 

 

 

 

Getting creative with the sunlight allowed for some interesting colors!

 

 

We made sure to get close to the lions as well.

 

 

 

Lions and prey meant that hyenas were also on the prowl, seeing what was going on.

 

 

As always Topi seemed to be present.

 

 

Some of the lions headed toward some bushes; although they seemed to be hungry I think they realized they weren't going to be sneaking up on any one at that time. 

 

 

But on lion stayed out on the plains and posed quite nicely for us. 

 

 

We eventually headed off, but came across a young hyena not too far away.  He didn't seem to have a care in the world, but was alone and for my taste seemed a little close to the lions to be certain of safety.