Once more unto the Mara! A belated trip, and a belated trip report: June 2022

[janzin]

I’m not sure why I didn’t do a trip report for this trip at the time, probably because I was still working on my Svalbard trip report and this trip just came too soon after. But now I have some time (i.e., summer heat wave, no big trips for awhile, and birding season is on hiatus!) So, I figured better late than never   I may not remember the order of things or all the details but I’ll try to figure out what I can from the photos. The report will likely be mostly photos without too much narrative, and possibly somewhat out of order, but at least I will have the camps/locales straight!

 

The itinerary:

1 night Tamarind Tree Nairobi

4 nights Einadura camp guided by Ping 

4 nights Kicheche Bush Camp (our first time there)

4 nights Serian Original, guided by James who had guided us there before.

 

The brief background: this trip was originally planned for February 2021—well, we all know what happened then. So, rescheduled for February 2022. We almost made that date, as trips were resuming; but it was fairly down to the wire when we decided that for safety’s sake, we just couldn’t risk it—there were still regulations in place, new variants, etc. and we really didn’t want to risk getting stuck in Kenya or sick and missing our Svalbard trip in April. Not wanting to wait another full year, after much deliberation we decided to re-book for June 2022. Our agent, The Wild Source, was very understanding and worked patiently with us on all these rebookings.

 

Never having been to the Mara in June, we weren’t sure what to expect.  

 

Thankfully by June all seemed pretty clear for travel, and we were off!

 

 

[janzin]

Without any preamble, I’m going to jump right into our time at Einadura.  This was our third time at this intimate camp, no need to reiterate it's virtues. Of course we were guided by our friend Ping, this would be the third time with him; so he was totally attuned to exactly what we wanted--cats! Well, and birds, but mostly cats.

 

A couple of birds were our first sightings on our first afternoon.

 

 

 

 

And a large mammal. Note how high the grass is—one disadvantage of June, especially since they’d had quite a rainy season.

 

 

 

But we could tell Ping was on a mission, he knew what we wanted and he was taking us straight to….

 

 

Faulu! She is the daughter of the famous Fig, who had sadly met her demise by lion since we’d seen her on our previous trip.

 

She was resting on a fallen log over the Olare Orok river, almost at the border of that conservancy. We couldn't believe our luck, the gorgeous Faulu out in the open on our first drive!

 

 

 

Eventually she got up and climbed into the tree.

 

 

She "branched" herself, a bit difficult to photograph. Needless to say there were several other vehicles there, but Ping got us into the best possible position.

 

 

Eventually she started to come down, crossing back over the log. Ping accurately predicted where she'd emerge, and took us over to the other side of the river.

 

This is one of my favorite shots as she emerges from the greenery.

 

 

 

She came fully out...

 

and started to groom...

 

 

It was getting late now, after 6 and it was quite aways back to Einadura camp, so we had to leave her.  But what a great start! Could it get any better?

 

 

Edited July 16 by janzin

[janzin]

The next day started out with birds.

 

Always one of these.

 

 

 

 

 

Wait, that's not a bird...

 

 

But this is...

 

 

 

Not a bird either...

 

 

A bird I'd not gotten a decent photo of previously...

 

 

Was the morning to be all avian??

 

Nah, there were cats to be found!  We came upon this cheetah lying in the road, but he wasn't doing much.

 

 

Roly-poly

 

 

 

We didn't stay with him too long as he seemed like he'd had a good meal recently.

 

Next up...lion cub overload!

 

Edited July 16 by janzin

[janzin]

One nice thing about having Ping as our private guide is that we usually stay out all day, bringing lunch with us. So we can go pretty far afield. I'm not sure what else we saw in the interim but late afternoon we came upon a couple of lionesses with several playful cubs. This was pretty far to the east of camp, almost in Naboisho Conservancy, according to my GPS.

 

We had a lot of fun watching these cubs and their (usually!) patient moms.  We spend quite a bit of time with them, as the light was pretty nice as well!

 

I believe this was the Fig Tree pride. We had glimpses of a few prides in the reserve, some at a distance, but my notes say Fig Tree for this group.

 

Cub overload time!

 

Well, first one of the moms.

 

 

Cubs!

 

 

 

Motherly love.

 

 

Playing with a mom's tail!

 

 

A sibling spat!

 

 

 

Gottcha!

 

 

Impatient Mom.

 

 

 

 

Nursing...

 

 

 

 

Playing tag!

 

 

 

 

 

More nursing.

 

 

Awwww

 

 

I hope that wasn't too many lion cubs for you. Can there be too many?

 

 

Edited July 17 by janzin

[janzin]

The afternoon wasn't quite over yet. On the way back to camp, we came across a few cute hyenas at a den site.

 

 

 

 

And to end another great day, these ellies gave us the perfect poses in beautiful light.

 

 

Wait, is that a small trunk peeking out from the one on the right?

 

Oh!

 

 

A lovely end to the day!

[mopsy]

Really nice photos looking forward to following along!

[Caracal]

6 hours ago, janzin said:

Wait, is that a small trunk peeking out from the one on the right?

Worth the wait ! 

Stunning photos and I know I'm going to enjoy following along.

[wilddog]

Just glorious. Keep it coming.

[janzin]

Thanks @wilddog@Caracaland @mopsy!

 

The next morning started out with, you guessed it, more birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone wants to take a guess at which Cisticola species this is, I'm all ears. I'm not attempting it

 

 

 

 

We stopped to have breakfast near this hippo pool...I really like the light shining through the rising mist.

 

 

Ping heard from another guide (via text--he never uses a radio but was often on the phone or texting to share info) that a leopard had been spotted not too far away, so we headed off. 

Edited July 17 by janzin

[janzin]

It wasn't long before we spotted the leopard...it was a big male! But he was wandering through the very high grass.

 

 

This was Lorkogol, sometimes spelled as Lorgolgol.  We followed along side him through the grass, hoping he'd at least come into a clearing or jump up on a termite mound.  It was quite funny actually, we stopped at every small mound and waited, then he'd walk around it.   I've got lots of photos of him in the grass but they all look pretty much like the one above, or worse. 

 

But finally he complied!

 

 

The light was fairly harsh by now, almost midday but what a hefty fellow!

 

He surveyed his world but he was clearly on a mission, heading towards the river. 

 

 

Eventually we left him but only because Ping heard of another leopard nearby....to be continued!

Edited July 17 by janzin

[janzin]

We backtracked a bit and soon found the second leopard.  I was really thrilled to find out this was the famous leopard Bahati! We'd tried to find her on our previous trip, with no luck.

 

We got there just in time to find her in this iconic position.

 

 

But she wasn't there for long. It was already quite a hot day and she climbed to rest in the shade.

 

 

 

We waited in the hopes she would eventually come down.  And she did!

 

 

I was hoping for the "leap" off the tree, but she climbed all the way down. Ping actually wanted to move to the side, predicting this, but I stupidly told him to stay where we were. A side view might have been a better photo, oh well.

 

 

She came into the road right towards us!

 

 

There was a tiny puddle where she stopped to drink.

 

 

A portrait.

 

 

She started heading into the tall grass...following Lorkogol's path.  As it turned out, they were a mating couple! We later learned other vehicles had seen them together at the river, mating. No wonder Lorkogol had a destination in mind...perhaps they'd set up a rendezvous?

 

Over the next day or so we did return to the river where they'd been spotted mating, a few times, but did not find them again.

 

Another aside, we were the only vehicle at both these sightings. I don't know if it was because it was June, or still less crowded because of Covid, or because (in this case) it) it was around lunchtime when most people were back at camp. But we never found it crowded in the Reserve on this trip.

 

While going through the photos for this report just now, I discovered I really do have some additional excellent photos of both these leopards. I may have to go back and process a few more, I'm not sure why I only processed these few---probably because I wasn't doing a trip report at that time!  But for now, we'll move on.

 

Edited July 17 by janzin

[Atdahl]

Beautiful photos as always Janet.  It's never too late for an old trip report and there is no such thing as "cub overload"...

 

Alan

[Athene]

@janzinI agree, beautiful photos as always

[janzin]

thanks @Atdahland @Athene!

 

Looking at my photos is bringing back clearer memories! These next couple of images were taken as we ate our lunch in the vehicle, waiting by the river crossing in the hopes that Bahati and Lorkogol would appear there. 

 

This Yellow Bishop was gathering nest material and kept flying back and forth right in front of us.

 

 

And usually on safari there's little time to stop for a butterfly, but since we were just sitting there...

 

 

Eventually we gave up and left. I don't have much else from that afternoon, so I guess it was quiet.

 

 

 

The next day was our last full day in the Reserve with Ping.  We opted to go pretty far afield, to the east, in search of...whatever. I think if I recall we were searching for what remained of the Tana Boro (now down to only two at the time, I think.) 

 

Exiting camp, this giraffe posed against the sunrise. It wasn't a good trip for sunrise and sunset shots, for some reason.

 

 

One of the first birds we found was one that I was most excited about! Schalow's Turaco! We'd seen them briefly on a past trip but this was the first time I got a decent photo out in the more or less open.

 

 

More birds of the morning.

 

 

 

Secretary bird perched on top of a tree. Perhaps there was a nest.

 

 

His mate was sitting on the ground nearby.

 

 

Note how you can see the spurs on this Wattled Lapwing.

 

 

Not a bird, but a handsome Waterbuck.

 

 

 

[janzin]

We drive far to the east, almost to the border of the reserve.  We came across two different pairs of mating lions but this area did have a lot of vehicles and it was difficult to get a decent photo. One pair was mating inside some bushes and as you might imaging there was quite a gaggle of cars and so we told Ping to get out of there. 

 

We followed another pair and a small group for a while but for some reason I did not process any of those photos (again, since I wasn't doing a report at the time, I was only picking the "best" to put on my website or Facebook page." When processing with a report in mind, I do more ) A lot of these images are either in high grass or harsh light or have vehicles in them. So no photos of those lions I'm afraid.

 

Well, here's one!

 

 

So eventually we left the lions and went off on our own and it was a good thing we did, because out of the grass came this!

 

 

A beautiful Serval!

 

 

We followed him to a small marshy bit where he stopped to drink.

 

 

Well that was worth leaving the lions for!

 

We never did find the cheetahs. On the way back, it was more birds.

 

 

 

 

And a couple of non-birds.

 

 

 

That day--June 22--happened to be our anniversary.   At dinner we got a cake!  Also, a dance around the table by the staff, joined by several children who were at the camp. (The photographer and tour guide Andy Biggs had just arrived that day with a small family group, including three or four kids. They seemed to have a blast dancing around!) It was all quite embarrassing, LOL.

 

 

The next morning we were off to Kicheche Bush Camp in the Olare Motorogoi conservancy.

 

I'll leave you with one last lion portrait from the Reserve.

 

 

 

[Scooter]

@janzinI just love your photos.     And I love the black frame around them.....a very nice touch.     The b&w lion portrait is stellar.

[janzin]

Thanks @Scooter!  A lot of folks have complimented the black frame, it's something I do mainly for use on my personal website.

 

 

[janzin]

On to Kicheche Bush Camp.  In planning this trip, we wanted to stay at a camp in Olare Motorogoi specifically because it was well-known for hosting a number of leopards; on our first Mara trip, which included OMC, we saw the famous Fig and Golden Boy and their offspring Olare, and we knew Fig had had cubs since (Faulu and Furaha.) We really were hoping to see Fig again and at the time we booked, there was a good chance! But remember…we originally booked in 2020 for a 2021 trip. Now it was mid-2022 and in the interim, Fig had been killed by a lion (we were devastated   )  And apparently the whole leopard dynamic had changed in Olare Motorogoi—an increase in the number of lions had apparently displaced the leopard population into neighboring conservancies.

 

So our leopard chances in OMC seemed low, but we were still hopeful.

 

On our prior trip to OMC we’d stayed at Porini Lion, but we wanted to try something new. Having heard such great things about the Kicheche camps (certainly in many trip reports on this site) we opted for Kicheche Bush camp—there really was no other logical choice in OMC that was even close to our budget.  As always, we booked a private vehicle.

 

We left Enaidura fairly early to get to OMC by lunchtime, so we didn’t stop for much along the way. I’ve just got a few assorted images from the drive over. Mostly birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of not-birds.

 

 

 

We arrived at Kicheche around 11. Saying a fond farewell to Ping, we were warmly greeted at Kicheche Bush by the manager, Daniella. This was her first season there and she was really very lovely, warm and helpful. We were introduced to our guide, Joseph Sengeny.  (I later learned that he normally worked out of Great Plains Camp.) Turned out he was absolutely phenomenal and great fun to be with.

 

A few shots of the camp and our tent.

 

The main lounge/dining area and gift shop.  Lunches were taken outside under the trees, although dinners--if I recall--were inside the dining tent.

 

 

Our tent. 

 

 

Inside. I never remember to take these before messing it up.

 

 

The view looking out. Which you can see, is not much.

 

 

 

One quick aside about our tent--one afternoon returning from our drive, we were quickly shoo-ed away from our tent...it was completely surrounded by ants! The staff was working valiantly to sweep them away but they were everywhere, thousands and thousands of ants, some getting into the room. We ended up having to sit in the lounge for awhile while they cleaned it out; eventually they let us know the coast was clear.  What is it with us and marauding insects--if you read my Botswana report--IYKYK!

 

If there is one very minor negative about this camp, it’s that it really has no grounds or view of any sort—it’s not located by any water, there are just a few spindly trees, and we never saw any wildlife in camp. But of course one is hardly in the camp and the tents are super spacious and comfortable, with full-time hot water (no bucket showers!), standing fans, and recently they had installed wi-fi in the tents too. And the food was excellent. 

 

One other odd thing about the camp is that they don't do night drives, even though it's in a conservancy where it is allowed. I never quite understood why. As it turned out we didn't really miss the night drives here...we figured we'd do some at our next camp, Serian (in the end we didn't after all, which I'll explain later.) We also didn't stay out all day here, even though we could have--we had done three all day drives in the Reserve with Ping and decided we'd make these days a little more restful. Which was fine too...we saw so much here that we didn't feel we missed out on anything by not going out at night, and the timing was completely flexible...if we came back late for lunch or dinner that was no problem at all.

 

Anyway, after a lovely communal lunch under the trees, we set off with Joseph on a bee-line to where he knew there was a cheetah with three young cubs.

 

Cheetah overload to come!

Edited July 19 by janzin

[janzin]

hmmm I don't know why some of the text above is highlighted...can't seem to undo it.

[ElenaH]

4 hours ago, janzin said:

I don't know why some of the text above is highlighted...can't seem to undo it

Normally it happens when you copy+paste the text. You should be normally asked: shall it be pasted as a plain text only? and if you paste only as a text then it will not be on the white backgronud. If you paste as it is then the background (in this case white) and the font will be taken from the source.. 

 

Excellent pictures as always! I love the leopard portrait through the leaves (yours favourite, too)

 

I checked on the map where your first camp was. There was a phtotgraphic tour from Diamir into Legends camp. They use special vehicles but don't have photo hosts. The camp is only about 5km from Einadura and has a reasonable rate. They probably can have the same sightings as you did. Perhaps, I shall travel to Kenya once... I have never been there. I think, here are too many vehicles. Were they many? 

June is known to be a rainy season in Kenya, insn't i? Was it raining? have you been there at the beginning or at the end of June? Are the rates better in June? Is it a kind of shoulder season?

 

Excellen pictures of lion cubs suckling mother! Just contest-ready!  

[ElenaH]

@janzin, please do also link your report to your profile. You mentioned in this report that you have already been in Einadura with the same guide. I wanted to read your previous reports and noticed that this one is not yet linked. It would be a pity not to have it in the list 

[janzin]

Thanks @ElenaH, indeed, I was moving some text around and copied and pasted it, that must be what happened. I can't seem to undo it though, so I'll just be more careful next time.

 

June is actually not considered the rainy season in the Mara at least--rainy season is usually considered March to May. I suppose early June might be the tail end of it, but we went in late-June (dates were actually June 18-July 1.) We had zero rain if I recall (my photos don't show any rain.) We've had more rain on trips in February.  When we rescheduled the trip, we were a little leery of June but we priced out also for August and June was much less expensive; it is generally considered a shoulder season.  The weather was really perfect! Not too hot. The downside though was the high grass which at times made photography really difficult. But I would go back in June, although it probably wouldn't be my first choice (also because June at home is a rather nice time!)

 

About the number of vehicles...we never found it overcrowded, not in June nor February. The only time we found it crowded was on our first trip in September, at the river crossings. That was a zoo. But the thing I've found about the Mara is that it's VAST. Even in the reserve it is easy to get away from others and find your own sightings, especially if you have a great guide (like Ping.) And in the conservancies of course there's even less and usually a maximum of three or maybe four at a sighting. We only had a lot of cars once in the reserve on this trip, at the lions mating. On our previous trip we did have a lot of cars with the five cheetah coalition, but the rangers really did keep things under control, and if you waited long enough most other cars eventually left.  Anyway I think other than the river crossings--which we'd avoid like the plague, and have no interest in anyway--it's not as bad as some say. But that's my opinion--there's nothing like the Mara and I could go again and again! You must go!!

 

An interesting note about the photo vehicle. We had the option of a photo vehicle at Enaidura--they had just built it and we could have had it at no extra charge--but we opted against it because of the high grass. The low angle possible with that sort of vehicle in the Mara would be defeated with such high grass!  In Kicheche, they'd told us we could have their photo vehicle if it was available, but as it turned out, it wasn't (I don't know where it was, as we never saw it...they must have sent it to another camp.) But after seeing the high grass we didn't mind not having the use of it. 

 

Finally thanks for the reminder of linking the report to my profile, I had planned to do it when the report was finished but I suppose no harm in doing it now   I'm chugging along quickly with this report as there's not much going on here in New York City in mid-summer   but we are taking a small domestic trip in a couple of weeks so I want to get it done before that!

Edited July 19 by janzin

[janzin]

After lunch, Joseph took us straight to where the cheetahs were. This was mother Kweli and her three young cubs. These cubs weren't too small, I would guess maybe four or five months? I don't recall what we were told but that seems about right.

 

Cheetah overload coming up.

 

At first they were just resting in the grass.

 

 

 

 

Playing with mom.

 

 

And nursing!!

 

 

 

Wandering a bit. As you can see, the grass--still high here--made it challenging to photograph.

 

 

One adventurous cub tried to climb this nearby tree. These are some of my favorite cheetah photos ever.

 

 

Can I do it?

 

 

 

Yes I can!

 

Having a look around..

 

 

High enough, get me down...

 

 

Meantime while this was going on, Mom was on the lookout for dinner...up next.

[AndrewB]

Cheetah overload??? Is that a thing nowadays?

I cannot imagine a scenario where that would happen personally.

PS: so jealous of that siting!

[janzin]

1 minute ago, AndrewB said:

Cheetah overload??? Is that a thing nowadays?

I cannot imagine a scenario where that would happen personally.

PS: so jealous of that siting!

haha I agree, never too many cheetahs...especially cubs!  Just wait, the sighting is far from over. (And we spent more time with them on another day.)