🙂 INCREDIBLE sightings including cheetah kill. Great staff, especially Meissie.
🙁 Safari Live Guide, Isaac did not pitch up
We love going away with Barrows as we are always rewarded with a Top Class You Tube capture of our trip! Thanks Tony!
We were transferred by Kicheche to this camp. On the drive we spotted two cheetahs. A great start!
We had been super excited for this part of the our Kenya trip – we had booked via Safari Live / Wild Earth on their migration trip to the Mara. Unfortunately for us the majority of the wildebeest had already migrated which is nature and cannot be managed. The other disappointment was that the Safari Live Guide, Isaac did not turn up. He had unfairly demanded more money however, we as gusts were not notified and were not provided with a substitute of a similar calibre. David was guiding the other group and we had Samuel who is one of the Lodge’s drivers who was simply not a Presenter. On the positive, his Father is a Maasai Chief who owns the land that we were traversing so we had exceptional viewing from prime locations for photography. It is just unfortunate that we had overpaid for a service that we did not receive. Likewise, we had just transferred from Kicheche which is a luxury camp vs this perfectly lovely camp which is more of a mid range camp and therefore unfair to compare. We decided to put that out of mind and enjoy the experience regardless and it was AMAZING.
Camp Oloshaiki is rustic and our room was large and comfortable with a big bathroom.
Samuel ended up being the perfect driver as he knew exactly how to position the vehicle for the best shots. Big James had a great sense of humour!
These guys were nightly nuisances! Tree hyrax – so cute!
We had a big male baboon to greet us on arrival.
Our game drive started really late – we were a little irritated as Wild Earth were obviously buying time and got us each to talk to the lady on the phone because clearly the guides were late…so we set off nearly an hour later than planned. We essentially had a giraffe sighting and poor Samuel’s presentation was ghastly! …Truly cringeworthy – poor chap. However, to be fair on him, he had been thrown into the deep end without training – poor guy… he was doing his best.
We headed in and had a sundowner before diner which was communal in the dining hall. We met a number of other Wild Earth Fans on the trip largely from the USA as well as France and Austria. After dinner we were walked back to our rooms. During the night we heard quite a disturbance!
Sunrise was spectacular! Samuel told us that the noise we heard had been a pack f hyenas who had taken a cow.
After heading out on time at dawn, we were rewarded with a great first sighting! Ground hornbills with a black mamba kill! Fantastic!
We then heard the distinctive roar of a lion and headed in the direction of the sound…. what a magnificent creature!
Such a handsome beast!
Then we found a lady friend…
Beautiful to see…. and not far away another Mother lioness was keeping her new born cubs safe – they were wide awake and very playful!
an absolute delight … too adorable!
We enjoyed the company of a handsome jackal
and some dazzling zebras!
A herd of elephants wandered past with the most tiny newborn in tow…
We then came a cross a clan of hyenas enjoying their hot tub time!
These poor creatures are never safe …just a few minutes away we found their arch enemies having a snooze under a tree
Eland are such massive creatures!
We patiently watched a very nervous herd of zebra who were desperate to cross the river … the anticipation was tangible!
We stopped off for our breakfast next to the river and enjoyed watching the hippos wallowing.
There were some pretty impressively sized crocs!
We had some elephants cross over the river very close to us.
We headed off wondering what we would see next …. and did a double take …we had not expected this sighting… a black rhino! WOW! We were so excited!! Magnificent. He soon settled down for a snooze and we left him to it!
This pair of ostriches were just going about their daily business…
and a beeeater
We had some cute mongooses keeping us entertained.
Just when we though that the day could not actually get any better we had this fantastic sighting! the leopard is called Luluka! AMAZING!
Our leaping leopard – sadly not in focus.
We were feeling pretty damn fantastic at this stage of the day – what luck!! But the Mara was not done with us quite yet! We enjoyed seeing these two brothers who are part of the coalition of five that we had seen make a kill in 2020, but 3 of the brothers gave since died.
JUST WOW! What a day. Absolutely wonderful sightings….we were very happy! We headed back and enjoyed sundowners around the fire sharing stories. Dinner was good and bed was great!
The next morning we had scheduled to take the hot air balloon flight … AMAZING! And a great champagne breakfast too…
An amazing experience. we headed off and found a zebra kill. The lionesses were very full and had a hard time fighting off the hyenas … they eventually gave up and the hyenas moved in… they in turn were trying to fight off the vultures! A maribu stork also joined that party – what great action to witness!
We headed to the river hoping to catch another mini migration as we could see some zebra gathering… but they were just too nervous… and resumed grazing.
Meanwhile the crocs were slumbering in the sun.
Another herd was gathering and making it towards the water edge – we could see a crocodile lurking! the were right at the water’s edge and then one spooked and they all galloped back up the bank!
A big elephant dawdled across backwards and forwards with no concerns at all…
We had another moment of bated breath … but at the last minute the zebras spotted the crocodiles!
Even the hippos could feel the tension!
We drove on and found some chilled out lions.
We stopped for lunch next to the river …suddenly we heard a loud noise – we had disturbed a dagga boy! Phew – Samuel chased him off…! About ten minutes later we heard another noise – this time it was elephants crossing!
Exciting stuff!
A giraffe was shooting the breeze…
Some nice ostriches
We decided to try one last time for a crossing …
The zebras were gathering and calling nervously. This time they went for it and started the swim across! A big croc was waiting in ambush – but he did not take his chance – you can see him on the left of photo!
Inspired by this herd’s bravery another small group of zebras started to make the crossing – this time a croc really went for it…We were not sure whether we were relived or disappointed! As you can see it was nail biting and an incredibly exciting experience!!! AMAZING.
HECTIC. We all needed a beer after that!
But as always the Mara still had gifts to give! We found lionesses on a kill and burying the intestines. She then called the cubs and they went for a drink….they were the most adorable and playful little things which we watched for about an hour … Samual said that he did not want to deter our enjoyment BUT reports had come in of lions on a buffalo with a kill in progress and did we want to head there – we said YES! and left the cubbies playing …
What a sighting …
We raced to the sighting – unfortunately (or fortunately!) we were just too late and the big beast had succumbed… It was a noisy and argumentative feast with lots of growling and squabbling as lions do!
We headed out and spotted a cheetah but he was resting so thought we’d continue on our way … how crazy is that?! 🙂
What a beautiful end to a day
That evening we had to participate in the Wild Earth safari Live Broadcast – here we are being interviewed
We had of course been very quiet during the live broadcasts at specific sightings. Here is the other jeep…. and “here we have a lion. He is sleeping. Lions like to sleep. It is hot.” 🙂
A few actions shots …
Sunrise was breathtaking
We were watching the hot air balloons rising up above the Mara when suddenly we saw three lions walking fast and purposefully towards us! They chased off a clan of hyenas on an old kill – see last photo the dark clump above the right lion – they hyenas did not notice them until they were almost upon them – then the scattered for their lives!
The lighting was wonderful!
We headed back to the buffalo kill from the previous day and there was not much left! The lionesses were still trying to chase off vultures after the cubs had their fill…
AMAZING.
… as if things could get any better … yes, of course it can! Leopard please … and Mara says, “yes – of course”! STUNNING.
What a morning … and time was running out on our last day…. we could not believe our final sighting of the trip!! A cheetah kill! Unbelievable!
This is the video that Tony created of the hunt!
As a farewell gist on the way back to camp to pack up for our trip – we had two more treasures! A big hot lion under a tree…
and the rest of the pride asleep on a recent topi kill!
We said a final farewell to Meissie and promised to be back! After the excitement of the morning we were 30mins late for our flight – they were about to take off without us!! Yikes! An adventurous end to an adventurous trip!
