A return to Kenya… for our 2nd Wedding Anniversary! (February 2011)
a photographic safari in Kenya, East Africa: Maasai Mara and Olare Orok

Day 2 : Porini Lion Camp (Saturday 05 February 2011)

 

A grunting hippo woke us up this morning. It was quite well timed as it was almost time for us to get up anyway.

Heiko got up first, and as he was brushing his teeth, I was listening to the sounds of hyena calling “whoooooop, whoooooooop”! Love being back in the bush!

Along the tree line we saw a pair of dik dik; one was looking cautiously into the riverbed, not at all bothered by us. Usually they scarper pretty quickly so we suspected that perhaps there was a leopard and spent quite some time searching along the riverbed, amongst the bushes and high up in the trees.

“Do you smell that?” Jerald asked us. There was a strong smell in the air, which Jerald explained was a combination of sulphur from the water, mixed with hippo dung.

In the shallow waters of the riverbed, we came across a hippo. Try as she might to hide below the water, it was not possible. As she walked away to find deeper waters, she revealed a little calf in the process. We watched as they slowly made their way to deeper water.

We left the tree line then, and headed out into the open plains, passing herds of zebra and topi. Some of the topi had young calves, their horns just starting to show as well as their ‘blue jean’ on their hind legs which was beginning to appear, the rest of their bodies still a fawny colour; they must have been around 3 months old.

We were driving amongst hyenas as the sun rose above the horizon; it’s warm rays making the vast landscape glow in the beautiful morning light. One of the hyenas had a blood-covered mouth and our guides suspected there might be a carcass in the area; we didn’t find anything though.

Perched at the top of a tree, we saw a black crested snake eagle; it’s feathers blowing in the wind. We also found Naibor again, the lioness we saw yesterday. This time she wasn’t alone, she was lazing in a rocky area with a few other lions from her pride. Naibor got up as we approached and walked in front of our vehicle. Something had caught her eye. Three other lionesses passed behind our vehicle, their heavily pregnant bellies swaying as they slowly followed Naibor. A young male lion, with a small mane followed too. Naibor crept slowly forwards; she was stalking a reedbuck. Her movements were slow and controlled, but the reedbuck spotted her and the opportunity was unfortunately missed. There are 14 lions in the Enkoyanai Pride, quite possibly these females have separated from the group to give birth.

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to be continued…

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