Our first part of today's safari began at 6.30am our driver Benjamin was there to meet us and away we went 10 minutes into the drive and he spotted a group of vultures, he took us towards it, told us that this usually meant that there was a kill he was right. Sure enough we arrived to see a pair of hyenas tearing at the carcass of a wilder beast and the vulture waiting their turn in the food chain.
We had let Ben know our, desire to see lions and he did not let us down, first a 18 month female cub,this was just a teaser to the most fabulous experience Shirley or I have seen in the animal kingdom. Yes he found us a pride of lions .AT first there were 12cubs and 2lionesses, this was insane in it self, then suddenly a long distant growl came across the air and 3more lionesses came from nowhere to join the pride, on arrival the rest of the pride showed their joy by jumping all over them,and just as we were thinking that must be it another bellow rang across the air and a fourth lioness arrived from behind us passing less then twenty feet from the jeep ,the hair on my neck stood to attention ,these animal give the feel that killing us would be too easy . There was not one ounce of fat on any of this pride, they lean mean and ready to rumble when required.
We had chose to have breakfast on the trail , so we stop down by the Mara river , there was a lot of water in the river and Wow there is at least 70 hippopotami here ,these were at first so close together they appeared like large rocks ,Accept every now and again their ear would twitch giving them away.
Ben then tried to find some cheetahs or leopard, but on this occasion were unsuccessful, so it back to base to lunch rest and prepare for our afternoon safari.
The afternoon session started slowly ,we were again looking for leopard or cheetah again they were absent . We tried the normal hung out but they were staying hidden. Ben decided to take us to Leopard gorge, which turn out to be the hyenas den and here we found five adult female nursing five 6-8 week old cub and 4-5 six month old cubs. The cubs were the same as any puppy you would see mischievous and of course cute.
The next exciting animal was a banded mongoose a close cousin to the meerkat . They have the same Mannerisms.we saw all the normal beast then right at the death we saw two juvenile male lion ,Ben suggested probably three year old and about to shoved off from the pride as the dominant male will attack and drive them off
So all in all a very successful spotting day . We have good photos of the whole day in the albums.
Big day tomorrow heading to mara reserve ,to see more animals and for sure large crocodiles
See you all soon as one week has past.
Luv Shirley and John