Today the tea arrived at 0545 and we responded quickly so the steward wasn't left hanging around outside!
Although we were on our own today as Hiroko and Dan were off to the central Serengeti we opted for another picnic breakfast and an 0630 departure.
What transpired was probably one of our best days on safari ever.
It started with watching reedbuck lying still in the reeds; we then saw a lone lioness sitting on a rocky outcrop. Next our guide noted a rock out of place - binoculars showed it was a leopard on top - we drove closer to see a really lovely male leopard lying asleep occasionally lifting his head and looking around then returning to close his eyes. He alerted the other guides so several people got to share the early morning experience - he was still in the same position when we left him to others gaze.We went back to the lioness as we heard she was stalking buffalo - she was - we watched for a while but she was not serious - clearly sizing up the only youngster in the small group for later! We then went down to the river to look enjoy the scenery, the hippo pods, the crocodiles; if you stood in the wrong place the whiff of rotting carcasses reached your nostrils - several wildebeest who had lost their lives during the crossings were now littering the rocky outcrops in the river and providing a great source of food for the hundreds of vultures that were circling, standing on the river bank, huddling under trees or perched on tree tops.
We decided to have breakfast at a non whiffy point! While eating our guide thought he saw a lion walking in the undergrowth - she is a lone lion they call Maria. We carried on eating, packed up and set off but as we were leaving we thought we saw her again so went across to the bushes to see if we could see her. We couldn't - instead we saw two hyenas shuffling around....one was a golden colour so we could have mistaken her for the lioness. Imagine our surprise when the guide said there's a rhino and a few yards away in the same undergrowth a rhino was now visible and standing up - obviously disturbed by the hyena - our guide surmised that it may be the lone male; no sooner said than another rhino stood up - it was our mother and son again continuing their progression west towards the camp.
We moved further up the river, to crossing point 9, where wildebeest were massing on the bank we parked under a tree and waited - within 10 minutes they were off and we sped to a better vantage point - and an amazing crossing as masses of wildebeest came down steep banks and started to swim across and out the other side. All who set off made it - the crocodiles, no doubt stuffed from a season of crossings were very slow to move but one big croc did try to bite a more nimble wildebeest who avoided him and that was the end of the crossing. The wildebeest on the bank stopped and turned back and milled around as if not knowing what to do...a large number headed back to graze in the woodlands. We went back and sat under the tree to see if there would be another crossing but despite several promising moves nothing happened. When the last remaining wildebeest will cross is any bodies guess - even they probably have no idea who will take the plunge first! The main herd are now miles away in the central Serengeti so they have some catching up to do.
A great spectacle and I got video footage and lots of high frequency rapid fire photos.
Very satisfied we returned for lunch and another dip in the pool. while having a cup of tea I watched lots of small birds around the mess tent, cordon bleu, purple grenadier, grey capped social weavers and a masked weaver building his nest and singing beautifully!
It had been our intention to go for a walk at 1630 but our required armed Park ranger had gone AWOL back to his village apparently feeling unwell. Instead we went for a slightly late game drive, it was slightly cooler and became very dark - we didn't get rain but we could see some to the west of us over the Lemai wedge.
We saw a real range of animals, baby hyrax sitting in the rocks, more red buck lying in the reeds, zebra, eland, oribi, giraffe, kilpspringer, a melanic Gabor goshawk (very dark colouration), a silverbird ( type of paradise flycatcher) and a fish eagle.
We then got a call that the local pride of lions were active - we arrived to find one grumpy female eating a baby warthog - apparently she had stolen it from another female who had caught it for the cubs - who were now grumpy as someone was eating their snack. We watched the antics of the cubs who eventually got the small warthog for themselves albeit incurring the wrath of the lioness as they did; one cub then hung onto it tightly for himself but others slunk around the edges and got to eat more than he did as he was determined not to loosen his grip - eating of course requires more than just a jaw clamp!
Having watched them for ages and also being joined by a jeep full of staff from the camp who had come to see the fun we headed back - we went to this mornings leopard rock - nothing - then John, our guide, looked to his right and there was our leopard on another rock very close by - in fading light I took today's picture, he was beautiful - an amazing coat - he got up and walked past the jeep - John could have touched him( not that daft though!) he marked his territory squirting urine on bushes and went and sat in another rock.
What an end to an amazing days wildlife watching!
Same routine when we got back to camp - shower, dinner, sleep - the only sad addition was packing as we leave tomorrow!