We had a wake up call at 6.00am with tea even though we were having breakfast in camp and leaving at 8am for a walk to the ridge. We had Sam and the two Masai who patrol the walking conservancy with us - old Sam apologised for not coming last night - his knees - so he was going to clean the jeep instead! We crossed the river near the Serian Ngare camp (the small camp on the other bank)which was connected to us by a bridge which took one at a time. We then slowly wended our way to the top of the ridge and sat on a rock at the top getting an overview of the vast expanse to the Masai Mara below and in the distance. We could see how everything fitted together - the lodge was on the edge of the river and at the bottom of a slope of a rocky hill with good vegetation - a unique spot. We could also see groups of animals going about their daily business and watched as an elephant family moved quite quickly through the terrain, occasionally eating as they went. There was much trumpeting when they met another family - it looked a friendly encounter before they then went their separate ways. On the way down we saw a large group of giraffe, a herd of topi and finally back at the river crossing I saw a yellow billed stork.
Back in camp we had tea in our room, showered and relaxed before lunch. We decided to do a night drive which meant leaving camp at 5pm ish and returning at 10pm ish. As we cannot do this elsewhere we thought it was a good opportunity to get a different perspective on life. While the sun was still up we did a normal game drive firstly spotting the big old elephant - 40 years plus with huge tusks and a tracking collar on - he was munching near the lodge. We then headed on to the plains and found the two male cheetah ( today's photo is of one of them) who live in the area - as dusk arrived we followed them when they set off - the nightlife of a male cheetah entails walking to all the trees and scent marking them - after an hour or so we left them to continue their nightly travels and went to see what else we could see -we found a female lion lying down and calling to her pride - her whole body seemed to be involved in her deep piercing rumbling call - no wonder you can hear it for miles. Other inhabitants of the night included scrub hares, spring hares and a white tailed mongoose, plus hyena, jackals and plains game some sleeping others eating. We found a warthog in his hole - he then moved and shot out at '90miles an hour' I can see why, when walking, they say never stand infront of a hole - if a warthog is in he would definitely knock you over. At 9.15pm we found a lone acacia tree and had dinner by the light of a full moon and two paraffin lamps. I can't say I was really hungry but it was a different experience eating and listening to the sounds of the night - lion roaring in the distance and hyena whooping.
Back in camp we sat by the fire with Emily, Fraser and Anthony, a fellow traveller from the U.S.A and warmed with a nice hot chocolate - Emily apologized for the delay in it arriving as they had to find the store cupboard key first - it was definitely worth waiting for though.... A late night bed by 11pm!