As yesterday we were up at 6am after a hot mug of tea ( well the makings) had been delivered to our tent and followed minutes later by a 'bucket' shower. John was first in the shower today - it's only fair!
We left at 6.30am and headed towards the marsh area by the renowned Governors Camps - it was the base location for Big Cat diary. The weather was clear, dry and unusually windy - so I kept my jacket on and added gloves for good measure.
Enroute to the marsh I got great pictures of a black chested snake eagle, (today's photo) a lappert faced vulture and a tawny eagle. The plains looked empty but scanning them with binoculars revealed a different picture.....there was a range of game...including gazelles, zebra, impala, buffalo and eland ( on our return leg I took photos of the eland and spotted the roan antelope that is travelling with them - a real rarity - does it think it's an eland!)
As we approached the marsh we saw some members of the infamous 'marsh pride' lying sleepily under bushes on a mound, next stop was the river bank where we were going to alight and look at the hippo but three lionesses emerged from the bushes a little distance away so we dashed back to watch them instead - they had (smelly) toilet stops enroute to some small pools where they drank - they looked quite full so I guessed they may had breakfasted already! Talking of which we then found a safe spot by the river - in a woodland clearing - to have ours.
After breakfast we watched a family of baboons, found the female lioness from the marsh pride who had cubs - she was separate from the main pride as they were still very young - we eventually saw them sitting safe and sound inside the hollow trunk of a large dead tree - clever mum - the best place to keep vulnerable young lions. We then watched recently born warthogs running after mum and dad, hyenas lolloping across the plains and others sitting by their den, a jackal trotting in search of a meal, a couple of troops of banded mongooses looking for beetles and grubs, and a southern ground hornbill doing likewise. Finally we visited a hole near the lodge to see if the resident python was in - no luck - but as we arrived back at the lodge we looked back to see a large herd of wildebeest standing under some small trees on the ridge contemplating their next move - where they have been hiding? - who knows - we thought they had all left! They looked in crossing mood as they were standing not eating - we will see what happens. During the afternoon they chickened out and retreated to a grassland area to graze - perhaps they will cross tomorrow.
We spent the afternoon searching for leopards but drew another blank - that said we did get great sightings of the Mara's rarest animal - the black rhino. We were alerted by a Governors camp vehicle and arrived to see him rubbing his tummy on a termite mound, walking along the ridge and then lying down by a line of bushes - you wouldn't have known he was there as he blended in so well. A great end to the day and a lovely sunset to boot! We made our way back to camp for a shower, supper and packing as we are off to Tanzania tomorrow.
Other birds we saw today included; a fiscal shrike, spotted pigeon, rufous bellied heron, pied kingfisher, fish eagle with fish, red headed lark, rufous naped lark, yellow fronted canaries, mature and immature yellow billed stork and a saddle back stork.