Special Birthday (Part 2)

Olbarnotoi intent on seeing off Notch 2

Arriving at the Ol Kiombo airstrip in the Mara felt like coming home and Joseph our guide was there to meet us in his full Maasai attire, complete with machete. He had been riding shotgun on our last safari and we were impressed with his knowledge and ability to seek out the game.

A leisurely drive to the lodge for lunch was punctuated with a nice sighting of a Goliath Heron, our first since Botswana in 2015 and better pictures ensued.

Lunch was very welcome, it had been some time since we ate breakfast in Solio, but as always, we were itching to get out on a drive. Joseph was equally as keen to get out there and by 3:30 we were photographing Maasai Giraffe near to the lodge. Next up were Spotted Hyena followed by Southern Ground Hornbill, before the inevitable Lion-fest kicked in. We’ve seen very many Lions on our visits to the Mara, but these were new to us so merited attention for the rest of the day.

Our first full day started with the normal 5am alarm call, which gave enough time to get ready and have a coffee before the scheduled 6am departure. It’s still dark when we leave and frequently it’s dark when we return between 6 – 7pm. Our days on safari are long through choice and involve us having breakfast and lunch in the bush. We very much subscribe to the ‘snooze, you lose’ theory and yes, the light can be tricky in the middle of the day. But we’ve seen some wonderful sights at those times and also been able to stay on sightings when others are returning for brunch, or get prime position before the afternoon drives come out.

At first light we were with some endearing Lion cubs playing in the open. We had to use high ISO numbers (6400), but the resulting pictures are fine and a joy to see. We spent a little over an hour with the Lions before moving away and into a session of birds either side of breakfast. More Lions and Hartebeest took us through to lunchtime. Crocodiles and Lions filled the rest of the day.

Next day our first encounter was with a herd of Buffalo containing several calves, before we had one our most harrowing sightings to date. A single female Lion had taken down a full size Zebra and ripped open its gut. We soon realised the Zebra had been pregnant with a fully developed foetus visible. This Lion was the mother of the cubs we had seen the previous day and what we were to witness was testament to her intelligence. Ordinarily she would hide the kill, go back to her cubs hidden about a mile away and bring them to the kill. But on this occasion, she hid the kill and then walked the mile back to her cubs with the baby Zebra, still in the foetal sack, in her mouth.

Our next sighting was a pair of Giraffe fighting in the Marsh area of the Mara. As you can imagine, this is something of an ungainly sight, all being done with their heads and necks. It can also be fatal if one of them breaks its neck in the process. This fight lasted around 15 minutes and can best be described as a draw and thankfully no fatalities.
Staying in the Marsh area, we spent some time with a Lion pride containing four cubs and then moved near to the Governors airstrip, where there was a Hippo pod in a lake, the surface of which was completely covered in weed.

This day was rounded off by a session with a Kori Bustard displaying its technique for cooling down in the heat by hugely fluffing up its neck feathers.

Day three commenced spending some time with the Enkoyanai pride of Lions where again there were several cubs and then encountering a herd of Zebra paddling and drinking in a river. Next up were two of our favourite male Lions, the brothers Olbarnoti and Lolpapit. Close by, we spotted a magnificent Black-chested Snake Eagle before spending some time with e Double Cross pride of Lions.

What followed in the afternoon was to shape the trip for the next couple of days. We found a dead Hippo beached beside the river, which was giving food to both the Crocodiles and the Lions. It wasn’t just any Lion we were seeing; it was the legendary Scarface and a first sighting of him for us. There was so much action that we spent the whole afternoon there, as did Jonathan Scott and a film crew.

The drive back to the lodge wasn’t without incident either. Not far into what was probably an hour-long journey, the truck ran out of diesel. Very shortly we were joined by another Land Cruiser and transferred into that with our guide to continue the trip. But there was still more excitement to come.

When we had spotted Olbarnoti and Lolpapit in the morning, we had also noticed Notch 2 was close by. Encountering them on the way back, it was apparent Notch 2 had become too close for comfort and Lolpapit felt the need to chase him off. Unfortunately Lolpapit was carrying an injury and even walked with a limp, so a chase wasn’t going to last very long nor remove Notch 2 far enough. So Olbarnoti took up the chase soon overtaking his brother. What ensued was a sight to behold and something special to be involved in.

The chase must have covered best part of a mile and Olbarnoti did make up some ground on Notch 2. The amusing thing was that when Notch 2 tired and needed to walk for a while, rather than pressing on and catching him up, Olbarnoti would walk as well. It really was a case of just moving him away to an acceptable distance and not about fighting over it. But there was a lot of foaming at the mouth involved. An exhilarating end to the day.