Evy Moskowitz - Guest Diary
October 2007

It's about noon time here on Thanksgiving Day Monday. We've just come back, once more, from a very successful game drive. Today, we again saw the three big cats (lion, cheetah and leopard), but this time were able to observe each of them for quite some time. The cheetah had two young cubs with her, both of which were very curious and, with no trepidation whatever, came right up to the doors of our land rover. While we typically don't get quite that close to the animals, it's not unusual for us to park just about 20 or so feet away from them. It's absolutely amazing, but, the animals are so used to having the land rovers around them - plus, hunting has been strictly banned in Kenya for over 30 years - that they generally do not appear to fear man, and are actually quite blase about the whole thing. Occasionally, they'll deign to look our way, but, for the most part, they just ignore us and go about their business (which, in the case of lions, in particular, consists of sleeping or resting, with an occasional bit of grooming or eating thrown in). (Lions, by the way, sleep 18 hours a day, and hunt/eat for the other six. (Actually, it's the female lions that do all the hunting; the male of the pride just seems to rest and sleep all the time, looking very regal, but, for the most part, doing a whole lot of nothing. I suppose some may think that's quite the life, but it strikes me as exceptionally boring!))

Some animals, however, clearly want you to give them more space. Elephants, for example, will flap their ears or trumpet to let you know that you have overstepped, and that you had better back off a bit. For the most part though, we are viewing the animals from so close up (albeit from within the safety of our enclosed land rover) that we feel that we can almost touch them.

Today's drive was particularly exhilarating. In addition to the big cats, we saw hyenas (which look like, and, I gather, are, rather malevolent creatures), newly born baby warthogs with their mothers, hippos, ostrich, a group of vultures feasting on carrion (while somewhat stomach-turning, this was one of the more fascinating sights because of the vulture group dynamics), and a variety of beautiful birds. (I am not really into ornithology, but I have to say that the birds here are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Their colours are so vivid that trying to describe them with mere words would not really do them justice. I will, however, take a stab at it for my favourite bird thus far, which is the "lilac-breasted roller". It is actually a fairly common bird in these parts, but it is breathtaking in its beauty and the jewel-like quality of its colours. It has a deep purple-coloured neck, a brilliant turquoise-coloured body, a tail that continues on with the turquoise colour, but then looks like its been dipped in black ink, an emerald-coloured crown with a chocolate brown and white face, and top plumage that is tan in colour. It is just awesome to behold.

Perhaps the most interesting sight of the day though was the thousands upon thousands of wildebeests (also known as gnus) that we discovered on one of the plains. They are part of the migration that occurs annually in July/August and sees about 1.5 million wildebeests and 800,000 zebras cross the Mara River from the Serengeti (in Tanzania) to the Maasai Mara here in Kenya, all in search for fresher grasslands. The same animals then migrate back to the Serengeti throughout September and October, and it was part of this second migration to which we were witness today. About 200,000 or so of these animals die each year in the migration, typically from falling prey to the crocodiles or lions that eagerly await their arrival in or around the Mara River, or from being crushed in the animal mob. (You'd think that, by now, some of these animals would have figured out that it might be a good idea to let all the others go on without them, while they stay behind, keeping whatever grasslands are left for themselves!))

In any event, here is this unbelievable number of wildebeests, walking in front of us, in single file, heading back towards the Serengeti. Save for a bellow here and there, they were exceedingly peaceful and quiet, their pace slow but steady. There were so many of them (truly, we could not see the end of the line, which stetched for miles and miles beyond the horizon), all moving at that same, unified pace, that if you didn't look at their feet moving, you would swear they were rolling by on a conveyor belt or one of those moving walkways at the airports! (We actually had breakfast out in the open while we watched all this, and the line of animals that still had to pass by us by the time we finished eating looked as long as it did when we started.)

So that was this morning's game drive. We go out on game drives twice a day - from 6:30 a.m. to about 12:00 p.m., and then from about 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., which are the times the animals are out and about. In between, we have our meals, rest, read, and interact with the other guests and our hosts at the camp. We have been very fortunate in this last regard - the owners of the Rekero Tented Camp are a lovely couple (both born and bred here in Kenya) with two young children, who, together with their staff, make everyone feel warm and welcome. Our fellow guests (all American or British) have also been very friendly and interesting (there are about 17 of us altogether), and conversation at meals has been consistently lively and entertaining.

After dinner, we are escorted back to our tents by one of the Maasai guards, in case any animals have wandered into the camp after dark. We have yet to see any such animals, but we certainly do hear them grunting and snorting once we are zipped up in our tent and lying in bed. Apparently, there are about 15 hippos and two or three cape buffalo that come into the camp to graze every night because of the very green grass that grows under the shade of the tent awnings. But they always seem to wait until we are safely tucked away before they come in, they judiciously avoid the tents themselves, and they always leave before dawn. There are also four guards who watch the camp all night, and we feel quite safe despite the fact that there are multi-tonne animals just a few feet away outside our door.

Well that about does it for today. Will write again soon.

Our last 24 hours at Rekero camp

Well we did it! We have now seen all of the "big five". Interestingly, the leopard, which, as I indicated in an earlier email, is typically the most difficult of the big five animals to find, showed itself four times on this trip. (The fourth time was the most exciting, but more of this below.) Our fifth and final of the big five was the black rhino, which has proven to be very elusive this last while. Indeed, we were the only guests at the camp

this week (or perhaps longer)to have seen one. In retrospect, I suppose that's not surprising, given that there are apparently only 15 or so black rhino in all of the Mara. (We truly were exceptionally lucky in what we saw, which you will learn as you continue to read on. Hard as it may be to believe, it may well be that my safari luck exceeds my luck in finding parking spots!)

The black rhino sighting was the second of three amazing experiences we had over the last day and a half. About two hours into yesterday morning's game drive, we stopped for breakfast at a quiet riverbed, after Jimmy, our wonderful guide, determined that it was quite safe to do so. We had a leisurely meal and then packed up to continue with our drive. Crossing to the other side of the river, we headed towards some prey animals in the distance, when Jimmy sighted a very large lioness walking through the grasslands. Since there were many zebras and wildebeests about, he thought it a good idea to follow the lioness to see if we could witness that most rare and ultimate of safari sights - the "kill".

We tracked her for awhile as she ambled back towards the very part of the river we had just departed; but eventually she just settled herself beside a small grove of trees and began to nap. Jimmy then sighted another, younger, lioness walking along, and, thinking that she might be looking for our first lioness, decided to wait and see how and if the two would hook up.

We had been there for about ten minutes (during which Bob was getting great pictures of the napping lioness), when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the young lioness bounding towards our land rover. As you will remember from my previous email, all the animals basically ignore us, so it was quite startling to see one that appeared to be aiming directly for us. It turned out, however, that she was not the least bit interested in us, but rather in a reedbuck (a small and very fast antelope) that she happened to come upon resting in the grass. The reedbuck had immediately taken off and, given her superior running skills, was easily out-distancing the young lioness. Unfortunately for the reedbuck, however, there was one fatal flaw in her plan. She chose, as her avenue of escape, a path that took her through the thick riverside grass straight towards our land rover and directly in front of our "napping" lioness. With literally split-second timing, the older lioness pounced from her resting spot and grabbed the poor reedbuck, mid-air, by the throat. We heard one last feeble bleat from the reedbuck, and the lioness then took her under the tree to kill her. (Lions first strangle their prey before they eat them, so the prey is at least dead when the eating starts; hyenas, on the other hand, begin to eat their prey while still alive.)

What ensued thereafter, on our part, was a mixture of repulsion and morbid fascination as to what was happening. (Remember that we were literally just feet away from all of this (on the other side of the riverbed where, less than a half hour before, we had been outside of the land rover eating breakfast!)) On the one hand, we felt so sorry for the reedbuck, but, on the other hand, we had front row seats to the animal kingdom at work.

It didn't take long for the lioness to kill her prey and soon after we could hear the crunch of bone as the eating began. (Our view was somewhat obscured by the low-hanging branches of the tree that the lioness was under.)

Meanwhile, the younger lioness, who had really done all the hard work (if this were hockey, she would have gotten an "assist"), was left to wait until the older lioness (who just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and, continuing with the hockey analogy, "scored the goal") was through eating, so that she (the younger one) could now share in the food. Interestingly though, when she did finally get her turn, the young lioness didn't eat a thing. She brought the carcass out from under the tree and then proceeded to play with it as if it were a doll - pawing at it, rolling around with it on the ground, and so on. Eventually, we left, with me seriously considering becoming a vegetarian.

In any event, our witnessing of the kill yesterday was followed by our sighting this morning of the black rhino. This occurred on a shortened game ride we took before breakfast, after which we were to leave the Mara for our next safari stop at a place called Ol Malo.

So here we are at breakfast, telling our fellow guests about our rhino sighting. We are eating outdoors overlooking the river that runs past the campground. All of a sudden, Bob notices about a dozen or so wildebeests come up to the river's edge. We all get excited because, notwithstanding that we have seen thousands of wildebeests these last few days, Bob has been disappointed that he hasn't actually seen them cross the river as part of the migration I wrote about in my last email.

We all watch, willing the wildebeests to cross the river, and, suddenly, they begin to do just that! Everyone gets out their cameras and starts snapping away, when Bob again shouts out: "Look, there's a leopard!"

Sure enough, a leopard had also noticed the wildebeests crossing, and had leapt out of the bushes to try and down one in the water. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for the wildebeests (and for me; I don't know if I could have taken a second kill so soon after the first), all the wildebeests scattered and managed to escape. It was very exciting and something that had not before been seen at the camp.

So, that's been our last 24 hours. Pretty exciting, huh?
(And, as if that weren't enough, here we are in our Cessna airplane, ready to take off for Ol Malo, when our pilot points out a huge male lion resting (now there's a surprise) right by a tree alongside the runway!)

What a safari! We couldn't have planned it better had we tried.