Lions and leopards on spa day

Lions and leopards on spa day
A leopard strolling past our Land Cruiser this morning.

Today we went on a safari from 7:00 to 1:00, then we spent the rest of the day at the hotel. This was our first afternoon/evening with no plans, a chance to recharge before we fly to Amboseli National Park tomorrow, and we spent it at the pool, in the bar, getting massages, and generally just relaxing.

A herd of gazelles watching a jackal approaching through tall grass.

We started our day by visiting several spots along the Mara River north of the bridge. We were scanning the shores of the river for lions, because there are lions in this area, but didn't see any.

The Mara River at the bridge. The old bridge washed out during a flood six months ago, and this photo is taken from the bridge, which was constructed in 14 days.

Then Willie got word that there were four lions up above the river nearby – two adult females and two cubs – so we drove quickly to that spot. We saw the lions walking across a hillside, but I didn't get any photos because we were moving quickly across rough terrain.

Willie got us into a position where we had a view of the lions when they came through a small stand of trees. But we only had a good view of one of the adult females, who came out of the trees and saw us, and then sat watching us while the others crossed behind her and disappeared into the trees again. Then she turned and followed them.

Female lion watching us while the others moved back into the trees.

After briefly looking for the lions, we decided they weren't going to be visible any time soon so we went back to the river to continue exploring down there.

Hippos in the Mara River.
We stopped to check out this bird across the river, then noticed a crocodile on our side of the river.

We drove past a herd of gazelles, and Willie pointed out that they were clustered tightly together and looking nervous, which meant there was likely a lion, leopard, or cheetah nearby. We crossed a stream and found why they were nervous: two male lions were near the carcass of a buffalo that they had killed last night. One lion was sleeping in the shade nearby, and the other was pacing around the carcass. After we arrived, the lion at the carcass walked over to join his companion for a nap in the shade.

There were four vultures sitting in a tree a few hundred feet away, and Willie told us that if they tried to go to the carcass the lions would race back to it to defend their food. So we parked in a spot to have a good view of that, but after ten minutes the vultures were still in the tree so we decided to move on.

Giraffes under an acacia tree.
Two female lions laying in the grass. We waited for a while, but instead of getting up they both lay down to take a nap.

Next we had some excitement when Willie heard that there was a leopard spotted in the area. We drove over a hill and saw vehicles clustered around the leopard, about a half mile away.

Those vehicles were at the leopard, but there was a little problem: a small river is running along that white line. We raced over a mile to the left to find a spot where we could cross, then raced back up the other side.
Whereas some of the lions we've seen looked rough and dirty, this leopard was spectacular.
We made one more stop on the way back to the hotel, and this sign on the Tanzania/Kenya border.

Back at the hotel, we said goodbye to Willie for 24 hours. He's driving the 300 miles to our next destination, a hotel at Amboseli National Park. He has most of our luggage with him, and will sleep south of Nairobi tonight. We're having a relaxing afternoon and evening, then tomorrow morning we'll head to the dirt airstrip nearby to take a small plane to Amboseli, where we'll be reunited with Willie and our luggage.

A group of giraffes was visible from our room this afternoon.
Megan and I took a dip in the pool. There were some elephants down on the plain below.
We all got massages here, and they were great. I wasn't expecting a massage room with a view!

It's been fun to be at Maasai Mara for the weekend, and tomorrow we're moving on to Amboseli National Park.