Lions and leopards on spa day

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.



Sunrise from the hotel lobby, Willie arriving with the freshly washed and sparkling clean Land Cruiser, and a few balloons taking off from the valley below our hotel.

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.

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.

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.



Two large Maasai giraffes - male on the left, female on the right.



Other animals we passed while searching the river area. There are a huge number of animals in Maasai Mara, and it's rare to go more than a minute or two without seeing something.



A young crocodile in the Mara River. This stretch of the river is where the wildebeests famously cross by the thousands during their annual migration.

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.




Scene of a buffalo kill from last night.
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.


As we were driving away, the vultures left the tree but stayed away from the carcass. They circled high in the sky, and soon two more vultures joined them. By the end of the day there will be a cloud of vultures circling this spot.



Inside the Land Cruiser. Megan, Marsha, and Rhonda all had binoculars, and I was taking photos with my Nikon.

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.






It was chaotic around the leopard, with about 20 safari vehicles present and everyone jockeying for position. When the leopard came up out of the creek bed, Willie got us into a position in front of it, and the leopard walked right under our front bumper and passed us. It seemed unfazed by all the vehicles nearby.


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.


I posted a photo of the view from inside our room when we arrived, and here are two photos of the outside of our room.



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