Feeling a little flat with the prospect of driving around looking for animals, neither of us was very bright for our 05:30 wake up call, but we realise that it’s just luck what is around. There is of course the well-known safari condition of FOMO – fear of missing out – the one time you don’t go on a drive, is when all the best sightings happen. And that's what drives you from your bed when it's still dark!
For the first hour or so there was nothing to see apart from the sunrise, which was spectacular.
Ian (unusually) was getting particularly fed up, but then we spotted Rhino in the distance and as we were driving closer we saw 3 very scruffy looking Adnim's Storks. They are not resident in the area and from their dishevelled appearance Joseph thinks they'd only just arrived after a hard journey.
A magnificent Tawny Eagle
I'm pretty hopeless with birds in flight as this picture of Grey Crowned Cranes shows.
Before long we came to this mother and baby Black Rhino.
I don't know how they manage to carry their heads, they look so heavy.
We drove on and came across about 15
Rhino, both Black and White, happily grazing together. It's quite easy to
distinguish between the two species and has nothing whatsoever to do with
colour, but with the shape of the mouth; Black have a prehensile (pointed) lip,
whereas White are square-lipped which hopefully can seen below.
And White is a corruption of the Dutch "wijde" meaning wide.
It really was very special to sit and watch these endangered animals, they are very prehistoric looking, massive yet quiet and seemingly gentle (unless roused of course!)
Not the first Lilac Breasted Roller (LBR) I've taken this holiday, but by far the best.
We bumped into another truck (not literally) and the guide was Masaai, he was happy for me to take his photo.
We then got word about that there was a Cheetah hunting and after a bit of searching Joseph spotted it hidden in the grass but a good distance away on the other side of the hill.
It was clearly after one of these poor Impala.
We watched the chase from a distance (it is policy not to follow too closely in case you interrupt nature). The Cheetah had been heading for the main group of Impala but suddenly lost pace and we thought it had given up, but it changed direction and bought down something but behind a bush so we couldn't see clearly. We were the first on the scene and the victim was a baby Impala held by the throat to suffocate it (although it was still twitching – yuk).
Which it then dragged under a bush and tucked in!
We left it in peace and drove to a man-made lake to have our morning coffee.
I'd hope to get some reflections of zebra but they were too far away and the water was quite muddy as there was a strong breeze blowing.
Fish Eagle
We were on our way back to camp, chatting away with Joseph about last year's trip to the Galapagos Islands and explaining the derivation of the name (Tortoise) when, lo and behold, in front of us was a Leopard Tortoise, one of the Small 5 (along with Ant Lion, Buffalo Weaver, Rhino Beetle and Elephant Shrew).
And finally a couple of my favourites
