From Wim at the Wildebeest Migration: Our Lion Fest Day ODP Safaris, OutdoorPhoto, Wildlife Photography, Photographic Safari, Wim van den Heever, Topi, Zebra, Wildebeest, Wildebeest Migration, Thomsons Gazelles, Waterbuck, Oribi, Elephants, Lions, Cheetah Wims News from the Wildebeest Migration Safari: Our morning started before sunrise so that we could be position for one of those spectacular sunrises over the beautiful Masai Mara, complete with the classical East African flat-topped trees. Almost immediately we found two male lions with a female. They had a fresh zebra kill that they were hauling to a ditch where they could eat without interruption. I really need to spend a moment on two on one of the males. He is enormous, and is named Scarface - a well deserved name. He is covered in scars, and is probably one of the ugliest lions one could meet. He decided to rest at the side of the road, where we could see his exhalations in the early light. One almost forgot the ugly-as-can-be look of the lion in the enchantment of the scene. And barely 50 meters away the other male lay down, roaring into the sunrise. Together they created one of those memories one lives for in the bush. Only about 200 meters further on we could see a male cheetah, and as the light improved he got up and started to hunt. He was clearly hungry as he scanned the area, climbed a series of termite mounds for a better view, and tried to stalk anything that moved. Maybe it was his hunger, but he was always too premature in his approach, meaning that he had failure after failure. Finally he went to lie down when the day warmed up too much for a comfortable hunt, and we went off for our late coffee break. We decided to check the Mara river area to see whether any migration animals had begun to arrive in significant numbers and when we reached the Tanzanian border in the south we could see tens of thousands of wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles. They are steadily heading north and the first should reach us in a day or two. On the way back we saw about fifty animals on the river bank, preparing for a crossing. It would be one of the first, so we waited for a while, but they chickened out. Some Oribi looked beautiful against some close-by mountains with a massive afternoon storm brewing behind them. We stopped to photograph them and then noticed two more lions about 200 meters away, very clear against the background. As the storm built up we photographed elephants, zebras, wildebeest, and gazelles against the dramatic backdrop before we came across two lionesses with eight cubs aged between three and eight months. The cubs put on a cubby show for us, rolling around, chasing each other and just being cubs. But we were very keen to see what was happening with the hapless cheetah from the morning so we returned to check on him. He was lying on a termite mound, staring intently in all directions, deciding when and where to resume his hunt. When we found four more lions, bringing our total for the day to nineteen, we were almost blasé. They were just magnificent in the fading final rays of golden light. In the morning we would like to check on the cheetah again ... Wim van den Heever Wildlife Photographer Ben Cranke Wildlife Photographer
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 05:48:06 +0000
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