Now settled into camp in the Maasai Mara and we have six days to explore this bountiful, game filled sanctuary. The migration animals are still here in huge numbers and there has been rain in the month since I was last here, bringing a green flush to the rolling plains and wonderful cloudscapes overhead. Our first day started well when we went to find the lions which had been serenading us all night with their grunting roars. Two young males fast asleep just about a quarter of a mile from camp. We were tempted to arouse them out of their stupor and gain a modicum of revenge for a noisy night but held back, this is their world after all and we the visitors.
From these two comatose felines we went on to three very much awake male cheetah who were feasting on a young wildebeest they had killed. These boys are quite famous in this part of the Mara and often take on fairly large prey. We watched them finish off their meal and then head out looking for a shady spot to lie down in and rest.
Meanwhile Amanda had been out in her car and found a pride of three lioness and their three offspring and we enjoyed watching the cub playing with an old flip flop which he had found somewhere (hopefully the owner had not been found at the same time!). That evening we went to visit the pride again, just a couple of minutes from camp and we were just in time to witness the youngest lioness hunt down a wildebeest yards in front of us.
A lunge out of cover, dust and panicky hoofs, chasing in front one way and then the other before she pulled down an old male in a flurry of hoofs and dust. As the dust settled and she suffocated him with a firm grip on his windpipe, the surviving wildebeest looked on behind her from a safe distance. She then then dragged her kill into cover before going off to fetch the other pride members and we watched as they tucked into a well earned meal. The sated lions then played and groomed each other as the day wound down to night. A wonderful first day in the Mara!
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