A GREAT START TO THE SAFARI..

Since the last time we updated the blog, we had to head back to Nairobi due to an unfortunate incident and also to sort out some business. We had left our vehicle and all our camera equipment here in the Mara so after 3 weeks we decided to fly back and pick everything up.

Due to the recent rains, the grass here is very high, making spotting cats very difficult. But on the positive side, it is the low season so you can spend as much time with the cat once you have spotted it. The South side of Talek near Burrungat plains is very green and beautiful at the moment due to the recent burning of the grass.

On our first game drive, we heard Malaika and Bawa were spotted near Chumvi Chumvi area, which is quite far from the area we saw her on the previous safari. They looked to be very healthy and well fed but due to the very high grass, it looked like she needed a better vantage point to scan the horizon for prey and that is when both her and Bawa jumped on our vehicle, where they spent over an hour just sleeping. The next morning we got reports that she had made a kill, but we did not head there as we were determined to look for the leopards, who have been very elusive this time around due to the length of the grass and inaccessible areas.

Notch and 3 of the boys were spotted around Talek river, just before Fig Tree Camp, but yet again we did not head up that way. According to recent reports, Amani and her 3 cubs have moved towards the Kenya-Tanzania border but cannot fully confirm this as we have not seen them yet.

Yesterday evening, we decided just to concentrate on finding the leopard and as luck would have it, Aashit spotted it just perched up on a termite mound. We were the only vehicle there and as light conditions were not great, we decided to stay there until last light so that we could get a few shots in the golden evening light. 

We are still in the Mara for quite a few more days so we are hoping our luck continues with the big cats!

AN AMAZING TWO WEEKS IN THE MARA..

We have been back in the Mara for the last two weeks now but unfortunately, I have not been able to update the blog as my modem stopped working. Finally today, we got a new one flown in from Nairobi. 

Overall, as usual, the Mara has not disappointed but it is absolutely pouring down with rain. All the rivers and major luggas are flooded and impassable and so are most of the tracks. To sum up, below are sightings over the last two weeks:

LIONS

For the first few days, we had Notch with the Olkiombo pride females (4 to be exact) and 8 cubs just near the fig tree murram. On the first evening game drive, we managed to see the old man chase down and kill a fully grown Eland. That was just one of the most spectacular sightings we have ever witnessed in the Mara. Over the last few days, they haven't really moved far from the area, but every now and then they do cross over to the south side and back. The 4 Notch boys have been M.I.A. In the last two weeks, we have heard reports that they have been spotted with the Rongai Pride but whenever we head there, they are no where to be seen.

The other females of the Olkiombo pride have also been around (not too far from where Notch and the rest of the females were), but we have not seen them for a week now. At first they had 2 small and 1 larger cub, but the last time we saw them, one of the smaller cubs was missing and the females had loads of scratches on them.

We have not been able to make it over to the marsh as both the Talek and Olare Orok rivers are completely swollen and have been impassable for nearly two weeks now. 

A few days ago, we had a surprise sighting of a member of the Olkeju Rongai pride who we last saw just under a couple of years ago. There is a image of him above. He looks to be in great shape but was sad to see that his siblings were not around. A friend of ours has appropriately named him 'White Ear'.

LEOPARDS

Over the last two weeks we have only managed to see three leopards overall, Olive, Saba and Bahati. Bahati has still been hanging around the Rekero area, occasionally crossing on the other side towards Naibor. The last sighting we had of her was about 6 days ago when she stole a kill from the lions and took it straight up a tree.

Saba is still with Olive and as earlier reports suggested, Olive does not look like she has a new litter. The most amazing sighting was when olive killed a baby waterbuck in the long grass, dragged it to the open and hoisted up a vertical balanites tree. Later on she proceeded down the tree, went into the bushes to get Saba and the two of them fed on the kill for nearly two days up the tree. 

Lately due to the high river levels, we have not had any sightings of her.

CHEETAHS

Surprisingly, we have had loads of cheetah sightings over the last couple of weeks (10 different cheetahs in total). There is a lone female cheetah hanging around maji ya fisi area (just south of Talek gate), a lone male cheetah near the Rongai river, Honey's two boys just east of Olkiombo airstrip, Malaika and her male cub just south of Intrepids and Amani and her three cubs just a few hundred metres from Malaika.

Both Amani and Malaika have been making regular kills and we have been lucky enough to have witnessed them most of the time. Both mothers are now in the process of teaching the cubs hunting lessons, bringing the live Tommy or impala to them and letting them figure out what to do next. 

The three cubs have slowly learned how to administer the final touches to the prey, where as Malaika's cub is basically playing with the kill. Although, he still has a long way to go before he leaves mum, he needs to learn fast in order to survive.

We are still in the Mara for a few more days and hopefully we can get more sightings of these amazing cats. I will update the blog hopefully tomorrow afternoon on the sightings from this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

OASIS PHOTO CONTEST 2012!

Over the last year and a half, we had decided to take our photography to the next level and try our luck at submitting our images to different photography contests around the world. 

We are pleased to say that last year we got a semi final place in the very prestigious Natures Best Windland Smith Rice International (Smithsonian) Award for 2010. Our image of the lappet-faced vulture landing was chosen as one of 500 images out of a total 24,000 images for a spot in the semi-finals.

Last year we submitted a total of 8 images to the Oasis Photo Contest 2012 held in Italy. 7 of the 8 images made it to the semi final stage of the competition and 2 images (above) made it to the final stages out of a total 25,000 images submitted. Our hope was to win the Mammals or Birds category itself but the images didn't make it that far. Even though they did not make it that far, we are very pleased with our achievements in the past 18 months or so.

Over the past couple of months, we have been very busy concentrating on starting and registering our safari company and i am happy to say that we have finally achieved that. As a result, we have not spent a lot of time out in the bush and have not managed to update the blog regularly as we used to. But now since we have completed all the formalities required, we can now get out into the bush very soon and spend some quality time with the big cats. Please feel free to have a look at our company website:

http://www.apexphotosafaris.com   

A GREAT WAY TO END THE YEAR..

First of all a Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone from all of us in the Mara. As usual, we always say, there is no better place in the world to begin the new year except for the Mara. 

After a day spent in Nairobi, we drove down to the Mara yesterday morning and we were greeted with some beautiful sunshine. In the afternoon we decided to take it easy and do a small recon mission just to get our bearings right. As soon as we left camp, we found the Olkiombo females with very tiny, two month old cubs feeding on a zebra. Straight after that, we heard news that Olive and Saba were spotted in the same area so we rushed there but since the bush was really thick, we did not manage any shots but it was still great to see the two of them doing well.

This morning, we started the day off with Bahati just walking out in the open at the Olkiombo Airstrip. Soon as more and more vehicles arrived, she disappeared into the bush. 

At the moment in the Mara, we are having a baby boom.  Everywhere you drive, there are several females with small cubs. So after the sighting of Bahati, we decided to go and check on some female lions who were reported to have 8 cubs. From nowhere, we spotted two of the Notch boys feeding on a wildebeesr carcass. It was amazing to see these two boys walking in the open. We reckon Notch and the other boys are still with the Rongai Pride but we cannot cross the river as it is severely flooded due to the heavy rains we are experiencing.

As usual, on new years eve, we will be having a big party in the Mara and it will be awesome for our guests to spend their first new years here. Anyways once again, from all of us here in the Mara, we wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR and MAISHA MAREFU!!!!! 

A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE...

After a long 7 weeks spent in Nairobi, we are finally back out in the bush. We started the birding safari with our clients on the 25th and spent 3 days at Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru National Park and finished off with a day trip to Aberdares National Park.

The game viewing at the moment is absolutely amazing. In Naivasha we managed to capture these beautiful fish eagles fishing, where as in Nakuru we saw tonnes of rhinos, lions and our favourite - BIRDS.

Although we only spent a few hours in Aberdares, we were fortunate enough to see the very rare black headed duikers. Birding there was also very good and we managed to record a very high number of species, including the alpine chat, Jackson's francolins, malachite sunbirds, the aberdares cisticola, amethyst sunbird, scarlet chested sunbirds, golden winged sunbirds amongst many many more.

Tomorrow we are off to the Mara to see our favourite cats. Unfortunately, we are experiencing heavy rains in Kenya and also the Mara so we hope during the next few days, the rains stop or at least die down a little. 

MIGRATION AND BIG CAT UPDATE

Since the last time we had updated the blog, we have had some excellent sightings daily in the Mara both during the morning and evening game drive. Unfortunately, I have not managed to update the blog daily since we have been preoccupied with our guests (who had an amazing week long safari in the Mara).

We had been spending most of our time at the crossing points and we were never disappointed. Both us and our guests managed to catch some huge crossings daily. Crocodile action was at a minimal as during the previous crossings they still have plenty of food left and I guess it would be a waste of energy for them to try and catch one more. The main crossing point is littered with dead and rotting wildebeest bodies and at times the stench is unbearable.

Big cat sightings have been at an all time high. Every big cat we came across looked absolutely gorged and their bellies fit to explode with the plenty of food available.

The two big cats we were most concentrated on was Olive and Notch and his boys but no matter how hard we tried, we never managed to find them (although we did manage to see Olive on our very first game drive).

Malaika and her cub are still around near the pump house area and it was great to see that nearly everyday we found them, they both looked like they had fed well. The cub has really grown since the first time we saw her.

There has been a beautiful male leopard (we approximate 12 months old) been seen daily near the Serena pump house area as well. For two full days, he put on an amazing show for us while relaxing and posing on some amazing huge rocks at both sunrise and sunset.

Sadly we are now back in Nairobi as we have some business to sort out but we will be back very soon to catch the rest of the migration. It is only 2 weeks left until we are back to our home!

ANOTHER FANTASTIC DAY

The last few days in the Mara have been amazing. We have had some amazing sightings combined with some amazing light. We have had big cat sightings every where around.

We have not been able to see Notch or the boys but have got some amazing lion sightings including a kill and 2 of the 4km males yesterday evening.

Olive and Saba have not been seen for 5 days now and we are thinking that they have a kill somewhere around and no one has really tried looking for them due to the crossings.

Malaika and the cub are still around but we have not seen them for a few days now as we were really concentrated on the lions for the past two days.

The crossings have been awesome. We have literally seen thousands of wildebeest crossing in the last few days and it definitely looks like there is more to come.