The Kill
We arrived back at camp to find tea eating for us! Roast potatoes, barbecued beef, and a very nice mix of carrots, green beans, and courgette. This was probably my favourite food since we arrived.
Heeeere’s Hyena! (The bin was about 2 feet in diameter, so the Hyena was pretty big!)
Chris come and chase me round the table to get this rubbish off me! (Misty I miss youuuuu ;_;)
My attempts at astral photography have improved. My aim was no good though, missed the Milky Way entirely!
The thing really limiting me now is that i need manual focus as auto focus complains that it is too dark and refuses to take a photo, but I can only force it to do manual with the big lens, so it has to be relatively zoomed in. Still, getting there!
Delicious leaf!
We seem to have interrupted his lunch. They are totally not bothered by people though, I was within a couple of feet of this one at one point
This one is a Tree Hyrox. Slightly less fat, slightly less brown
A nice smile for the camera
Why is it licking it’s lips like that whilst looking at us?!
The cheetah is the fastest land animal. It is a courser: the method of hunting is just to overwhelm the prey with it’s speed, compared to the other big cats who are stalkers
Still a bit of sleep in his eye. It was early after all!
Cheetahs mate for life and live with only their partner, and their children if they have any. The do not form packs
Speed king on the run. A cheetah can run at 115kmph, but only for 200-300 meters. This was barely a trot comparatively
This Maribu Stork is cooling down. The Nile Crocodile photobombed it
A small bird of some kind at a bathroom stop. I like the detail on its feathers.
Truly Superb flying!
Speaking of flying, these are Kori Bustards, one of the heaviest flying birds in Africa, reaching up to 25 kilos
Another newbie, the Grant’s Gazelle. Quite similar to Thompson’s Gazelle, except larger, and with no black stripe on the side
Two Masai Giraffes on the horizon and green serenget. This is green because of intentional burning to clear off the old grass. The roads are natural barriers to contain these burns
Looking the other way, yellow serenget
The most exciting was yet to come! This Cheetah was sat majestically atop a hill...
Time for a scratch. So cute!..
But wait, what was that?! The Cheetah ambled down to be quite close to our truck...
And suddenly shot off like a missile! I was quite lucky to get this photo as I just swung the camera wildly and shot...
It turned out to be chasing a Hare. The Hare made a good show of it, weaving from side to side and frustrating the Cheetah. I thought it might escape at one point, but as you can see, it didn’t make it. Having got a good photo of the cheetah running I was able to just watch this moment of raw nature. The kill happened about 5 meters from our truck, certainly not much more! Seeing a Cheetah make a kill is incredibly rare, due to their relative scarcity (compared with Lions for instance). The last time Patrick saw one was 3 years ago, and it is his job to go on safari!
“Don’t even think about taking my hare” he’s probably thinking. Cheetahs are far less shy than most animals here, sometimes jumping on bonnets of cars for warmth, and so it just plonked down right where it killed the hare to eat! I also ate a little bit of my lunch so I can say I had lunch with a Cheetah :)
The camouflage is EXTREMELY effective. This is at max zoom from my big lens, from about 5 meters and from above somewhat, and you can only barely make it out! Cheetahs have solid spots, whereas leopards have spots with a ring of brown around them.
A pride of lions also tried to get in on the action... well one of them did at least. Without the rest of the pack bothering to help the Warthog easily escaped! A lone Lion can’t just chase down prey easily, as I mentioned earlier: they need to stalk the prey to make the distance small.
Male lions don’t hunt much anyway, but this one had an important job; childcare! On another day maybe this father baby combo might have been the highlight!
There were a few more lions as we exited the park, but we had to hurry to avoid paying $2300 for an extra day for the group! This is looking over the Serengeti from Naabi Hills, where the gate of the park is
Another variant of Agama Lizard. Let’s call it Purple Agama Lizard
The Superbly Evil Starling (actually Red Eyed Starling)
Another Superb Starling for comparison. And because they are great
Looking out over the serenget
We had our packed lunches at the park gate, making it with 10 minutes to spare before having to pay for another day (the Cheetas held us up!). After leaving the Serengeti we crossed some very dusty plains and shortly crossed into the Ngorongoro conservation area, which encompasses most of the dusty plains, along with the Ngorongoro Crater, obviously!
Believe it or not this is NOT the best view I’ve had from a campsite! Atop the mountain on Lombok was truly spectacular
It won for most zebras though. At one point coming back from the toilet in the night I had to wait for one to leave from in front of my tent (animals have right of way) before getting back in. It’s also worth mentioning that there was to be NOTHING at all fragrant (including toiletries) in the tents, or this would attract Forest Hogs: massive African boar type creatures that will determinedly break into your tent for a tube of toothpaste. We didn’t have any intrude, but there was an Elephant behind the kitchen, which is far scarier than a Hyena. Hyenas are timid and won’t attack humans unless starving, and easily scared by light. Elephants on the other hand are not scared by light, and each of the tusks of an adult male weighs around 150 kilos!
Andy and I braved the Zebra infested camp at night for a (likely) final crack at Milky Way pics, and I think I can say I succeeded!
Also there was the slightest bit of WiFi at camp last night. Not enough to blog, but I could message at least. In honour of my fallen editor Vicky (who has only fallen due to the fact I don’t actually need an editor unless I am in a google restricted zone: she is alive and well), here is a Misty pic of the day!
Afterwards we were sitting round the campfire when there was a crash. The bin had been knocked over by a Hyena! But it wasn’t over, a few minutes later the bin started moving, as the Hyena returned to drag it’s prey off into the dark. The bin belonged to another group, and their leader went and scared it off and retrieved the bin, but the rubbish was still there and the Hyena kept coming back for it, less than 10 meters from our fire!
Heeeere’s Hyena! (The bin was about 2 feet in diameter, so the Hyena was pretty big!)
Chris come and chase me round the table to get this rubbish off me! (Misty I miss youuuuu ;_;)
My attempts at astral photography have improved. My aim was no good though, missed the Milky Way entirely!
The thing really limiting me now is that i need manual focus as auto focus complains that it is too dark and refuses to take a photo, but I can only force it to do manual with the big lens, so it has to be relatively zoomed in. Still, getting there!
The campsite was very busy, which meant it was noisy at night with people doing random things, so I went for the earplugs, but before going to bed I managed to hear a Lion in the night.
As usual we were up before 7am, and once again I awoke before my alarm... doubt I’ll be doing this back home! We had to assemble our own sandwiches for lunch as there isn’t a good place to stop and cook (everywhere is too dusty, in fact everywhere since Nakuru (meaning Dusty Place remember) has been more dusty than there!), then there was the usual coffee and cereal, plus omelette, which i skipped because I wasn’t that hungry: probably ate too much last night!
Today we were doing a transitory game drive, exiting the Serengeti and entering Ngorongoro Crater (pronounced go-Ron-go-ro, emphasis on the ron), where we will be camping at the rim of the crater before descending in 4x4s (I don’t know if I mentioned, but we have been safari-ing in the truck) tomorrow. We had to stop at the visitor centre we visited yesterday to use the bathrooms as the water had run out in our campsite. This meant more Hyrox photos!
Delicious leaf!
We seem to have interrupted his lunch. They are totally not bothered by people though, I was within a couple of feet of this one at one point
This one is a Tree Hyrox. Slightly less fat, slightly less brown
A nice smile for the camera
Afterwards we were off through the Serengeti again, and about to have one of our most exciting encounters to date!
Why is it licking it’s lips like that whilst looking at us?!
The cheetah is the fastest land animal. It is a courser: the method of hunting is just to overwhelm the prey with it’s speed, compared to the other big cats who are stalkers
Still a bit of sleep in his eye. It was early after all!
Cheetahs mate for life and live with only their partner, and their children if they have any. The do not form packs
Speed king on the run. A cheetah can run at 115kmph, but only for 200-300 meters. This was barely a trot comparatively
This Maribu Stork is cooling down. The Nile Crocodile photobombed it
A small bird of some kind at a bathroom stop. I like the detail on its feathers.
Truly Superb flying!
Speaking of flying, these are Kori Bustards, one of the heaviest flying birds in Africa, reaching up to 25 kilos
Another newbie, the Grant’s Gazelle. Quite similar to Thompson’s Gazelle, except larger, and with no black stripe on the side
Two Masai Giraffes on the horizon and green serenget. This is green because of intentional burning to clear off the old grass. The roads are natural barriers to contain these burns
Looking the other way, yellow serenget
The most exciting was yet to come! This Cheetah was sat majestically atop a hill...
Time for a scratch. So cute!..
But wait, what was that?! The Cheetah ambled down to be quite close to our truck...
And suddenly shot off like a missile! I was quite lucky to get this photo as I just swung the camera wildly and shot...
It turned out to be chasing a Hare. The Hare made a good show of it, weaving from side to side and frustrating the Cheetah. I thought it might escape at one point, but as you can see, it didn’t make it. Having got a good photo of the cheetah running I was able to just watch this moment of raw nature. The kill happened about 5 meters from our truck, certainly not much more! Seeing a Cheetah make a kill is incredibly rare, due to their relative scarcity (compared with Lions for instance). The last time Patrick saw one was 3 years ago, and it is his job to go on safari!
“Don’t even think about taking my hare” he’s probably thinking. Cheetahs are far less shy than most animals here, sometimes jumping on bonnets of cars for warmth, and so it just plonked down right where it killed the hare to eat! I also ate a little bit of my lunch so I can say I had lunch with a Cheetah :)
The camouflage is EXTREMELY effective. This is at max zoom from my big lens, from about 5 meters and from above somewhat, and you can only barely make it out! Cheetahs have solid spots, whereas leopards have spots with a ring of brown around them.
A pride of lions also tried to get in on the action... well one of them did at least. Without the rest of the pack bothering to help the Warthog easily escaped! A lone Lion can’t just chase down prey easily, as I mentioned earlier: they need to stalk the prey to make the distance small.
Male lions don’t hunt much anyway, but this one had an important job; childcare! On another day maybe this father baby combo might have been the highlight!
There were a few more lions as we exited the park, but we had to hurry to avoid paying $2300 for an extra day for the group! This is looking over the Serengeti from Naabi Hills, where the gate of the park is
Another variant of Agama Lizard. Let’s call it Purple Agama Lizard
The Superbly Evil Starling (actually Red Eyed Starling)
Another Superb Starling for comparison. And because they are great
Looking out over the serenget
We had our packed lunches at the park gate, making it with 10 minutes to spare before having to pay for another day (the Cheetas held us up!). After leaving the Serengeti we crossed some very dusty plains and shortly crossed into the Ngorongoro conservation area, which encompasses most of the dusty plains, along with the Ngorongoro Crater, obviously!
After a couple of hours drive we started to climb some hills and FINALLY escaped the Great African Rift Valley (I did say we would be in it for much of our trip)! An hour or so’s climb with not stops (if we stopped the truck would be unable to start again!) and we arrived at our campsite.
Believe it or not this is NOT the best view I’ve had from a campsite! Atop the mountain on Lombok was truly spectacular
It won for most zebras though. At one point coming back from the toilet in the night I had to wait for one to leave from in front of my tent (animals have right of way) before getting back in. It’s also worth mentioning that there was to be NOTHING at all fragrant (including toiletries) in the tents, or this would attract Forest Hogs: massive African boar type creatures that will determinedly break into your tent for a tube of toothpaste. We didn’t have any intrude, but there was an Elephant behind the kitchen, which is far scarier than a Hyena. Hyenas are timid and won’t attack humans unless starving, and easily scared by light. Elephants on the other hand are not scared by light, and each of the tusks of an adult male weighs around 150 kilos!
Andy and I braved the Zebra infested camp at night for a (likely) final crack at Milky Way pics, and I think I can say I succeeded!
Another early start tomorrow as we will be descending into the Ngorongoro Crater in 4x4s for our last game drive of the trip!
Also there was the slightest bit of WiFi at camp last night. Not enough to blog, but I could message at least. In honour of my fallen editor Vicky (who has only fallen due to the fact I don’t actually need an editor unless I am in a google restricted zone: she is alive and well), here is a Misty pic of the day!
Fantastic blog Chris. Great photographs
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