Cuteness (Pt1)

Here are some of our favourite cute images from this year's safari.  Some are cute because of what they are and some are cute because of what they are doing.  We hope you enjoy them...

The gorgeous little Dik Dik

Coke's Hartebeest Mum takes the kids for a drink

Lunch time for the Zebra foal

The pretty Jackal

Little and Large

Mum an Baby Vervet

Mummy Yellow Baboon brings sleepy baby up for a kiss

Baby Topi still getting used to those gangly legs

Playful young Elephant

More to come later but in our next post we will have an awe-inspiring photo-story of incredible strength, bravery and resilience...

In the meantime, if you have enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to our chosen charity Save The Elephants through our Just Giving page.

Day Nineteen - Chill Time

We spent the day relaxing in the Backpackers, got some washing done and emptied everything out of the Landrover ready for it being collected today. We got chatting to Amy, an American girl who is planning to head down to Mombasa in stages via matatu. We showed her the Rough Guide and she was very impressed, saying it seemed much more comprehensive than the Lonely Planet Guide. She spent some time making lots of notes from it and Karen suggested we just give it to her, as we are about to head home anyway and will be buying the newest version before our next trip anyway. We also gave her the 5 gallons of drinking water we had left and handed all the spare tinned food to the chef in the Backpackers.

Jason demonstrated his Trangia cooker to Amy, the chef and anyone else who showed interest (we think he has a secret second job as a Trangia salesman).

We also met Klaus, a Danish student, studying African Politics in South Africa. He was surprised to see a Trangia in Africa.

Scooby the dog has grown quite a bit since we were here in 2008 but he is still the same people-friendly character' we have been feeding him scraps of bacon fat, so he is very friendly with us.

In the afternoon we were joined by Kevyn-Kato, a student in Environmental Studies at Kenyatta University and later Henry, a charity worker looking to set up a local NGO project. We spent the afternoon and evening discussing environmental issues and Henry picked Jason's brains on soil science for his planned agro-project. Kevin is going with Henry on Saturday to look at some potential land for the project.

It has been a very relaxing day, after the stress of last night. Tomorrow we shall be doing some souvenir shopping and probably visit the National Museum of Kenya, then we fly home in the early hours of Saturday.

Keep an eye on the blog – our safari may be over but there are loads more anecdotes to share and we have many more photos to share once we have time to have a proper look at them. We will also keep you up-to-date on future events we are planning to assist our fund-raising on behalf of Save The Elephants.

If you have enjoyed reading our blog, please consider making a donation to our chosen charity, Save The Elephants through our Just Giving page.

Day Sixteen - Another tick on the list

When we decided to return to the Mara, we did so because we still did not have some of the iconic Mara images we wanted to take. We agreed at the start that the things we wanted to photograph most of all on this visit were a Wildebeest crossing and a full-maned male Lion. Well today started where yesterday left off because around 7.30 this morning we found not one but two big full-maned Lions!

Two Kings

Although the day did not continue in such spectacular fashion, we were able to concentrate more on taking shots of Giraffe, Elephant and various antelope, focusing on showing them in the landscape, rather than in close-up.

Elephant family near Oloololo

Giraffe in woodland

We also came across two Ground Hornbills fishing for frogs in the ditch beside the track. These amazing birds have a hierarchical society where only the dominant female breeds. Once females reach maturity, they are expelled from the group, so they actually mimic males to avoid expulsion!

Ground Hornbill hunting frogs

Towards the end of the day we found a dead Hippo being eaten by Crocodiles and spent the last hour of good photographic light trying to find the Lions again without success.

Crocodile does the "Death Roll" to tear a piece of flesh from the bloated corpse of a Hippo

We now have two more nights in the Mara and already we have succeeded in the photographic goals we set ourselves.

Finally today we have some good news and some bad news.

First the good news: we would like to thank Alex Ingram for donating to our fund-raising for Save The Elephants.

The bad news is that we received a message from Lianne last night to say that Bob, our 11 year-old ferret has died peacefully in his sleep. RIP Bob.

If you have enjoyed reading our blog, please consider making a donation to our chosen charity, Save The Elephants through our Just Giving page.

Day Fifteen - Lust and Drama in the Mara

Today started straightforward enough, with Superb Starlings and a pair of Ruppel's Long-Tailed Starlings, but quickly developed into a day of lust and high drama that sums up all that the Mara is famous for. We had not gone far, when we came upon one male and two female Masai Ostriches. As we photographed them browsing, the female began to display, followed soon afterwards by the male. After about two minutes of wing-flapping and swaying, the female lay down and the male mounted her, continuing to sway. Ostriches have the most balletic courtship and this was a pleasure to see.

The flirty female Ostrich

The flashy male responds

The beautiful mating ballet of the Ostrich

Further on we found some Zebra that were very distressed and fighting among themselves and Thomson's Gazelle fighting too. All this before 9am!

Zebra fighting

Thommy in full flight as Zebra looks on

Thomson's Gazelle fighting

We then headed round some of the Wildebeest crossing points until we found one that had a herd of Wildebeest massing nearby. We were very pleased to see the Rangers moving everybody back to allow the animals to do what comes naturally. We were especially pleased when a Landrover full of Chinese (complete with parasols!) and diplomatic number plates steamed right past us and down to the crossing, that the Rangers gave them what for and sent them packing. Big thumbs up to the Mara Rangers. We continued to wait for the crossing to start and we waited and we waited and we waited. Eventually, after three hours baking in the mid-day sun, the crossing started and it was as spectacular as anything we have seen.

The crossing starts...

The charge is under way

Almost all of the Wildebeest made it across un-scathed but one poor animal was grabbed by a large Nile Crocodile. He put up a terrific fight for over twenty minutes, as up to three Crocodiles grabbed him, trying to pull him into deeper water and tearing at his flesh.

Crocodiles grab the poor Wildebeest

He fights desperately as they drag him to deeper water

Torn and bleeding, he continues to fight for his life

Against all the odds, this plucky Wildebeest battled free from the Crocodiles and finally found safety on the shore he had left from, over 100 metres downstream. It was a breathtaking finale to a fantastic day in the Mara.

Against all the odds, our plucky hero survives!

Back at the Oloololo Campsite, we made our fire and enjoyed the company of some Zebras as darkness fell.

Jason relaxing by the fire with some stripey company

If you have enjoyed our blog, please consider making a contribution to our chosen charity, Save The Elephants via our Just Giving Page.

Day Fourteen - Welcome to the Mara

We left the Mara Springs around 8am and headed through the Sekenani Gate to the Masai Mara National Reserve. Almost immediately we were photographing Zebra, Giraffe and Wildebeest. We were also welcomed by a family of Elephants, which included a very young baby and saw large numbers of Topi.

Topi sparring

There were some very large Wildebeest and Zebra herds between the New Mara Bridge and Mara Serena Lodge.

Masses of Wildebeest

Later we also photographed Warthogs with babies.

Warthog with hoglets

We then found a Spotted Hyena den and photographed a shy baby Hyena.

Curious but shy, this baby Hyena couldn't resist checking us out

At the Oloololo Campsite, we set up camp next to a mother and baby Elephant and a small herd of Zebra.

If you have enjoyed our blog, please consider making a contribution to our chosen charity, Save The Elephants via our Just Giving Page.