2017/09 Part 5 Masai Mara - Sat noon Across Mara bridge |
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We crossed the little bridge over the river into another area of the park
. We saw this croc lurking near the bridge and these marabou storks downstream, available for any clean-up duties.
The bridge was guarded, presumably to prevent 
poaching. These were the pretty park buildings next to the bridge.
The bridge brought us to the sausage trees. Nzuki showed us one that had been opened and it was rather disappointing, a mass of fibrous pulp and large seeds, but the animals like them. 
This strange, large bird is another kind of hornbill, the ground hornbill.
We found a very different gathering of lions, four bachelors, just hanging out and hoping one of the others would get up and go out and bring back a pizza, or a zebra or a wildebeest. Life is 
tough when you don’t have lionesses around to do your hunting. That’s why this one had posted his profile picture on an online mating site. 
This hyena came prowling past, teeth bared in anticipation.
We found yet another lion, this one fast asleep in a gully. We wondered if it was dead at first, but then it rolled over, saw us, and yawned. .
A warthog with a couple of piglets came by. Maybe she knew the lions weren’t hungry…yet.
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We were responding to a radio message and heading towards a reported leopard in a tree, when Nzuki made an abrupt U-turn. “Rhino in the bush”, he explained as we were picking ourselves up. Clearly, rhinos trump leopards. Justifiably, as the leopard probably wouldn’t have moved before we got back from the rhino.
We got to the site of the rhino sighting but saw nothing. The rhino was thought to be in an area of dense trees and shrubs and we danced around the area looking for movement, without any luck. Then the shrubs moved and a very large dark shape loomed behind them, and then disappeared never to be seen again, at least by us. However, on looking at our photos, we had captured a very large dark thing with a rhino tail and rhino eyeball, as roughly outlined in the picture. Not as good as the pictures of our Serengeti rhinos, but much closer.
Heading back towards the leopard we saw this shipyard landscape of giraffes, and Sandie captured this neat picture of a dining giraffe. 
We also interrupted a heated discussion between lappet-faced vultures, presumably about food.
I captured this hyena crossing our path at high speed, but it was only later that I realized it was carrying a trophy, a piece of some other animal’s kill, which might explain the rush.
We finally got back to the leopard, which was still in the tree. We took our turn at a close up and were then moved on by the ranger who was making sure the leopard wasn’t being harassed.
The secretary bird is one of our favourites, an opinion probably not shared by the frogs and lizards it preys on.
Yet another hyena but this one was laid back in its hot tub and looked to be feeling no pain.
While we were watching the secretary bird and the hyena we saw a lioness coming towards us through the grass. She dropped down into one of the gullies for a drink.
We also went down into a gully and found that getting out was more difficult than getting in. We helped in the only way we could: bouncing our weight over the rear wheels!
These gigantic hooded vultures were rooting around on the ground amongst a mass of body parts, remains of a recent kill.
Our game drive in the Masai Mara was coming to an end as Nzuki had to set off for Samburu, so we began our return to the lodge.
But we weren’t done yet! On the way back we met two more lions lazing 
in the shade of a tree. For this one the next hunt was still in the planning phase.