Last night as we were all going to sleep, we could hear the hippos in the river below making noises. We have slept every night with our tent flaps open so hearing the sounds around us has been easy!
Our morning game drive had us back with the Offbeat Pride but unlike previous sightings, this time, the entire pride was on the move. It is a completely different perspective having all the lions moving about versus just one or two at a time while they shift napping locations.
At one point the male lion came straight for our truck. Jenny was lying on her belly watching them but as he came directly towards her she dropped her gaze and I stopped filming for a few seconds because I got quite uncomfortable watching it happen.
The morning light was too magical so we stayed with them a while taking pictures.
The lions have quickly become Jenny’s favorite, overtaking the warthogs. She loves how they interact with each other and how when one of the lionesses reunites with the pride she goes around to all the other lions and “greets” them. We followed the lions for quite some time until they eventually disappeared into the bush.
We headed over to an area that is known to be a leopard hang out but all we found were a huge water buffalo wallowing in the mud and not too pleased to see us, an eland (the largest of the antelope family), and some cheeky green faced monkeys – a sight to see from the back end.
Brian found a little belt spot for our breakfast picnic in the shade of a giant acacia tree.
We passed by this beautiful little pond and noticed that there were two hippos hanging out in it. Hippos stay in water all day long as their skin is exceptionally sun sensitive. They leave the water at night to feed on grass traveling up to 3 miles per evening.
We made it back to camp a bit early because both Billy and Jenny were feeling pretty wiped out. I ended up dining for lunch solo but don’t feel sorry for me. It was a beautiful location, a delicious meal, andand Fred took good care of me.
Billy decided to skip the afternoon game drive but Jenny joined in after recharging her batteries.
We started off across the river from our tent- an apparent leopard hang-out… but today the only thing hanging out was this little bird who was calling his heart out and hitchhiking a ride.
We ran into another large herd of elephants with lots of young ones, especially three highly entertaining little ones. The one was so entertaining as it was playing with straw and at one point got it stuck on its head while another came and plopped down on top of a smaller one.
At one point we noticed it looked like one of the littlest elephants was eating the poop from its mother. Brian said they do that in order to seed their bellies with bacteria that allows them to break down the fibrous plants they eat- a sort of probiotic.
We honestly could have sat and watched this herd until nightfall but we let them be after about 30 minutes or so.
We searched a little longer for leopards to no avail so we headed for evening sundowners. Jenny told Brian she’d like to get a picture of a giraffe on the horizon at sunset so if he saw it, to please stop and wouldn’t you know it…
Brian picked a great spot overlooking a pond with three hippos.
You ready for a little hippo entertainment?
It was our final night at Mara North Camp. We had the most incredible time here. We loved everything about it but most especially the staff. They are some of the warmest, kindest, most genuine people- we took an exceptional liking to a few of them, especially Johnathan the Maasai security guard who walked us back to our tent every evening and picked us up every morning before dawn.
Wandering Amerrickans 