The Pride of Naboisho
Our sleep last night was silent, minus the sounds of the river below us.
We got to sleep in an extra two hours this morning as we will be transferring camps so we decided not to have an early morning game drive.
We said our goodbyes to the amazing staff, loaded up the truck one last time with Brian and headed out. As soon as we topped out of the canyon onto the plains, there were herds and herds of animals – zebras, Thomsen Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle, Impala, Wildebeast, and Cape Buffalo.
As we were bouncing along a call came in that once again had Brian telling us to hold on. By this point I think Brian knew we could handle the jarring ride but this time it was more akin to taking the boat across Long Island Sound on a small craft advisory day. There’s not much to hold on to but we braced ourselves with what we could.
We were racing the clock to cover a lot of ground to a sighting of two leopards together, a mother and her seven month old cub – Endoto and Namunyak, respectively.
Brian knows the conservancy like the back of his hand and against all odds we made it in time to spend a few good minutes with the two.
Unlike Nape, Endoto is completely comfortable around cars and by the looks of it, so is her daughter. We had to warn one of the other guides that Namunyak was lying under his car so not to move. At one point, she looked right at Jenny,
One of the reasons leopards are the most difficult animals to spot is their camouflage is incredible. They literally disappear into the tall grasses and bushes, even as they are moving about.
Once the two disappeared into the bushes for good, we thanked Brian immensely for giving it his all to get there in time to see them the way we did. Our time with them was short but it was an absolute highlight.
Brian once again nailed it with a spot to enjoy our picnic breakfast and to recap the morning’s events.
Our drive out of the Mara North Conservancy and through local Maasai communities was across some of the flattest landscape I think I have traveled. About 3/4 of the way there we came across another Kicheche truck headed towards Mara North. We stopped and Brian chatted with the guide who turned out to be our guide for the next two days. His passengers boasted on how Johnson is the best guide in all of Kicheche while we begged to differ.
The drive had taken us over an incredibly dusty road and by the time we arrived to Kicheche Valley camp some two hours later, we were filthy!
We said goodbye to Brian, a very sad one actually as we had all grown very fond of him. Our first impression wasn’t a hit-it-off right off the bat moment rather he endeared himself to us in a slower but deeper manner. Jenny was actually quite upset about our goodbyes as she expressed that it’s like he’s gone forever.
We loved how he would compliment us with, “well spotted,” whenever one of us saw something before him. How you’d be talking about something and his response would be simply, “OK.” He was always checking on us, following up with Billy when he was experiencing some stomach issues and Jenny was suffering some side effects from the malaria medicine.
Billy ended up gifting Brian his US flagged Swiss Army knife a few days back. As we said goodbye Brian told us he can’t wait to get a sheath for it so he can wear it everyday.
Kicheche Valley Camp is located in the Naboisho Conservancy- another conservancy in the Maasai Mara, though smaller than Mara North but like Mara North it is a partnership between the camps and the Maasai land owners.
The terrain is a bit different than Mara North with it being less lush and though it is higher elevation it was downright hot here!
Like Kicheche Laikipia, they kindly upgraded us to their newest tent – a two bedroom family unit. And just like Mara North, our tent was the very last one down a stoned path but where the path at Mara North was wide open and cleared of all side bushes, here the path is flanked by dense bushes – just the kind of environment that lions and leopards love.
Valley camp has a bit of a different vibe than the others, feeling less like a traditional safari camp and more like a beachy vibe the staff is just as warm and welcoming here.
After settling into our tent we enjoyed lunch while taking in the views of both the landscape and the giraffes that were browsing in the trees across the way. Billy spied rodent looking creatures climbing on the branches of the whistling thorn tree (a tree with the most insane thorns). We thought they were rats but turned out they were bush hyrax.
It felt like it had gotten even hotter since we arrived so we asked to push the afternoon game drive back 30 minutes until 4:30. We relaxed in our tent with all the fans oscillating on high. It’s remarkable that all three camps we have stayed at now, are off the grid. They all run completely on solar – you would never know it.
Johnson was there waiting for us and we loaded up and headed out. If the initial moments with Brian felt a bit uncertain than these felt like an uh-oh moment. We inched along, getting a thorough rundown of the rules – no standing up when he was driving (both Peter at Brian had said of course); keep hands inside the openings at all times (it had never been an issue). Looking back at Jenny I got the feeling she might start crying again because she missed Brian and this initial exchange lacked much of a connection.
All of these guides attend a college that specially trains them in very specific curriculum matter; because of that there is a similarity in the facts they know, the subjects they are knowledgeable on (not to say that they don’t have knowledge in additional areas of interest), and how that information is delivered. There is a lot of overlap to the point that most of the facts Johnson shared we had already learned from Peter but mostly Brian – like how to tell a Thomson’s gazelle from a Grant’s gazelle (Thomson’s is smaller with more of a brown butt and the Grant’s is bigger with an almost all white butt); that the type of giraffes we are seeing are Mara giraffes not reticulated like we saw in Laikipia, they are bigger and have more jagged spots; and that giraffes in a group are known as a journey if they are moving or a tower if they are standing still.
We had heard about the lion prides at Naboisho- they are some of the biggest in the Mara. At one time there was a pride of 62, they ended up splitting into two prides and the larger of the two with over 30 members was lazing around so we headed over there to check them out. While seeing the Offbeat pride on the move was really cool, pulling up to a huge pride just hanging out was unreal.
This pride has two males – Limpy and Bully, brothers and both much larger than any of the previous male lions we had seen with fuller darker manes.
His brother Limpy
Bully was walking with a very distinct limp, Johnson said it was recently acquired, maybe via fighting with Limpy to maintain his dominance or maybe chasing another lion out of his territory and he stepped in a warthog burrow. In comparison, Bully clearly had seen some battles based on his scarred up face.
Johnson said they must have feasted overnight on something as their bellies were fat and calm and happily lazing around.
We stayed and watched the pride for a solid hour, we even had sundowners with them – in the truck of course!
On the drive back to camp, you could see lightning in the distance. We had seen it from Mara North too but at Naboisho we were closer to the area. Brian had told us, and Johnson confirmed, that the Lake Victoria basin receives rain almost every single day; usually heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms.
We stopped and watched it awhile and just like a few days prior where Jenny saw a lion’s face in the clouds, today I saw a lion’s paw.
When we came in yesterday we passed by a large hippo pool with lots of hippos in it. The road actually dipped down into the water a bit and we had asked Brian to stop so we could take some pictures. You could tell he wasn’t thrilled with the idea as we joked about it a hippo surfaced right next to us it would scare the crap out of us. I think Brian was thinking more along the lines of flipping the truck over… Most people think cape buffalos are the most dangerous African game animal, and while fierce, especially a solo male, hippopotamuses kill more people in Africa than any other animal (a little factoid I actually knew).
The hippos were amusing surfacing and submerging all the while keeping an eye on us. When a hippo submerges, it turns its ears inwards and lays them flat against their heads, covering their ear canals.
The water they live in has a high smell of sulfur from all their poop. It is also topped with what looks like oil slicks, apparently they sweat all day, even while floating around in the water. Babies are born on land but immediately brought into the water.
By the end of the day Johnson was growing on us. He, like Peter from the north, laughs at his own humor. He’s clearly well regarded as he is one of only a handful of Kicheche guides that are permanent in their respective camps. Most guides get rotated between camps but the ones who have a high number of guests returning requesting them specifically are left in place. Both Peter and Johnson are examples. Brian has only been with Kicheche for a year and a half, he’s one of the newest to the team, and will actually be starting his new two year assignment at Valley beginning on the 22nd of this month.
Wandering Amerrickans 