A View to a Kill
Around 1:30 AM Billy nudged me and whispered my name. I had been half listening to sounds outside the tent – I could make out stepping sounds so I knew it wasn’t elephants and I could hear branches moving and chomping so I knew it wasn’t lions. Once completely conscious he whispered, “Look.” My head turned towards the sounds and thanks to the bright moonlight my eyes quickly locked on to a giraffe that was literally four feet from our bed and I could hear one off the other side as well. Jenny told us she had gotten up when she heard it and walked into the bathroom to look out the window. Her face and the giraffe’s face were a mere two feet apart as it was bending down to browse on a smaller tree. Babies came through with them as well as their lighter color hair reflected the moonlight more. It was such an amazing experience!
The morning light was gorgeous and when we passed a herd of zebras it was illuminating their manes and tails in such a way as to necessitate a stop for pictures.
A few other creatures we passed along the way
This morning we were headed to a kill. Johnson had gotten word that a different pride of lions had taken down a pregnant giraffe overnight – she was apparently too burdened with the pregnancy to put up much of a fight or take flight.
Giraffes being my favorite African animal I knew it was going to be a bit sad to see but it’s the circle of life. When we arrived on scene it was a lot calmer than I anticipated. There were three lions actively feeding – a male, a lioness and a very small cub who was inside the chest cavity. There was also another male passed out nearby.
We watched a few of the lions working on the carcass for quite some time- I actually thought they’d tear chunks of flesh off with ease but they are quite methodical in how they go about feeding on it. The sounds of their teeth gnawing on skin, cartilage and bones was pretty insane.
The lions are pretty protective of their kills. They chase off anything that tries to move in on it before they are done with it – vultures, jackals, hyenas, could be killed if they get too close.
You think by now we’d be used to the lions walking right for you but every time they do, it still gets your heart pounding…
At one point the male got up and took a poop right next to the truck. Johnson warned us it would be really smelly due to all the blood they consume but we were upwind from it and spared the brunt of it. That is…until we were trying to get a better angle of them feeding and Johnson ran over it and oh my, wow! What a potent, gag-inducing smell it was. And unfortunately it was the right front tire that hit it, the one closest to Johnson and me so it didn’t dissipate as we continued to watch them. Brutal!
Since the last creature we had failed to see was a crocodile, Johnson set out to find us one. We came across yet more hippos and eventually a few crocs sunning themselves on the far bank. We couldn’t see their faces but that was OK. I always thought the Nile crocodiles were bigger than the American crocodiles but I was incorrect.
The remainder of the morning was dedicated to us going to the school to donate the last soccer ball and about two dozen picture books I had brought. As always in Kenya, the children smiled and waved at us emphatically when they saw us.
We were greeted by Benjamin, the head teacher who showed us around. Kicheche does so much for their local communities and schools and especially here it was evident. They created a library for the students out of an old shipping container and made it as comfy as possible. I didn’t see too many story books but plenty of books to be used for group reading.
Like the other school, the classrooms were spartan but the smiles were abundant. The teachers were extremely appreciative of the donations.
When the little kids saw us heading towards them they all came over for high fives, handshakes and a few hugs. They were so cute and friendly.
Education in Kenya is not free and the public schools are not even close to being adequate with most classrooms containing up to 100 pupils. Johnson said the majority of the people who are lucky enough to be employed by camps, send their children to private schools- where student numbers per classroom are half that of public (still an unbelievably high number) but costs are roughly $150 per child per trimester. That sounds reasonable until you compare that to the stone masons who worked at the camp all day building a path – they got paid $10 per day…making private school an almost impossible feat for the majority of laborers.
After school was lunch and nap time (blog work for me) and like yesterday we pushed the afternoon game drive back a bit due to the heat.
Once back out I spied a little green bee eater (that’s their real name) and received a comment of “excellent spotting,” from Johnson. They are a beautiful bird and Billy was especially thrilled because he had seen it in his bird book before coming and thought that one would be really cool to see.
We came across another herd of elephants, also with a few babies. We watched for a bit and just as we were driving away for some reason the herd was not too happy about something, maybe even us. At one point, they surrounded the littlest elephants and began making alarm calls. It was one of those “whoa” moments!
Johnson then set out to look for leopards but instead we found more lions moving about. You’d think you might get tired of seeing the same animals everyday but you don’t because every encounter is different.
We decided to go back to the kill because Johnson thought the lions would probably be done with it by now and we could witness the scavengers taking over but first Johnson asked if we wanted to go past the hyena’s den. Always wanting to see something new and different we said absolutely but we had no idea what was waiting for us.
We entered an area that looked no different than all the other areas we had driven through but immediately there were hyenas everywhere. There were loads of puppies, some only a few weeks old. Up to this point we had not seen any pack of hyenas, we had only seen them out roaming solo so it was quite the sight.
But the real sight was all the hyenas appeared to be male as all of them had their schlongs hanging out, it seemed rather bizarre. Johnson never said anything about it even when the three of us were commenting to each other about it. Well, hold on to your hats because in wanting to understand more about it, I looked it up and Whoa… all of those hyenas we thought were males were actually females. Apparently female hyenas have a pseudo penis that they urinate from, mate with and give birth through. I’ll spare you the rest of the details, but suffice it to say… whoa .
We actually got to hear their call which has made them known as laughing hyenas-pretty wild!
We passed a huge herd of cape buffaloes on our way back to the kill.
Back at the kill, the lions were still working on it. The carcass had been moved quite a distance and it had been perfectly skinned in one area. There were a few lions there, including a little cub.
A pair of jackels were nearby but not brave enough to get too close as we watched them get run off by a younger lion.
While watching them feast Johnson got a call that there were tiny cubs, like a few weeks old just down the hill. Jenny wanted to see them do we made our way down the rock strewn hillside. Turned out there were three cubs-absolutely adorable! We couldn’t see them well either the binoculars as we couldn’t get too close and the light was fading but I managed a few shots (not the best quality though).
Jenny and I had planned to do a night drive to see things from a different perspective and to try and catch a glimpse of a few of the nocturnal animals, the aardvark in particular but as it was already getting late and we were still quite a distance from camp, we decided to stayout later with the kill and then would head back in total darkness.
It is not allowed to use regular spot lights at night in the conservancy as it can obviously be blinding but red spotlights are OK.
Using the cover of darkness, a pair of jackals tried to sneak in to get to some of the entrails that were left further from the carcass.
But the lioness was having none of it.
As we headed back for camp we stopped to admire the stars, Billy pointed out the southern cross and Jupiter and were aging brightly.
We passed a few hippos headed out to spend the evening grazing on grass before they return to the water by sun up.
We really enjoyed being out at night – it was a different experience for sure!
The Maasai guard walking us back to our room at night; me praying there are no lions hanging out in the bushes!
Wandering Amerrickans 