During the fifth week in Masai Mara our sightings of the three lion prides with small cubs were great as by now we could find them almost anytime we wanted to. A few of my close friend were part of this group and we had a party every night, which was long overdue. Four weeks of very serious photography does take its toll. Two of my lenses were playing up, one camera body had gone bust, my monopod was broken but photography went on.
Lioness and cubs with a wildebeets kill
Lions cubs in a playful mood – I got some of my best lion cub images in this week
We saw a small but good river crossing on the second day of the week. For the next 3 days we saw large herds of wildebeests gathering on the Mara triangle side of the Mara River but they refused to cross till a day before we were going to leave Masai Mara for good. This was the biggest crossing of my entire trip. It started early in the morning, which is unusual and went on till well after dark.
Herds of wildebeests crossing Mara river
Besides the usual, we did get some great bird and sunset pictures. It did not rain at all during this week and we got to see some amazing sunsets almost every day – which is again unusual in Mara, as there is usually a build up of clouds by late afternoon.
Tawny eagles are residents and one of the more common eagles in Masai Mara
Masai giraffe at sunset
Sunset just behind our campsite in the Mara triangle
One of my favorite birds of Mara is the Malachite Kingfisher – picture below.
Malachite Kingfisher
The highlights of this week were the two amazing leopard sightings that we had – both in the Kissinger Sausage tree area, which can get pretty crowded with vehicles. We were lucky to find these leopards without too much of a crowd.
Leopard
It was sad to leave Mara but all good things do come to an end. On the way back home we spent three nights in Nairobi to tie up our relationship with Sunworld Safari – one of the best safari companies in Africa. We are now the proud representatives of Sunworld in India.Check our Indian website out.
