All too soon we've reached our last day. We have a full morning's game drive then back for lunch and a short drive to the airstrip for our 1530 flight back to Nairobi. Having done 95% of the packing yesterday I had 15 mins to spare so decided to try and check-in for our flight. This involved uploading our paperwork to the VeriFLY App which decided it didn't want to work and in the end I gave up in frustration.
After yesterday afternoon's less than inspiring drive, we told Nelson we didn't mind what we saw, we just wanted to see something. A few random images:
Rosy-Throated Longclaw
Two male Impala having a scrap; they were tearing about through the bushes so it was impossible to get a clear shot. What was really interesting was after a while another one stepped in and Nelson explained he was the peacemaker, almost saying to them "come on guys, there's a better way to sort this disagreement out"
Wattled Plover
Ian and I have debated long and hard as to what this once was and, with no degree of certainty, we've settled on cow purely going by the shape of the horn.
We headed up the escarpment and this lovely zebra was just standing there enjoying the view.
We came across a small herd of elephant with one very exuberant youngster. He (and it was most definitely a he) dashed around, spinning and turning and generally having fun.
At this young age I think the trunk almost has a life of its own, certainly the baby didn't seem to be in control of it.
It was truly special to spend half an hour with this herd; the rest of the elephants were just as lovely as the little one and they tolerated us so graciously but eventually we had to tear ourselves away and leave them in peace.
Fireball Lily (Scadoxas multiflorus)
For a moment or two I seriously considering posting a Wildebeest Special but when I looked at the photos they were a little repetitive (as are most, I know) - so here are just four of this happy little family. Not all Wildebeest are migratory and this visit we've seen far more around and although the main calving season isn't until late February we've also seen more young ones than before.
A superb Augur Buzzard
Luckily it was a big, heavy, slow moving bird so I did manage some decent shots, although why the sky changes colour in each I really don't know.
A lone, adult Warthog which helpfully stood still.
Nelson then thought we should try and find the cheetah with 2 cubs and so we headed to the area she'd been seen in yesterday (surely they can move a long way overnight) and as we were driving through some fairly thick vegetation Ian suddenly noticed something over on the left - cheetah - we were so lucky as Nelson was looking intently the other way whilst driving so we could easily missed them.
We were really lucky that we were the only truck around and so had the little beauties to ourselves for ages; the nearest truck was Patrick with Greg and his pupils and they took over an hour to get to us. Needless to say I took many, many photos so I have done another cheetah special.
A couple of pictures of the massive herd of cattle that wandered along and inadvertently messed around with the mummy cheetah's plans.
The cattle grazing on the conservancy is a little controversial as the farmers are supposed to stick to certain areas but with the long droughts over the last few years, they have started to encroach into the wildlife areas. And when you see the size of the herds, this one was about 500 head of cattle, and each animal is worth about £200 the "poor" farmer suddenly isn't quite so poor.
Greg and his gang, the ladies were quite pleasant but the chap didn't try to engage with anyone, piled his plate up at lunch each day and promptly left most of it.
Reluctantly we dragged ourselves away from the cheetahs and started our long trek back to camp. We bumped into this lone giraffe who allowed us to get incredibly close whilst he/she nibbled the tops of the acacia tree.
They really are so comical.
It's hard to imagine a tongue 45-55cm long.
Next we came across scavengers with the remains of a kill and it wasn't too hard to work out what the poor creature was once - zebra.
Marabou Stork and White-Backed Vultures
I hope this little video, made from stills, of a lappet faced vulture plays.
As we were heading back down the escarpment Nelson suddenly said he could see lions; just how he spotted them I'll never know as they were right over the other side. Anyway a bit of fast driving and we crossed the river just in time to see the 4 young males wandering along.
Here are 3 of them
One waited for the 4th to catch up
They just carried on resolutely towards us and then at the last minute walked around the truck.
This one was so close I could have put my hand out and touched him.
I'm hoping Ian's video will still be watchable as I've had to lower the quality in order to meet Blogger's upload limits.
Then literally just outside camp was a small family of elephant - we've never seen them this close to camp before so I like to think they came to say "goodbye".
What an amazing last morning we've had, we couldn't have wished for better sightings and to be on our own with no other trucks around was just the icing on the cake. Thank you Nelson.
Back to our tent for a final bit of packing and a quick wash before lunch. Mbuni is Swahili for Ostrich (last time our tent was Kobi = Leopard Tortoise).
The main tent's relaxation area, not that we had much time to enjoy it. Greg's group seemed to dump their gear all over the place which rather spoilt the look.
Suitably armed with a glass of delicious Rosé, Ian and I sat in the small tent which houses the wifi router etc in the hope that we could complete the necessary uploads to VeriFLY and thereafter check-in. I got Ian to use his phone and to mirror the steps I was taking and eventually, after watching the spinning "wheel of death" for what seemed like forever, we both successfully checked-in. Phew, just in time for lunch, which as usual was taken al fresco.
The softly spoken Abraham, always on hand to produce a glass/refill without being asked.
And William, another strong Kicheche team member (who incidentally is a dead ringer for Shane Filan of Westlife !)
The last mention goes to Darren and Emma who after managing the camp for the last 10+ years are leaving at the end of February. Apparently they were made an offer they couldn't refuse and will be working for a foundation/camp built into the slopes of the southern hills of the Mathews Range in Northern Kenya and, as I understand it, will be much more involved in both conservation and the local communities. We wish them all the very best.
