Up at 6am, out on safari at 6.30am after a quick cup of tea and a bit of sponge cake to get us started!
Early morning safari
Being 5000ft above sea level and the sun not yet up struck me that it was bloody freezing! The afternoon before at been 30 in the shade and now we were having to wear jumpers to keep warm.
Amazing colours though as the sun started to rise on the horizon
As soon as we were out we saw hyenas and warthogs, then just a few minutes drive and there they were, a small pride of lions sleeping in the rising sun. Judging on how skinny they were, I don’t think they had eaten in a while either!
Then just a few hundred yards away were the cubs for this pride, also basking in the sun being baby sat but a single lioness.
It became clear that it was going to be the day for lions, not far away was another pride (or maybe the same pride split up). This pride had very baby cubs about 3 months old. The adult lions sat up took one look at us, sighed and went back to sleep, the babies came towards the jeep making sounds of, what can only be described as meowing!
Then came one of my favourite photos, the pride all decided to move on and after we had left them actually came towards us and then straight past us. This shot is of them walking off into the distance with the cubs skipping behind, occasionally turning to look at us.
Peter knew the male of the pride wouldn’t be too far away. Far enough to be out of the group but close enough he could keep an eye on them and protect them. And along with it another one of my favourite photos.
Peter then tried to find us a rhino, but unfortunately due to the fact they had in the past almost been hunted to extinction there are only 21 left in the Masai Mara and so it proved to be a task we couldn’t complete.
Post-breakfast safari
Out again and this time we’d take a trip to a traditional Masai village
Then off to the the hippos (the only area close by that had deep enough water for hippos to submerge themselves).
Along the way some more zebras too!
Afternoon safari
We came across an adult male elephant, they call a tusker. Peter kept the engine of the jeep running as this tusker was flapping his ears, a sign that he wasn’t happy with us being there and might charge at us.
We also found a group of cheetah brothers on a small grassy hill
Over the radio we heard something in swahili and Peter rushed off to join other groups. They had found a mother and baby leopard asleep in a tree!
More photos from Safari can be viewed in my photo gallery at http://www.richardhyland.me.uk/collections/categories.php?cat_id=23