The Duty Free Duo: Adventures Abroad: Lions and leopards and cheetahs, oh my!

Dec. 30, 2011 - Day 15

Today was a day of big cat sightings. We were rolling by 7:30. The sky was ominous with the promise of rain. We saw the normal critters, zebras, wildebeest, impalas, gazelles, but we didn’t even stop. We were hunting leopards.

The drivers pass information both by CB radio and as they pass each other in the vehicles. As Samson said, if we didn’t share, you could drive all day and never see anything.

We pass a guy who tells Samson about a leopard. They speak in Swahili, but they don’t call the animals by their Swahili name; we know the word for leopard –chui. Samson says they use the ‘guide word’ cause it’s easier. I suspect it’s so if your guest has no chance to know what you’re looking for, that way if you don’t find it, the guest is not disappointed.

And finding anything is a matter of real luck. You can know the approximate territory of a critter, but thousands of circumstances could influence when and where he chooses to be. So communication between the guides is essential.

Also, though this appears a trackless wilderness to we Mzungu, every trail has a name and the guides pass detailed information. One road was called ’16 kilometers from the red stone’, another was called something like – Mahitamtita. And they know exactly what tiny trail that is, and steer you straight to the animals.

Today’s leopard was high in a tree and we parked about 12 yards from him. He was sprawled across a branch, at one point with all 4 legs dangling over the sides. We sat and watched him for about 1.5 hours. That may seem like an insane amount of time to stare at a cat sleeping in a tree, but he was busy the whole time.

It was raining rather heavily by now, so the leopard was busily bathing himself. Plus, he got up and moved around a number of times, and the play of his muscles under that gorgeous coat was spell-binding. Admittedly, I’m a bit of an animal nut, but Kathryn was just as enthralled, not to mention the dozen or so other vehicles parked around the tree.

We had a fabulous spot, but the light was bad and it was raining so I hope the pictures come out OK.

It was easy to look at this gorgeous creature and just want to cuddle it like a house cat. Then, something in the distance would move, and his eyes would focus with a frightening intensity and you had know doubt you were watching a deadly predator.

When we finally left, we got a tip on some cheetahs, and we went tearing down a tiny, muddy track (the three tree road) slipping and sliding. We pass a vehicle stuck in a river crossing. Kathryn and I decide the guys was an idiot to try this spot, a ridiculously steep nose dive into the river. Samson says we can’t NOT help since next time it could be us. I agree with this philosophy, but wonder what the guy in the truck in front of us thought as he drove by without slowing.

Anyway, Samson determines to push the guy out. We think this is insane as we anticipate merely taking his place in this great hole. But Samson is confident and shoves him quite a distance. We get stuck, but Samson manages to back us out. The other dude is still spinning, but he is halfway up the other hill now. Samson gets out and barks directions at him in Swahili and dude manages to get loose.

We continue on our side of the river till we spot a cheetah WAY in the distance on the far side of the river. Truly he is a mere speck. Several vehicles are clustered and the drivers discuss the situation determining there is no way across.

Not Samson. He drives us back to the place where the other guy was stuck. He gets out of the car and looks around. Kathryn and I are like, oh well, we’ll see cheetahs tomorrow. Samson gets back in and says, “I can make it.”

It’s hard to describe how deep this crossing is. The ruts must be more than 2 feet deep, added to the depth of the ravine, and it looks impassable. Kathryn and I are not excited.

“Are you scared?” Samson asks.

“Apprehensive,” I reply.

“No problem,” he says and guns the motor. There is a substantial “THUMP”, but Samson crosses the river without even spinning a tire.

Of the half dozen trucks behind us, only two have the fortitude to brave that crossing.

Now, we begin a search for the cheetahs. The three vehicles together cruise cross country across the veldt. The beasts are nowhere in sight, they must be lying down. This feels like a real hunt as we traverse back and forth across the grasslands seeking sign.

Eventually, another vehicle pulls up fresh from the river crossing. He said from the other side, he saw them walking north. We head out the two of us, driving serpentine style, trying to flush the beasts from the high grass.

Finally we spot them, and pull up next to three cheetahs who are so unconcerned with us we stop a mere six yards fro them.

Yesterday, I told Samson I couldn’t tell the difference between a cheetah and a leopard. Now, having seen them both, the differences are obvious.

The cheetah has longer legs, a smaller face, and is slimmer, less powerful looking. In fact, the cheetah is the weakest of the big cats. Also, the coats look nothing alike, with the cheetah having black dots and the leopard has – well, spots. More like a color surrounded by black. The cheetah is built for speed.

Male cheetahs hang out together while the female is solitary. With the leopard, both are solitary once reaching adulthood, which adds to the difficulty in finding them. These are three males and they lay about preening, stretching, and just being beautiful.

That was the main gist of the morning. We saw many awesome birds; eagles, buzzards, storks, etc. but I can’t keep track of them, though I ask the name of each one and Samson diligently tells me info on its feeding habits, etc. which I promptly forget.

We also saw another small antelope, bigger than the dikdik, but smaller than the Thompson’s.

We arrive at our new ‘home’ for lunch. This ‘tented lodge’ is unbelievably luxuriant. I thought Entim camp was decadent! This place has a four posted bed and a marble bathtub, plus an outdoor shower. The main lodge opens onto a large veranda overlooking the lake where hippos and flamingos frolic.

The food is good, the beer is free, and we enjoy a brief nap before heading out on the afternoon’s adventures.

We are probably less than a mile from camp when we come across 2 lions. One is lying in the open, the other is half hidden in the grass roughly 30-40 yards away. They are facing each other, which Samson explains is to watch for game in either direction. If cat A sees prey coming, he will alert cat B through body language, who will then be first to attack and vice versa.

We watch them for a while then move on past gathering herds of wildebeest, zebra and impala. These are of interest because they clump in small areas amongst the trees , so you have 50 creatures crammed into a space the size of a living room.

We encounter another pride of 8 lions lying about. Their chief attraction is the maned- male lying flat on his back, belly and balls spread to the heavens. It is a comical sight. The others move about periodically, but this male barely stirs beyond a twitch or two of his toe.

A younger male wanders down from a rocky outcropping above and moves through the crowd greeting each lion with a brief nuzzle. He goes into the shade and collapses on top of a 7 month old cub, and they playfully paw and chew on each other’s ears for a while.

Then about half a dozen wildebeest trot by down by the lakes edge, and everybody is suddenly on alert. Samson says the wildebeest are too far off, but that doesn’t keep the lions from sitting up and eyeing them hungrily.

We depart this scene to view flamingos and storks down at the lakes edge. There are two types of flamingos, greater and lesser, greater being larger and more white, and lesser being bright pink. The storks occupy the lake by the thousands. In the distance, a troop of giraffes nuzzles the treetops.

Someone calls Samson on the radio and tells of some bat-eared foxes. We head off to find these little critters frolicking in some holes in the middle of a field. How Samson gathered this location – what he used for reference – I’ll never know.

These critters are smaller than Chihuahuas with ridiculously large ears, beady black eyes and sharply pointed snouts. The young are smaller than bunnies. They are adorable.

We watch them scurry about, chewing grass and being cute, till the shrill cry of mamma alerts them to a swooping Tawny Eagle and everybody dives into the den.

The eagle passed on to where another sat gnawing on the remains of a flamingo. The foxes cautiously peer out. The pups went right back to their play, but mamma never took her eye from the fierce birds of prey.

They were preoccupied though. At the water’s edge one of the mammoth Maribu storks stood devouring another flamingo. One of the eagles swooped over and claimed part of the remains that the stork had abandoned. So all 3 birds were now busily engaged in gorging on pink flamingo.

So ended our afternoon safari. We came back, pausing to photograph some zebras and impalas, then swung past where the two lions had set up their ambuscade. Both lay totally sacked out in the open so we continued home.

We took some beer and bitings out to the veranda and watched the hippos snort and blow. As it got colder, we scooted up to the campfire and exchanged pleasantries with our fellow travelers.