Jumbo my little Wart Hogs

Well today was our last Safari day. Our ever faithful Jackson came in to wake us up at 6.00 complete with hot chocolate and cookies and we were back in the jeep at 6.30. Isaac had packed a ‘special’ breakfast for us to eat whilst we were out as we needed to be back at the hotel by 11.30 as we were having an early lunch and then off to the airport!

Today we were in search of the Leopard – any leopard would do and so far it had managed to elude us…today was no different! We drove for miles and hours and still no leopard. We did however find quite a dead looking buffalo and the hyena’s were busy munching on it. The Lions kill it and have first pickings and then when they are full up – it’s a free for all. 4 Hyenas were sucking it’s brains out and dismembering it’s spine by the time we got there. There was no body…… nor legs – just the head and spine. The other Hyenas in the area had noticeably already had their feast as they were basking in mud pools (left from the rains) quite content to look on. – fortunately oblivious to us. Obviously a picture opportunity!!

Still on the trail of the lonesome Leopard we stumbled across another carcass, this one being about 3 hours old. The vultures circling above kind of gave the game away. Another photo opportunity – but this one was an antelope type animal….difficult to be exact considering it has no skin, flesh or belly. What was left were the horns, the head – more like a skull really and the skeleton. It still had it’s arms and legs attached but it was all skeleton/bones – all the flesh had been sucked off. The smell of it was like rancid meat (not that I’m overly familiar with that smell) but it was enough to make you vomit. It was also still covered in blood. Isaac said that by the end of the day, it would be completely dismembered by the vultures and hyenas – bit like the Hannibal Lecters of the jungle.

We had breakfast Al Fresco and Isaac let us out of the car today!! Obviously we weren’t allowed to wander too far as there were Hippos’s and Buffalo in the area but it was a blessing to get out and stretch our legs.
As the engine was still hot from all our driving around, Isaac placed all the ‘what should be hot’ food on the engine to warm up. Sadly he did the same with the cereals, yogurts and fruit!!

After breakfast – we were off again. We watched a failed ‘kill’ This is when the lion spots a vulnerable animal, stalks it for a while and then goes in for the kill. It’s far more successful when there are two lions as they tend to have a strategy whereby they circle their prey and then go in for the kill. Fortunately for the Wart Hogs, there was only one lion who had failed to see that there were two Wart Hogs. When he started his breakfast run – both hogs shot off in different directions completely confusing the lion, as he didn’t know which one to go for. By the time he made a decision, it was too late – both were out of his reach. Relief all around as I didn’t really want to see a real life kill and Indy and I were cheering the Wart Hogs on whilst the girls were cheering the lion on.

We have become the Von Trap family of the Massai Mara – All ‘Lion King’ songs were sung on a daily basis, especially the Wart Hog song, followed by Jungle Book songs and any other animal song we could thing of which were relative.

Desperately needing to go to the toilet and not wanting to go Al Fresco style, it was time to head back – great relief to my bladder. I have decided that I’m not all that comfortable being one with nature especially after seeing the size of the bugs, ants and other nasty looking things hanging around in the grass.

Once back in our tents, bladder restored to its original size, it was time to have lunch, pack up and head to the airport.
The airport is a very small strip of land in the middle of nowhere with a couple of incy planes sitting on the dried mud which doubles as the runway. There are no customs, toilets or duty free shops (hahahaha). Our plane was already waiting for us (we were a bit late) and once again we were happy that everyone had a rucksack as our 5 overweight cases needed to go on + 6 pieces of hand luggage. It’s good that we travel light!

Sadly the Safari part of our holiday is now over. We have about 1200 pictures which we will try and condense and are giving you advance warning – look interested!!

We are now about to arrive in Malindi and then go to our hotel. This is the beach and fishing part of our holiday. We are all excited for different reasons and we sincerely hope that Indy manages to catch his elusive Marlin as we won’t be coming back next year…..

Until tomorrow (if the Somalians don’t get us first) – I bid you adieu

Lots of love – Happy Chunukah and toodle pip.

Anna x