Up at 6 ......well the tea arrived and for the first time we were stuck to the mattress. John relented first and got the tea tray and made the tea - he then quickly showered but didn't shave I quickly showered and we arrived just 5 minutes late - but it could have been so much more! Because the guide and vehicle are only for us it meant we were not impacting on anybody else......otherwise I am sure we would have wiggled faster!
We took a packed breakfast with us and went out in search of wildebeest - that was Mdebe's easily completed target .......it is nonetheless a spectacle seeing thousands and thousands of wildebeest dotted over the plains together with their newborns. One we watched was clearly having difficulty giving birth - a head and 1 leg were out and that was how it stayed as we watched her lie down and get back up and then walk following the others for 20-30minutes ........in the end we left her in case we were putting her off - who knows if she finally gave birth and baby survived.
The recently seen wild dogs eluded us but we did see 3 great cheetahs -a mum and 2 offspring - lying on a gravel mound(today's picture). We also saw lots of tawny eagles - most trees seemed to have one on top - they apparently take young wildebeest so are here for the food supply together with lots of scavengers - Ruppels, lappet faced and white backed vultures and marabou storks we also saw a plenty.
While searching for the wild dog who have been in the area for a few days we saw giraffe, black backed jackal, a gabbor goshawk and abnims stork. Sadly the dogs remained elusive....,last seen heading past the school into the hills!
The highlight of breakfast in the bush was realising we had left the butter behind and identifying that the white stuff on my pancakes with honey was mayonnaise. Not to be recommended but scraped off it tasted fine!
En route back for lunch we saw one lone hippo in a large pond/small lake.
It was now very hot and a relief to get back have lunch and a rest.
At 4.30pm we went out for a walk across the plains - also a relief as we needed the exercise otherwise we were in severe danger of becoming aircraft and jeep bound! It was lovely just having the freedom of being out in the open - we passed a local masai village and the home of our spotter Lenkyio - the goats and sheep were still there but the cows were up in the hills away from the wildebeest.......as they can give them diseases eg rinderpest.
Besides wildebeest we saw stenbok, buzzard, love birds, a martial eagle, wheatear and a 2 banded courser.
That evening with Billi, Alex and John we planned our 2 day fly camping trip for Wed and Thurs......it should be fun - John will be leading it!