Temperatures rise to around 35 in the heat of the day and drop to12 in the evenings, not what most people would call winter. But July and August is our winter and you certainly need a sweater for the early morning game drives. The huge herds of wildebeest and zebra have moved off, although there are still a few scattered groups of zebra in the low lying areas where the grass is still green. I’m not sure if these zebra have come down from the Endulen area on the crater highlands to the south where there is a resident population or if they are part of the migratory herds?
Buffalo and eland can also been seen in the woodlands around Lake Masek at this time. The grass has dried into golden browns and yellows which looks lovely. There probably won’t be any more rain until the end of the year, so naturally we guard the grass around the Lodge jealously. During the rains we plant individual stems of grass to hide any bald patches but the guinea fowl and their chicks are doing their best to grub it up in their search for insects.
Highlights this month include great leopard sighting in the woodlands around the lakes.
We always have African Hares hoping around the Lodge but recently there have been two tiny baby hares. These can be seen from the campfire and are quite delightful although they do look a bit vulnerable in a world of large predators.
There are hundreds of love birds coming to the birdbath in the mornings during breakfast. The branch of the acacia tree in front of the dining room bends under the weight of these tiny colorful parrot like birds, it’s quite a spectacle. When the love birds arrive in large numbers you know it’s definitely dry season. Impala also can be seen most mornings around breakfast passing from one side to the other and for some strange reason back again, still it’s wonderful to see.
It’s certainly been the year of the lion. Guests have been seeing lions most days including 6 small cubs near the Big Marsh. The Masek pride are doing well and is very vocal at night. Two male lions killed an eland recently on the causeway between the Lakes Masek and Ndutu. It was an amazing sight to see these two large predators open up their kill with much snarling and growling as they both tried to pull the carcass away from the other. They didn’t look very friendly.
Just as the light started to fade we tried to drive off, but my old car, a 21 year old landrover, refused to start.
It occasionally does this and you just have to jump out and open the bonnet to start it direct from the solenoid to the starter by jumping it across using a spanner. This is fine, but with two lions ripping open a carcass a few feet away, and by now it was dark, it didn’t seem like a great idea. We had to radio the Lodge workshop for somebody to give us a shunt to start the car. The only problem with this is that it usually costs me a beer.
There have been lots of sightings of tree climbing lions lately. There is one particular lioness at Lake Masek who can be seen regularly up in the branches of acacia trees. Lions, unlike leopards are not good climbers, and its fun to watch them trying to scramble up into a tree or even better, to see them trying to get down again. Guests saw a large male up in a tree last week which is unusual, apparently he looked very uncomfortable.
But the Masek lioness seems to have perfected it and looks grand stretched out on a limb. I don’t know how she can look so comfy because you know it’s only a hard bit of wood. She recently attacked and killed a giraffe from her resting place in a tree. I wonder if this is a good hunting strategy or, as is more likely the giraffe just happened to walk underneath. She got her comeuppance when a passing bull elephant chased her back up the tree.
Naturally, my car wouldn’t start again. It seems uncanny that this only ever seems to happen around lions. She was sound asleep when we jumped out to start the car and saved ourselves a beer.
Five lions from the Masek pride plonked themselves down under a tree a short distance from the dining room one morning recently and sat there all day. You couldn’t actually see them for much of the time because they were concealed by the long grass. It was rather amusing because guests arriving for lunch didn’t believe you, when you mentioned there were lions only a few metres away. But occasionally an outstretched paw would appear above the grass and cause consternation in the dining room.
While on a drive around Lake Masek last week I came upon a small group of lions that were looking interested in some zebra that were further down the track. I stopped to watch and see what would happen. Which was nothing, because the lions forgot about the zebra and plonked themselves down near the car? I knew at once that it was a bad idea to turn the engine off. Naturally, after a week of trouble free motoring, it refused to start.
Baby Emily is 3 months old this week. She seems to be coping with the inadequacies of first time parents very well. When she needed some routine injections last week we drove up to Endulen airstrip on the side of Lemagrut Mountain to meet with the Flying Medical Services airplane. They were holding their monthly clinics for Maasai. Louise, holding Emily, sat on the aircrafts wheel to get the jabs and afterwards we had a picnic under the wing with the pilots, to the backdrop of endless plains below. It’s a shame Emily won’t remember all her little adventures but we did take lots of photographs. Even though it is very dry and dusty, it’s been a very exciting couple of months for many different reasons.
But I must get the car fixed!
Paul,
Ndutu, July 2006.
