'Busy morning with mating leopards' were Bernard's and Mika's casual drawls on their seismic morning drive. No animal raises the pulse more than a leopard, but this was a far harder spotted currency. Figlet is one of our own and she was with the monstrous Mkubwa - almost twice her size - turning a forested area in Naboisho into a Balanites boudoir for hours.
Kicheche Spot of the Week
For a drink that was once unkindly called 'mother's ruin,' gin has undergone a posh renaissance over thelast 10 years. It used to be a green bottle, ice and a slice and a bit of tonic..... not anymore. Cucumber has found itself into the frosted tumblers and tonic has become a feverish and thirsty game of one-upmanship. Gins have changed too, so, with that in mind we give you 'The Bush Camp Gin Bar'.
Even the humblest African author tries to do justice to its extraordinary light. A thousand adjectives and prose acres are willfully sowed daily, yet few (Including this) do justice to this remarkable phenomena, yet it performs every day, especially in East Africa.
Each year, with homing beacons on full charge over a million ruminants cross North from Tanzania to their dry season fertile stronghold in Kenya.
You know the feeling: you wake up a little late with the bronze sunrise long departed and the day already bright. You almost miss the kick off but are hungry for some action but over-commit in attack and suddenly you are outflanked by some buffalo wingers.
Currently down under the English Lionesses are trying to go one better than their better paid male counterparts. Well seasoned Kichechians Rachel Chapman and Ros Gray decided to do a vets tour to the Mara. They brought along Rachel’s 18 year old niece, Lucia Baynes on debut, but, as the fabled Charlton once said -'if he/she's good enough, she's old enough'. Lucia had never fastened her pumps onto the hallowed stadium of Mara North and she'd never even held a DSLR camera. By day two she was shooting with the clinical skill of Lauren James.
'There is no better place to see or photograph rhino' is a recent comment from a Kicheche Laikipia alumni. She was right. Virtually every game drive delivers these armoured browsers and grazers. Kicheche Laikipia's conservancy, Ol Pejeta has been so successful in protecting this endangered species that it is easy to become complacent over their future.
When you film or photograph wildlife, you yearn for originality over everything else. With no hyperbole, a leopard hunting a Lappet-faced vulture - Africa’s largest, with a nine-foot wingspan - is a first. Anywhere.
When the radio crackles gently and the Maasai missive includes the word Chui, Duma or Vichwa, the pulse rises. When the feline phrase is tailed by toto, the heart rate elevates into dangerous territory. This week's Spot is a natal update from our three Mara Camps.
Esther is young, she is also ambitious and critically extremely competent. However, with little notice she is given a photographer never knowingly undemanding. Pressure on, yes. Did it show, not a bit of it.
First time spotter Ben Joel has had quite a safari. He also has the images to prove this, but more importantly they embody the potent power of the conservancies, in this case Olare.
It may be at the beginning of the dictionary but it is rarely at the beginning of any safari, in fact it is rarely seen at all. So let's just consider this sighting, not one aardwolf but two, in daytime. Mating.
Early season, Kicheche early. I first had this idea 12 years ago. This was the genesis: James Nampaso: 'Paul we leave at 04.30'. That sounds easy but when you have three vehicles and a dozen wildlife zealots rising rudely before dawn a whole Kicheche machine has to get into gear to make it happen. It was only a whim, a gamble, an unendorsed tale of a mother leopard with an extended family. It worked: we saw six - a mother with one then a family including triplets (it's not an incredible photo but it is four leopards up a tree!) ... all before seven o clock.
Mara North, you slay us, as do the set of sorcerers (better collective required) that consistently mine from the highest carat faunal seam. George, Jimmy, Saruni et al we thank you. I don't think you can have herds of leopards but that is what they seem to find. Regularly.
Perhaps the most inescapably African mammal is the giraffe. For much of the day they stand pensively, observing from their airy penthouse. Giraffes are such a fixture that despite their height they can be underappreciated. Not at Kicheche they are not.
The facts: Akira, daughter of the venerable Tito, Olare Conservancy. Cub (her first)... tiny (5 weeks), Nancie Wright, seasoned Kichechian, the above title employable for both of them. Top work Charles Wandero, top work Nancie. This is spotted box office but even the most rudimentary safari fan knows how challenging it is for her to look after this beautiful A-lister, Akira nightly patrols are what she might need.
Perhaps the signature species are indulged too often. Many would disagree but I recall 20 years ago Boniface Ole Mpario (Kicheche's venerable first head guide) gasping with joy as he located two of these immaculately created young scamps race across the plains at dawn: ' Now that' he paused theatrically 'is my favourite creature'. He may have a point.
Hyenas divide opinion, that will never change but as a species their family characteristics are fascinating, second only to elephants. They are also not uncommon but that all changes when spots change to stripes (never thought I'd ever write that).
Within four hundred metres from the most easterly wing of Bush Camp, Dickson slows his cruiser. There appears to be most of East Africa's zebra grazing on the nutritious pastures North of camp. However, he has singled out one, there is something different about this animal many hundreds of metres away, a difference not noticeable to most human eyes.
Within four hundred metres from the most easterly wing of Bush Camp, Dickson slows his cruiser. There appears to be most of East Africa's zebra grazing on the nutritious pastures North of camp. However, he has singled out one, there is something different about this animal many hundreds of metres away, a difference not noticeable to most human eyes.
