April 6 - gearing up for the Mara
The next morning we slept in, then got ourselves organized and did the food shopping for the next leg of the trip. We piled as much firewood as we could in the back of the X-trail, to keep the wild beasts at bay for 3 nights in the mara. Hippos, elephants, hyenas, even lions have visited my campsite on past camping trips (and who knows what else).
In the afternoon we made our way to Hell's Gate, with a spur of the moment stop at the Kinangop Plateau to a certain tiny nature reserve that has Sharpe's Longclaws. We saw the longclaws along with African Snipes, Wing-snapping Cisticolas and Jackson's Widowbirds. By the time we reached Hell's Gate, it was already dark! We did a half-hearted night drive to check for Spotted Eagle-owl, but were eager to sup camp and go to sleep. The next morning would probably be the most hectic day of the trip. We would do birding, climbing, driving the Masai Mara, and more birding in the same day.
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| Sharpe's Longclaw |
April 7 - birding at Hell's Gate
The morning was the best I've had at Hell's Gate. In the camp, we had Hildebrandt's Spurfowls pecking seeds outside the tent, Nyanza and Mottled swifts zipping overhead, and on the way to the special campsite we called in a flock of Gray-crested Helmet-shrikes and got amazing photos. At the special campsite, we found a pair of Little Rock Thrushes, the only time I've ever had it at Hell's Gate.
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| Gray-crested Helmet-shrike |
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| Little Rock Thrush |
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| Griffon Vulture |
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| White-fronted Bee-eater |
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| Abyssinian Wheatear |
We made our way to Fisher's tower before it got too hot for some climbing. After 2 or 3 climbs, we decided we better hit the road. On the last belay, as I lowered Dom down, I got a little too cocky with the rope and our 'speed climbing' turned into 'speed falling'. His ankle took a knock on the rock and his heel got a bit bruised and he was not happy with me about that. Then a huge baboon went into my car and casually ransacked our bead in one hand and our hotdog buns in the other. Depleted of our carbohydrates, we went to the big cliff to blast in a Cliff Chat then were on our way. By then Dom had cooled off about my almost breaking his foot earlier.
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| Abdim's Storks along the highway just past Suswa |
On the way to Mountain Rock Campground (just outside Sekanani Gate) we stopped in some acacia scrub to try for the Masai Apalis but it proved a 'bridge too far', it got dark and we left empty handed.
April 8th - Backtracking for the Masai Apalis
We awoke before dawn, with unfinished business. Since the Apalis is such a good bird, we figured it was worth it to drive back there the next morning, even though it was about 30 km in the wrong direction.
En route, I spotted a pair of Two-banded Coursers in a school football field. This was a particularly exotic bird for Dom. We had to keep our views brief as children were starting to come out of the school and we didn't want to look like perverts with our cameras and binoculars pointing at the school.
Backtracking to the Apalis spot turned out to be a good tactical decision because we absolutely crushed the Masai Apalis plus we got the Banded Parisoma and Southern Grosbeak Canary along with both Silverbills. We spent the whole morning there, then proceeded to the Mara.
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| Masai Apalis |
The Mara Triangle would offer new territory for Dom, because on his last trip with Melissa, we had explored only the more easterly Main Reserve. The Mara Triangle offers more wetlands, more access to riparian forest, and the Leleshwa bush and woodlands up on the escarpment, particularly rich in regionally special birds highly sought-after in Kenya. The triangle is further to drive to, which means that there would be a lot less vehicles getting in the way of our raging. Crossing over the crocodile-infested Mara River felt like stepping into a wider world of the African bush! This legendary river is where the great wildebeest migration reaches its climax as thousands of them hurl themselves across a gauntlet of crocodiles only to meet waiting lions on the other side. To see this spectacle one would have to visit in July, but April has its own advantages: way less tourists and much more rainfall which means much more birds, including migrants.
It seemed we were on a never-ending mission to get to our campsite but had been continually waylaid by sighting after sighting after sighting.
At last we reached our primitive campsite, Iseya Public Campsite, tucked away in a small patch of woodland . A far cry from the luxury Serena Lodge just a few hundred meters up the hill, this kind of setup is not everyone's cup of tea, so we enjoyed quite a lot of privacy (although we would have an uninvited visitor later that night). In the past, Wilson and I had a harrowing experience when 4 huge male lions had a brawl in the bushes just beyond the edge of the campsite at 5:45 in the morning!
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| My legendary bush cuisine |
It was already evening but the best sighting of the day was yet to come. Just before our turnoff, we saw some vehicles down a track. They were observing a pair of cheetahs sleeping in the long grass. We video-called my mum so that she could share a little bit of the moment with us, at least in spirit.
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| Birding until the last minute of daylight |
April 9th - Ololoolo Escarpment
That morning we took a meandering drive along the Mara River. With the recent rains and resulting lush vedge, we were fully expecting to hear some Grassbirds. However, they were mysteriously absent the entire trip. The grasslands were simmering with cisticolas of various species. We took a meandering route toward the escarpment and snagged a lioness with a tip from a ranger.
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| Southern Ground Hornbill |
We took a narrow, winding road up the escarpment and parked the car at the little gate and got permission from the guard to walk around. This gate is specifically for access to a lodge and a camp that are right on the edge of the Triangle Reserve although technically just outside. To make a long story short, the birding was epic. We beat around the Leleshwa Bush, coming up with a gorgeous Rock-loving Cisticola and some Green-capped Eremomelas. We then bush-wacked across the vegetated valley past the waterfall and up the other side where we tracked the song of a Trilling Cisticola. Brown-throated Wattle-eye was also found and Ross's Turaco.
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| Green-capped Eremomela |
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| Rock-loving Cisticola |
We forgot to look for Buff-throated Apalis but they are there. With literally hundreds of target species, its inevitable that one highly local species that requires playback to detect would slip through the cracks. Overhead, we had great views of Ayre's Hawk-Eagle, Brown Snake-Eagle and Western Banded Snake-Eagle catching thermals over the escarpment. By 10am the birds had quieted down and it looked like we would probably need to come back for the Schallow's Turaco the following day.
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| The Rock-loving Cisticola habitat is along the top portion of the Ololoolo escarpment |
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| The Eluai campsite on top of the hill |
We took a long loop around the whole south end of the triangle. I was quite determined to find this connector track that would take us from the main road to the other main road. In other words, we would bypass the Purungat bridge and drive along a nice creek which would increase our changes of finding leopard. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong turnoff and the track got worse and worse. While I was backing up and getting ready to do a 3-point-turn, I struck a large rock that jolted the car quite violently. My little adventure did not pay off even though we did flush an African Crake, a lifer for Dom. But the X-trail got properly shit-mixed.
Back on the main road, we took the regular way past the Purungat Bridge and reached the track for "Maji ma Chafu" which means "dirty water" from the other side. We did spot a flock of Black-rumped Waxbills which was pretty cool as they are very range-restricted in Kenya. We did an evening drive back to camp for a campfire and feast.
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| Common Snipe |
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| Black-rumped Waxbills |
April 10: Masai Mara day 3
During the night, we were stirred awake by the sound of loud chewing. I was very tired but this was bothering me a little so I stuck my head out of the tent and shone my torch light at it. It was a very large Hippopotamus. I told it to move along and it duly sauntered back into the trees, leaving us in peace and we went back to sleep. We had a big day ahead of us and would need our beauty sleep, beast or not.
We started our day by packing up and moving up the hill to the Eluai Public Campsite just for a change of scenery. This is an open glade surrounded by thick bushes atop a bluff, offering stunning views during sunset and sunrise. We drove back to Mara West Camp to look for the Schallow's Turaco, but took a small detour through the swamp by the Mara River. On our way, we passed some sleeping (mostly hidden) lions, and got a tip that a Black Rhino had just crossed the road and we just missed it. In fact, its droppings were still steaming on the road. We scanned the bushes and found the shy beast hiding among some bushes a couple hundred meters off the road. We then proceeded back to Mara West Camp. Since we'd arrived earlier this time, we found two separate Schallow's Turacos feeding on fruit up by the tents of Mara West. If Fischer's Turacos get you excited, then multiply this x10. A bright green Turaco with bright red wing flashes and an absurd long green crest, and very local in Kenya. We also saw Miombo Wren-warbler and Golden-tailed Woodpecker, both only found along Kenya's southern border.
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| Golden-tailed Woodpecker |
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| Schallow's Turaco |
Driving back down into the plains, we were shocked to see two Red-winged Francolins scurry across the road! This was a real nemesis of mine, much rarer and shier than the often seen Coqui Francolin. I promptly sent photos to my birding buddies on Whatsapp to induce maximum jealousy.
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| Red-winged Francolin! |
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| Black Coucal |
That afternoon, I had a surprise for Dom that was sure to be a layup because Adrian had given me the location from his recent visit on Ebird. We got permission to briefly exit the triangle into the main reserve about 1 km past the bridge to a picnic area under a Balanites tree where people are allowed to get out of the car. This is an extremely local species in Kenya but more typical of the Serengeti. They were Rufous-tailed Weavers with big nests of sticks above our heads. We got super nice view. Actually we were feeding them chunks of bread. It looked like the weather was about to turn so we started making our way back to camp.
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| Rufous-tailed Weaver |
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| A storm was brewing |
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| Full Rage Mode |
As we drove on, the clouds got darker and more doom-like. We got feeling that this was not going to be a regular rainstorm...this would be something Biblical. It came very suddenly. It was less like rain and more like someone was pouring a giant bucket on the car. We had to drive very slowly as the car got pounded by the deluge. The roadside ditches became small rivers. It stopped as quickly as it started. As soon as it stopped raining, a pair of Red-winged Francolins and an African Crake appeared on the side of the road. Back at the campsite, the evening rainstorm had flooded our tent. Luckily, because we had set it up in a haste that morning, we had not yet put our sleeping bags and mattresses inside. We had the idea of sponging up all of the water with a towel, then putting the tarp on the floor to cover the wetness, then sleeping on top of that. It worked very nicely.
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| Red-winged Francolin sighting #2 |
April 11: Masai Mara exit and hockey game
On our last morning in the Mara, we had until 10am checkout to make our way out of Sekanani Gate which is about a two hour drive from camp. We had a phenomenal time.
It was very ambitious but we decided to get out super early at the crack of dawn and squeeze in a visit to this long straight road that cuts from the airfield across to the escarpment. It had become a huge seasonal swamp with water even flowing over the road. There were waterbirds and shorebirds actually foraging on the road. We had a couple Rufous-bellied Herons and some Cardinal Queleas and Black-rumped Waxbills enjoying the conditions. Dom had to answer the call of nature while I scanned some bushes. As I scanned, I saw a crake pop up and then land at the edge of a bush. Another African Crake! Dom was able to get it in his bins from a squatting position.
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| Rufous-bellied Heron, a Triangle specialty |
It was too bad we had to leave while the birding was red hot. As we reluctantly drove back to the bridge (even debating adding an extra day), we spotted 3 small falcons fly into a tree. Based on the underwing pattern (all dark) we could easily tell these were not the more common Amur Falcon but in fact Red-footed Falcons, a lifer for both of us. Falcons can be extremely frustrating with fly-by views but these gave us pretty nice views in flight and perched.
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| Red-footed Falcon!!! |
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| Red-winged Francolin sighting #3! |
Further along we found a group of 3 Red-winged Francolins foraging in the ditch. We wondered if the saturated grass was forcing these birds to forage more out in the open than usual. We were almost at the gate but were forced to stop the car. What had been a little stream a couple of days earlier now had a hippo floating over the road!
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| Yup...we're gonna need to go around |
We had to turn back, drive all the way past the Serena Airfield the long way back to the bridge. It turned out this was one of the only roads still drivable in the entire triangle. Little did we know that just a few days later the entire Triangle was to be completely inaccessible because the Purungat Bridge got demolished by the River and my guide friend Apollo had to have his tour group evacuated by helicopter from their lodge! That was over by the Talek River on the other side of the Mara. Looks like we dodged a bullet there!
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| Nile Monitor |
With a full morning of birding and a long detour, it was surprising we could pack all that in before 10 am, we actually had one more target to see which was possible from the road and would require careful checking of the bushes and trees while driving at a rapid speed. We worked as a team as I dodged obstacles and Dom poked his head out of the sunroof scanning for Magpie Shrikes. We got very luck because I only see this species in about 1 out of 4 trips to the mara. We birded briefly outside of the park to try to find Tabora Cisticola but instead found a flock of uncommon Horus Swifts flying overhead.
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| A pair of male lions seen on the way out. At the edge of the horizon is the Serengeti |
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| Magpie Shrikes! |
It was quite a long drive back, which gave us enough time to memorize all of the lyrics to "I'm Just Ken" from the Barbie Movie. "Do you wanna play some hockey tonight?" I asked Dom. "It's a Wednesday". Dom could not resist the chance to play a scrimmage with the Ice Lions, so he scrounged up the best pair of crappy used skates he could find and we had a game. Dom complained almost the entire time about his shitty skates but all in all we had a fun time with the buds.
How many people can say they've skated with the legendary ICE LIONS?
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