Afternoon game drive.
How could we top what happened this morning. After about 40 minutes of driving all we have seen is a few elephants in the distance. We have gone a different direction to the previous game drives. A tip truck is coming towards us and we have to pull over to let it pass. Further on there is a quarry where they are extracting the red dirt/gravel they use for making the roads. We are third in line as we drive along. Abdi our driver thinks he has seen something at the quarry. On the top of red dirt piles he thinks there maybe lions!
He pulls over and looks through his binoculars as does Luggy. They both believe they are lions on top of the dirt. I focus with my camera and sure enough there are lions there. Abdi radios the other two vehicles and we head towards the quarry area. There is a crew working there and the lions are less than 80 metres away. As we stop to look, on the other side of the road barely 40 metres away is a young male lion resting.
There are rangers guarding the working crew at a track leading to the quarry. Our tour manager talks to them and we are allowed to approach! As we get closer we have a great view of a large male resting on top of a pile of dirt less than 10 metres away. Then we discover lion cubs on top of another mound and other lions as well. All up we estimate 15 lions including cubs! By now word has spread and safari vehicles are arriving, by the time we leave there are at least 8 vehicles. As we leave the lion on the other side of the track is moving and we are in a good position as he walks across the track right in front of us. Unbelievable!
We head off up to a hill top and find a herd of elephants and after some more hairy driving we start to head home. On the road back we come across a bull elephant walking along the road in front of us. We travel slowly behind him until another vehicle coming the other way forces him to move off the road. Then a little bit further on there are 6 to 8 giraffes heading towards us. After watching them up closely we get past and continue on. A bit further on we come across hyena pups and finally a young jackal!
It has been a day that has delivered far more than we expected.
Tomorrow we drive back to Nairobi, a 5 to 6 hour drive and it is our turn to be in the back!
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