15th June 2008 : Big Game Week
Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 05:36PM I am SO behind….just got back from spending over a week in Nairobi for work…and still need to catch up on a host of stories from before I left….
The week before we left for Nairobi was quite extraordinary from a big game viewing perspective…you see, when you visit the Masai Mara, you can almost guarantee to tick off all the major big game species within a few days, but in Tsavo, this is quite unusual, due to the different terrain and thicker bush. That’s what makes Tsavo such an exciting ecosystem to me, the fact that you never know what you’re going to see…it has a certain mystique…that’s why it makes such a great destination for the seasoned visitor to Africa who’s here more for the excitement than for a guaranteed viewing of the big five in a day…
With the hinterland drying up, more and more of the big game is coming back to the river, and I think it is this which has made the last few weeks so magical. It started with the antelope – we’ve had regular sightings of Lesser Kudu, big herds of Impala (plus our resident young bachelors, including One-Horn), Waterbuck and of course masses of Dikdik. The Warthogs are back too.
Female Lesser Kudu across the river from the house
One of our resident young Impala rams just below the house
A mother and baby Waterbuck, part of a herd that regularly
drinks from the river just to the right of our house
As for our regulars, the river seems to become more and more crocodile-infested by the day. As well as some really big old boys, we’ve been seeing a lot of small crocodiles, so they’re obviously breeding apace and getting more than enough to eat, with all the fish in the river and the odd bigger meal as well. Talking of regulars, the baboons are around too, in great noisy troops – still coming down onto the sandbank at dusk to play and relax. The hippos too are thriving in their deep water pool at Hippo Bend. I'm planning to write a separate post about them before long.
A small crocodile basks in the sun, behind a trail of hippo tracks
The herd of buffalo that came onto the beach one evening at dusk was somewhat unexpected – over one hundred of them! We watched them from our balcony as they ambled across our sandbank and then crossed the river into the National Park…of course, as luck would have it, the light had already started fading as the sun had fallen below the tree line, but nonetheless I couldn’t resist taking some photos – it’s not every day we can say we had 100 buffaloes in our “back yard”!
As if that weren’t enough, a couple of days later, three old bull buffalo came down for a drink in the river, and one stayed behind for a what looked like a really good wallow!
A jolly good mud bath!
Following on from the buffalo, you can imagine our delight when I heard a crashing and crunching sound from the reeds opposite the house, again late in the evening in fading light: two bull elephants had appeared and were making a hearty meal of the reeds. They were literally right in front of the house and we spent a fabulous fifteen minutes watching them.
Then the two bulls lumbered off upstream, and a few minutes later, when it was almost too dark to make them out, we watched their great dark shapes wade across the river onto our property and disappear into the thick riverine vegetation.
Can you just make out the two dark hulks as they reach our beach?
But that’s not all! The following day – again at last light (oh - the photographer’s frustration!), we were sitting on the balcony enjoying the peace of evening, when suddenly, there on the beach below the house, was a leopard! How long had it been silently sitting there, without us noticing it? What a shame the light was so low, and my photos so fuzzy as a result, but I think you should be able to make out the spotted, feline shape nonetheless… (If you want to see some really great leopard photos, you can take a look here on my Dezine Design website, where photographer Sean Hartley has a wonderful collection of images.)
As I said, what a week that was!
With so much wildlife around over these last few weeks, it's impossible to include all my photos in posts, but if you want to see more images of the wild animals around and about our Kulafumbi home, you can take a look here:
MAY WILDLIFE: elephants, buffalo, kudu, baboons & more...JUNE WILDLIFE: crocodiles, leopard, warthogs, squirrels & more...
Reader Comments (4)
Wonderful sightings, Tanya! Please keep us posted on the sightings.
Andy
I've been missing your posts - I check most days. That leopard sighting was special. I saw my first leopard in Kruger park early one morning. It slipped across the road in front of our vehicle and it was a magical moment.
The size and power of elephants is quite overwhelming, especially up close. You realize you'd better be really nice to them because you have no chnace if they want to teach you a lesson. My second book coming out later this year is about poaching elephants in Zambia. I'll let you know when I have a release date. My first book, Beneath the Surface, is coming out tomorrow at Wild Child Publishing. It's an exciting time for me.
Lucky you Tanya. I thought of you the other day actually, we were driving to Nairobi from Mombasa and as we passed between Tsavo East and West I thought "I wonder where Tanya's house is, maybe we should drop in for a cuppa"...
Hi Andy, hi Suzanne, hi Imogen...good to "see" you all...sorry - I know I've been remiss in responding to comments recently.
Suzanne, congratulations on BOTH the new books - will I be able to get them on Amazon? How did the launch go? (I must take some time out to read your blog, as I'm sure you've written about it there.) Many congratulations...
Imogen - next time, you should schedule a stop-over with us en route to or from the coast...stop for two nights so you can have a full day exploring and enjoying the view from our balcony! We're an hour's drive from the main Nairobi-Mombasa road, so stopping in just for a cuppa would be a bit of trek (I make good tea, but not that good....a longer stop-over would be better...)