Kenya 2023: Chapter 21 – Shujaa

A call came over the radio. A “juu” had been seen sleeping in a tree.

The guides use a series of code names for various animals: kichwa (meaning head in Swahili) was a single lion, vichwa is multiple, juu (meaning up in Swahili) is a leopard, chini (meaning down in Swahili) is a cheetah.

We raced back south again along the wet main road. Thick mud was flung up around the truck as we barreled towards our destination.

There in a lone tree was a massive male leopard named Shujaa (meaning warrior in Swahili). He had recently killed an impala and was now sleeping off his hard work.

A ranger sat at the edge of the vehicle pack, pushing out visitors who had been there too long as new trucks pulled up. Only five vehicles per sighting in the Triangle and it’s first in, first out. If there is a line of vehicles waiting, the viewing time is only ten minutes and waiting vehicles must park 300 feet away.  Once again, we gave Lenny the 600 mm to use on his camera since leopards are his favorite. 

As Shujaa slept, we breakfasted. The meal consisted of a cucumber/tomato sandwich, doughnut, bread, yogurt, lamb sausages (which were not as good as the chicken sausages), an apple, orange juice, water, and a hard-boiled egg.

More vehicles came and we pulled away from the growing crowd and headed north towards the Marsh Pride. We made a number of stops for wildlife along the way: a malachite kingfisher, baboons, a friendly little black-backed jackal, and a zebra. The Swahili word for zebra is pundamilia. Broken down into its two parts, punda and milia, a zebra is a donkey with stripes.

Malachite Kingfisher

Black-backed jackal

We stopped along the Mara River to see more hippos and crocs, but no herds of wildebeest. Some elephants and giraffe grazed near the river and Lenny’s amazing eyesight caught a small terrapin turtle on the side of the road.

We turned back onto the main road and continued our way north along the river, passing the places we had been last time. Lenny’s memory was absolutely exceptional. Not only did he remember almost every animal encounter that we had, he remembered where specifically it was, which tree it was under, and on what day of the trip we had done it. A truly remarkable guide.