Kenya 2023: Chapter 31 – Bwana Chui

In the wake of the cheetah kill and subsequent theft by the hyenas, we were on a high. It was the kind of religious experience we had had with the lion kill four years earlier. For the next hour all we could say to one another was “wow” and “that was amazing” and I can’t believe the hyenas STOLE the kill”.

Speaking of lions, the next encounter we had was with a sleepy lion, panting in the shade of a tree. It was a far cry from the action we had just seen. We didn’t stay long and fell into silence in the midday sun as we drove west along the Ol Keju Rongai lugga. The heat and the combined lullaby of the radio static and the squeaking truck put Greg into a nap. We saw nothing, not a single animal until we came upon some saddle-billed storks in a small pond along the lugga. We stopped for lunch and watched them pick through the marshy bottom.

We had started to calm down and were drifting into lethargy when a call came over the radio about a leopard sighting. We broke from our stupor and Lenny put it into high gear again. Several minutes later we joined a group of about 20 trucks along the side of the road. One of them had reported seeing a leopard in a small bush. Trucks were swarming like sharks feasting on a school of mackerel. Up and down this stretch we drove, trying in vain to see the elusive leopard. At one point we took a side road, thinking we had seen something flicker in the bush. It turned out to be a Cape Buffalo wallowing in a shallow mud pool. We retreated back to the main road, driving back and forth along this stretch. A call came over the radio indicating rangers may be coming, and the crowd dispersed. We headed down a side road to the south away from the crowds towards the Sand River, into the territory of the legendary leopard Split-Nose. All we saw were more elephants.