Kenya 2023: Chapter 8 – Gates of the Mara

We arrived at noon at the east gate of the Maasai Mara. Naturally, we were immediately surrounded by Maasai women selling souvenirs. We had to repeatedly and sternly tell them that we had no cash. They were persistent, forcing jewellery through the window at us, but we resisted. It was here that we discovered there was an issue with the 200-500 mm that Ed brought. Somewhere during the travel, the lock button jammed, making it difficult to zoom in or out. We managed to get it to set at 500 mm and left it alone. The lens would still focus and therefore was usable, but certainly limited the scope of some of our shots.

 Baby zebra

After a short drive across the park, we found ourselves passing through the gate at Keekorok. It felt good to be home again. We checked into our room and had a lunch of beef lasagna and rice. Now it was time to get to work. Lenny took us into the field. Last time we were here there were hundreds of thousands of animals everywhere. The grass was short, cut down by hungry migrants. This time though the grass was a tall, golden field, stretching in every direction to the horizon. Animals could hide and disappear in the long grass. 

 Scraggly lion on honeymoon

We first came across a lion honeymoon and put the big d6 and the 600 mm to work. During a lion honeymoon, the pair will mate repeatedly in seclusion from the rest of the pride. The male lion found a cool place to rest in the shade of another tour truck. Sleepy lions don’t make for great photos and in the grass they were hard to see altogether. We moved on.