Afternoon out in Samburu

This afternoon, we spent some time out in the park. Before even leaving our rooms we were greeted with the site of three kudus.

Along the drive, we were all hoping to see some Simba or lions. The drive started with a group of giraffes feeding near a family of elephants.

 

We then had another visit with our friend the leopard. He was sitting in the same tree as yesterday but this time he (or she) had lunch sitting nearby.

 

 

Our journey continued but still no sitting of the simbas. As the vehicle was moving along, I spotted two young cheetahs sitting patiently. They likely are the same young ones we saw yesterday with their mom but this time they were on their own. From the looks of things, they must have been waiting for mom to bring home dinner.

 

We did not spend much time with the cheetahs because the radio chatter had us moving along quickly. We hoped our driver Simon was on the hunt for the lions but we couldn’t be sure as we weaved through different trails, radioed back and forth with another driver and backtracked a few times. As we finally reached the other vehicle, we finally saw our simbas or rather our shebas (lionesses).

The two of them were moving along so Simon repositioned our van. His years of experience allowed him to figure out the best spot.

 

In fact, one of the lionesses came so close to our van that we couldn’t see her. She stopped in the shade at the front of our van.

 

We stayed with the ladies a few more minutes before continuing on. In doing so, we were treated to seeing two oryx locking horns.

 

Not far from them was another family of elephants. It is here that we got to see a 5 legged baby elephant (lol, that is what Simon called him).

 

We also got to see it drink from its mom.

 

On the other side of the trail from the elephants was a pair of giraffe males fitting it out. The pictures just have them look like they are cuddling but let me assure you, the heads were swinging.