Postcard From Kenya: Ol Donyo Lodge, Day 2

On safari, each day revolves around the game drives.  The morning drive began by 6:30 am, just as the sun is rising over the Chyulu Hills.  I was struck by the color and variety of the landscape…blue hills and golden plains, scrubby gray-green underbrush, and dense blue-green foliage on the trees.

It’s winter in Kenya, so it’s quite chilly in the mornings.  As they say, bring plenty of layers, which you’ll peel off as the sun climbs higher in the sky.  If you’re lucky, on one of your days in camp, you’ll have your breakfast served in the bush. My table for one was set with china and crystal.  The full English Breakfast was delicious and, even by myself, it was one of the most romantic moments I can remember.

This day was “cheetah day” and it was monumental.  At first, I don’t even see a lone cheetah lying in the sun, camouflaged against the golden grass.  I thought Dan was pointing to a jackal, darting across the landscape.  Lying down, the cheetah looked relaxed, docile and relatively harmless.  It’s not until he stands, stretches, and began making long, purposeful strides that you see how impressive, muscled, and predatory he seems. “A magnificent animal”, says Dan, who’s probably seems hundreds, if not more” in his lifetime.

After my private bush breakfast, we spotted another lone cheetah and then found and followed a group of four more for several hours.  The group, a mother and 3 sons about 18 months old, Dan told me, have recently begun hunting as a group.  Soon, he says, the three juveniles will run the other single males, and even their mother, out of the territory.

We returned to the Lodge for lunch and siesta and then headed out again in the late afternoon to check in with our cheetah family, who would begin hunting around dusk.  We found them right where we left them and photographed them over the next several hours as they perused potential dining options including impala, zebras, a lone wildebeest and a mother warthog with 2 piglets.  I really wanted to see the cheetahs run, but disappointingly, they never charged any of the available prey. Still, it was fun to watch them interact, fight like any three brothers, and eventually climb a tree and be silhouetted by the setting sun against the darkening landscape, as their mother looked on.

Back at the lodge, over dinner with camp managers Graham and Savannah, I was told it’s very unusual to see 6 cheetah in a single day (or week!) and it was definitely the highlight of my time at Ol Donyo.