It was about midday and I was supervising work on Room two. I had noticed a small herd of about 8 impalla's enjoying the salt lick on the hill infront of the lodge. All of a sudden the dominant male begun to make a loud, deep throated raspy sound. This serves to alert the herd of danger usually when predators are around. The rest of the impalla's stood perfectly still in an alarmed position with their tails upstanding. We looked carefuly for what could be distressing the Impalas and after a few minutes two leopards appeared out of the bushes behind the Impalas. The leopards crossed behind the herd and one disappeared into the bushes while the other walked arrogantly past the herd. I think the Impalas were unsure what to do, wether to run into the forrest where they might be attacked by the first leopard or stand still in the hope that the second leopard might not notice them. After some minutes the Impalas ran down the hill, probably preempting the imminent attack. This was an unusual sighting because usually leopards travel on their own and hunt at night.

Yes, we all know that being on safari is much more than “ticking the list off” with all the wildlife sightings, but sometimes the temptation is too strong. Take our guests Geegee and Edward Righter, from Palm Springs in California. After 3 days at Saruni Samburu they fly to the Mara and, in the next 24 hours, they have a record safari: in the afternoon game drive they meet two male cheetah killing and consuming a juvenile wildebeest, then 17 lions on a fresh kill with 2 males fighting over feeding order, followed by one male leopard. On they way back home, the cherry on the cake: a female leopard with a young one. Next morning, the game drive with our guide Lemeria Nchoe produces the following: a pride of 20-odd lions, a different mother leopard grooming 2 cubs, a male leopard in tree, a different pride of 17-odd lions. To top it up, bat eared fox and young. Veteran safari-goers as they are, the Righters were very impressed and, of course, loved the area.

Was on 25th July 2008 when we drove from saruni camp toward Campi ya Tembo, our tented camp in the Ole Yaile Conservancy for night game drive. I was guiding family of three, parents and a daughter of twelve years. I first heard a noise of a jackal barking and we told each other there is some thing going on, very close to a very scenic area that we jokingly call “the golf course”. With the help of the spotlight we saw the beautiful eyes of a striped hyena chasing a jackal. When drove very close it was one of our guests who first noticed that there was something on the ground: it was a kill! A dead baby zebra which, probably killed by on of the many leopards that populate our area, was still bleeding. After stopping, a second jackal appeared on the scene. And the situation was reverted: now it as he jackals chasing the striped hyena away and snach the kill. To see this nocturnal hyena is very rare, but to see such an action is even more rare.

It was on 27 of August 2008 that an amazing sighting that trilled both our guests and the guide. We set out around 8 in the morning for a long day in the Mara conservation area and the national reserve with the Collins family from UK and at around 11.00 in the morning I spotted a hanging tail which happened to be of a female leopard. After watching her for a while, my tracker spotted three cheetah brothers, all walking towards us. One hundred meters away, one of the cheetah noticed the leopard up the tree and started panicking. All of a sudden, all of them saw the leopard and started growling. I thought that the leopard was going to stay up the tree knowing that she was going to outnumbered by the three cheetah. But that was not the case: the leopard came down slowly in to the long grass and, after disappearing for five minutes, came up from the opposite direction charging the cheetahs. The sounds and the picture of the all scene left us unseated for a while. In the noise of the battle, is was not always clear who was attacking whom, because every time the leopard launched into an attack against one of the cheetah, the other two were going after the leopard to defend their brother. So the excited guests were asking: “William tell us what is going on? What is going on?”. And the explanation was that after a fight after almost fifteen minute the leopard realized was not going to get any of the cheetahs for lunch and she dashed in to the bushes. The cheetahs disappeared from the scene, as if nothing had happened.