The Night Time Is The Right Time

We saved our night safari at Masai Mara for the last night before flying to N'gorongoro Crater (trying typing that without a typo!).

Night safaris are completely different than day safaris.  For example, it's dark.  (Editor: Whoa -- I had no idea!  Writer: Sarcasm is unbecoming of you.  Leave the sarcasm to me!).  So you see far fewer animals.  On the other hand, when you glimpse one, it's like you caught them in the act of living their lives by surprise.

Hippos, for instance, get annoyed by having the bright lights shine into their eyes, so they turn their backs and move away quickly, deeper into the woods.  It's like when I was in high school and I'd approach a girl.  Next thing I know she's turned her back on me and then slipped away into the crowded hallways.  Thank goodness in college Carol saw something more in me.

An African night is a time to look at the moon, the planets, and the stars.  It's also a time to catch fleeting glimpses of the animals.  You spend a chunk of a night safari driving and not seeing anything, which makes any actually sighting that much better.

Everyone concentrates on one thing -- looking for the reflection of eyes.  We had Robert, a man riding upfront with him shining a spotlight on trees and grasses looking for reflections, and a security guy in the back with a rifle.  So, the only two times there were guides with guns was on the safari walkabout in Lewa and the night safari near Masai Mara.  (Masai Mara closes at 6:30pm, but the animals don't restrict themselves to park boundaries.)  

There were multiple times we'd see a flash of eyes, so Robert had to back up and have the front guide find the animal with the spotlight.  There were also multiple times we thought we saw eyes, but there was nothing there.  And, if there was something, it was gone in a flash.

Night photography without a flash isn't the easiest, so I apologize for the less than stellar versions of the photos.  I ended up deleting a bunch that weren't in focus or the light shining on the animal showed so little the picture wasn't worth keeping.  My thought process was to fire away with the camera, delete what didn't work, and keep what did.

We did see many hippos.  During the day, they are in large groups in or next to the water,  But at night they are largely solitary, often walking many miles on land to feed.  They can run on land at 20 mph, which, given their size, is remarkable.  I managed to not get a single good hippo at night photo, but have plenty of shots featuring the backsides of hippos.  What I didn't do was count the number of night hippos we saw, but I'm guessing it was around 8-10.

Our private dinner table that last night at

Camp Bateleur, in honor of Meena and

Sanjiv's 30th anniversary this year.

African Hare.  Note the extra large ears.

Dik Dik.  Named for the sound they make

when alarmed, not because they stutter

when insulting you.  Their shoulder

height is only 12-16 inches, and they

are the c-stores of gazelles -- they weigh

7-11 pounds.  It does not need much water.

In the daytime, it is fun watching them

pogo stick through the grasslands.

Dik Diks are incredibly cool.

The elusive Janet cat.  They are so scarce,

my book on safari animals has exactly

zero mentions of them.  It's also called

a Genet cat, which is also found in

the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and France.

They can stand on their hind legs, and

eat a wide range of prey as well as fish, 

plants and vegetables.

Another look at the Janet (Genet) cat.

Hippo side, just before it turns its butt

to us and skedaddles in the opposite

direction.

At least the hippo's ear

can be seen here.

Classic hippo butt pic.  (I had to include

one, even if I didn't want to.)