2011-05-28 – Masai Mara N.R.

Today we woke up to a beautiful sunrise, with a thin layer of mist on the grasslands around the camp. We found the seven Lion cubs from last night, left alone by their mothers, basking beautifully in the sun on a termite mound before retiring to shade. We proceeded to look for Olive but instead we found a single female Cheetah wondering across the plains in search for food. She found a single male Thompson’s Gazelle resting in the long grass. She stalked it very skillfully and she got so close to her that when she started running the Gazelle had no alternative but to try to avoid the Cheetah by leaping in the air. It wasn’t enough though, as the Cheetah quickly turned and caught it. As she was still suffocating it though, a Spotted Hyena emerged from a puddle where it was resting on, and robbed her of her prey. The Cheetah tried repeatedly to recover her kill but a Hyena is no match and in the end she gave up to the law of nature. For sunset, we caught up again with the Lion family, by now reunited, settling down peacefully under a blue and red sky for the night.