2012-09-12 Masai Mara NR, Kenya

Sometimes in the Mara you make a plan but events take over and you just have to let the animals themselves guide you. We left with the idea of going back to the lion cubs at the marsh but as we drove we came across the mother Cheetah with the big cub. They were in the grass looking down intently into the gulley below. We watched with binoculars and a lioness with a cub appeared. The cheetah did not take her eyes off them. The lions seemed to look back repeatedly to a particular bush on the sand gulley. As we were watching all this, a wildebeest calf ran just between us and the cheetahs. I wondered whether she might go for it but soon after a spotted hyena appeared running after the calf. The calf got away. Upon closer inspection in the gulley, we found out why the lioness was looking over her shoulder. Two big male lions, the ones we saw on our first day roaring, were on a warthog kill. One was eating, the other just watching. There was a small squabble but nothin serious. Probably this was too much for the cheetahs, who decided to leave heading north. One of the males saw them walking but decided not to go after them, fortunately. In the afternoon more rain and dark clouds. A tough time in Mara.