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On Safari in Kenya - Lake Nakuru and the Maasai Mara: by John Devries

If you love animals, a safari to Kenya is one of those things that you just must do before you die. All those films and childhood images of animals in the "jungle" come from this place and you owe it to yourself to meet the characters face to face at least once. If you are a photographer you will be in heaven in Kenya - nothing prepares you for the sheer numbers and the approachability of many of the animals and birds that are there, nor for the stunning scenery that changes constantly with the light and weather. There are photo-opportunities everywhere. The first and last hour of light are the best times, so it is essential to be up and out of camp as the sun is rising. Back-lit shots, like these two topi antelope, are there for the taking shortly after sunrise.

Topi ©John Devries

This year I joined a photo safari with Brian Freeman of Freeman safaris for the second time. We started at Lake Nakuru for three days and then went on to the Maasai Mara by road to join Brian's camp in a small woodland clearing beside a stream and hippo pool in the heart of the National Park.

Hippos ©John Devries

Hippos fighting at the camp pool in the Mara. They earn their keep by mowing the grass right outside the tents at night.

There is one part of the lake where countless white pelicans gather. This is a tremendous place to practice flight shots as the birds are endlessly coming and going. It is OK to get out of the vehicle here - the birds take no notice of you and allow a close approach. For the birders, there are pied kingfishers and beautiful grey-headed gulls and little bee-eaters here to.

The camp location was great - a maximum of about a 45 minute drive from everything that I believe is worth seeing. The drivers had endless patience and would not move off until everyone was finished and agreed that it was "Sawa sawa" - time to go.

Pelicans ©John Devries

It is not just birds at Nakuru - it is brilliant for animals too. The speciality is white rhino. There are a few rare black rhinos as well, but we didn't see any on our visit. Some of the rhinos had young with them as a bonus. This one is suckling a calf.

White Rhino ©John Devries

We then moved to the Maasai Mara, famed for its tall warriors who provide an amazing leaping dance to visitors to their village (Manyatta).

Maasai Welcoming ceremony.©John Devries

I have been fortunate to travel extensively, but I must say that one of the greatest wildlife spectacles that I have witnessed comes in the form of the annual wildebeest migration into and out of the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Driven by the need for fresh pasture for their vast herds, the wildebeest begin to make their arrival in the Maasai Mara as early as July, but they generally arrive between August & September and remain through October & November. From the end of November onwards they gradually move back towards the Serengeti. To enter the Maasai Mara they must cross the Mara river and in so doing run the gauntlet of crocodiles that lie in ambush for them. Every time they cross, some of them die. It is no surprise that they are not too keen to cross initially. Once a few zebra begin to cross, the instinct to follow becomes too strong. The wildebeest pour across in unbelievable numbers, splashing and swimming through the water and scrambling up the sheer and slippery muddy banks in the desperation to cross. Plenty of vehicles gather at the favourite crossing points and it was amusing to here the "oohs and ah's" from the human spectators as the animals were grabbed or escaped from the clutches of the hungry crocodiles.

Wildebeest Crossing ©John Devries

Kenya is currently suffering a severe drought and the long rains failed this year, so many of the rivers were nearly empty when I visited in September. This meant that the crossings were not as prolonged as they could be. In some conditions, crossing may take up to five hours, however, there were still great photo-opportunities to be had. If wildebeest are not your thing, then the fact that they attract predators such as lions, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards probably will get your attention. As a bonus, in September, many animals appear to give birth to their young when food is plentiful to feed them. The first babies we saw were cheetahs. Here is mother sharing a Thomson's gazelle with one of her three fluffy cubs:

Cheetah ©John Devries

We did witness a few cheetah kills and saw the formidable chase a couple of times, but I was not in the right position to capture any good images - so I have a good excuse to go back and try again next year. I'll have to make do with this nice shot of a group of cheetahs drinking. They are a mother and her three fully-grown cubs. I wish they were all looking up and with their tongues out - but beggars can't be choosers !

Cheetahs Drinking ©John Devries

The Cheetahs love using termite mounds as a lookout post. It was all just a bit too tiring for this one who flopped out and went to sleep just after this shot. The cheetah is such a beautiful animal. I wanted a low viewpoint on this one to get a little blue sky in to add some more colour in the background. I used the 500mm lens and full frame camera set to a wide aperture to isolate the cheetah from the background in this one.

Cheetah on Termite Mound ©John Devries

Other big cats had babies too, like this lioness. This shot was taken in beautiful late evening light just as the sun was going down.This was a high ISO shot so I exposed to the right to keep digital noise levels down. I love the way the low sun angle has lit her eyes nicely.

Lion Drinking ©John Devries

More cubs - time to wake up and play !

Lion Cubs ©John Devries

Meanwhile out on the plains - next season's cubs are being organised. The male follows the female everywhere she goes when she is in season and they mate every twenty minutes to be sure of success.

Lions Mating ©John Devries

We witnessed three lion attacks and one kill. We were driving along in the landrover and noticed some wildebeest to our left, when all of a sudden a lioness burst out of some bushes to our right, crossed in front of our vehicle and leapt onto the back of one of the wildebeest. It all happened so fast, it was over in seconds.Certainly no chance of a picture. Our opportunity came a couple of times when we found lions stalking prey.

This lioness used our vehicle to hide as it attacked some wildebeest. This was the moment she started her run...

Lion Attack ©John Devries

She sped past our vehicle so closely that we could hear the thump of her feet on the dry ground as she ran at full speed at the wildebeest. Despite her best efforts the wildebeest escaped on this occasion.

Lion Hunting Wildebeest ©John Devries

We were also fortunate to witness yet another lion attack, this time on zebra. The lioness caught the zebra on both flanks as you can see from the horrible wound. She was forced to release it again as the zebra kicked the lioness in the mouth with its powerful hind legs. Remarkably, once again - the prey escaped.

Lion Hunting Zebra ©John Devries

We did stumble on several kills that had already taken place and the vultures were always very quick to cash in on a free meal as soon as the lions and hyenas had had their fill. This is Rupell's griffon vulture landing.

Rupell's Griffon Vulture ©John Devries

To end on a lighter note after all this action, here is one of my favourite images of the trip. It is of a female leopard and her two small cubs. Leopards are very secretive animals at the best of times and small cubs are rarely seen. This mother crossed the river bed to fetch her cubs and take them to a safe shady place to suckle them. She had to help the little ones cross the shallow water and paused for a moment to drink. A blissful scene in a superb and tranquil location.

Leopard Drinking ©John Devries

On the return journey, we flew in a small plane from the Mara back to Nairobi which saves a lot of time and transferred to the main airport for our overnight Kenya Airways flight back to London. Nakuru is a vast blue lake and is home to millions of lesser flamingos around its shores. There are some greater flamingos among them too plus other birds such as sacred ibis, back-winged stilts, maribou storks and African fish eagles.

Flamingo ©John Devries

To see more images from this trip please see my website at : www.ophrysphotography.co.uk

About the Author:

John Devries is a professional photographer based in the UK. Next year, in September, John will be teaming up with Brian Freeman of Freeman Safaris to run a one-off special whereby he will be holding daily tuition sessions for the photographers and also assisting in the field to help them improve their photography. To learn more about all aspects of the safaris please visit www.freemansafaris.com

All images in the above article were taken with a Canon 1DmkIII or 1DSmkII camera and 500mmf4 or 70-200f2.8 lens with or without a 1.4x converter with a bean bag for support. To keep lens changes to a minumum in the dusty conditions I ran the two camera setups - a long and a short and kept them tucked inside old pillowcases for quick access.

Editor's Note: This article was developed after I found John's work on another website. John was kind enough to go through the process with us and to write a story. NWP is not currently receiving advertising revenue from John or any other of the professionals who have written articles for us, and we are in no way endorsing (implicitly or otherwise) his workshop. Also, just a friendly reminder that all of these images in this article are the sole property of John Devries and have been licensed to the NWP Photo Forum. The images in this article may not be reproduced without the explicit permission of John Devries. The story was written by John and edited by James Morrissey. The content of the story may not be reproduced without the permission of both James Morrissey and John Devries.

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