Up and out early to see the prides of lions at the Maasai Kopis. It was the first morning that we had a sunrise with golden light so it was nice to find a pride of 20 lions just before daybreak. They were all on a little hill with a scratching post tree. As the sun came up, each lion took a turn at sharpening their claws before heading into a new day. The grass of their home range had been burned last week so the ground was jet black. The golden lions looked amazing with that background.

As we drove to the kopis, two cheetahs were on the hunt and Black-shouldered Kites hovered in scores around the rock outcroppings. More lions: this time ten of them going from here to there in the golden grass. Two more cheetahs were lounging in a place we couldn’t get to so we had our picnic lunch in the shade of an acacia grove. By the time we finished the cheetahs had moved to a small hill where we had great shots of comfortable lounging, grooming, and some perfect yawns, all in glowing back light! We finished the morning with Saddle-billed Stork portraits.

The afternoon was just hunting and hoping to end up at the leopards in the evening. We had a little of everything… elephants, fighting hippos, birds and more. As the light started getting better, we made our way to the Seronera Valley for the leopards. The light was so beautiful that we did drive by shootings of every acacia tree we went past. When we got to the leopards’ home territory, we discovered exactly how lucky we had been yesterday. The mother and daughter were in a tree 300 yards away while the boy was easily 200 yards away. There was nothing more to be done but enjoy the sunset, drive home, and rest up for tomorrow.

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