16:00 comes around all too quickly and we're off out again having declined tea and cake! Our truck companion is apparently finding the trip rather tiring and has opted for an afternoon off, so it's just us two and George - great.
Malachite Kingfisher - Ian's favourite.
The zebra here are definitely more black and white than others we've seen and I like this one’s punk hairdo.
The red-billed Oxpecker was merrily calling.
Out on the open plain the light was lovely and we found a female giraffe and her calf.
How tiny the calf is compared to the mother, but actually it's still about 6' tall and weighed 65-84 kg at birth. The gestation period is about 15 months and when it's born the calf falls about 2m to the ground but within an hour it can stand and run and will grow about 4' in its first year.
Actually that didn't actually happen so I flipped the calf to create it! I think Mum was too interested in eating actually.
At dinner there was a special Masai dance performed (I didn't attempt to film it) and then we spent a really interesting half hour talking to the other manager, Andrew, about the conservancy and local people. When the rains fail, as they did last December, there isn't enough grass for the cattle grazing and so the locals start to encroach on land designated for wildlife. Andrew told us how the conservancy was trying to persuade locals to switch to a different, more robust, breed of cattle (as is farmed in Laikipia) but they were much more expensive and as a man's wealth and status is determined by the number of cattle they own it was proving difficult. Also if they have 100 head of cattle and they lose 1 it's a small loss but if the animal costs x10 and they only have 10 in the first place, then losing just one has a major impact. We could have staying chatting with him all evening but as we were leaving early tomorrow on a game drive and then heading straight on to the next camp we needed to finish packing.