Kenya - Our last days

For what was supposed to be somewhat of a "nothing" day, a day where we were to slowly make our way back to the nation's capital, it turned out to be one of those roller coaster of emotions days that only two weeks of international travel can inspire. We left at around 8am today as we wanted to be in Nairobi at a decent hour.  On the way out of the park while being distracted by a nearby jackal, we all spot something streaking through the forest beside the van.  We are all staring intently at these large black animals that are running very quickly through the forest not 20 feet away from our van.  Finally we reach a clearing and what is revealed was truly remarkable and unbelievable.  Its a small pack of wild dogs on the hunt!  To clarify the rarity of this sight, the day before yesterday on one of George's information sessions he told us that wild dogs used to be prominent in the Mara but that amongst the guides, in the past 5 years or so, not a single one was recorded to have been sighted and the local lore was that they were thought to be extinct!  This was one of those moments were everyone in the van (we were giving a local worker a ride to a nearby town) turned and looked at each other with pure ecstasy and disbelief at what we had just witnessed.  As quickly as they had appeared, the dogs once again returned to obscurity and perhaps even to mythical status because who knows just how long it will be before another documented sighting takes place. Wild dogs do not hunt like other principle predators, they will chase their prey for many miles to exhaust them.  Unfortunately our cameras were packed away in our bags, however, much like our rare sighting of the rhino in Nakuru, I likely would not have had the time, or quick enough reaction, to take a good picture.  I know for me, that moment will be forever burned into my memory.  Had it been in other parts of Africa, this sighting may not be so dramatic, but here in the Mara a kind of scientific experiment with vaccines (for rabbies I believe) took place a few decades ago.  The vaccines were deemed responsible for wiping out the entire population through sterilization.

On and on the drive went, George drives the speed limit so our drive took much longer then expected. Upon arrival into Nairobi we got stopped by a police officer who seemed very upset and George looked very concerned.  They were speaking swahilli but we could tell he was talking about us, or at least mentioning us. After several minutes of this back and forth he was let go.  George later explained "that man wanted to arrest me, if not for you I would have surely been arrested".  Apparently there are all types of licences required for automobiles in Kenya including a license for a radio, no not a CB radio, but the am/fm radio.  The license had expired and this is an enforceable offense.  George was able to plead with the officer telling him he has clients and this would not be fair to us as we had van full of luggage.

Eventually we did make our way through the insanity that is traffic in Nairobi and checked in to our hotel.  It was a very nice modern hotel and we were happy to find a proper bathroom and air conditioning in the room. We laid down to relax a bit and vegg out in front of the TV (something we hadn't seen in a couple weeks!) and to our horror, ALL of the news stations were broadcasting about a terrorist attack that had struck Kampala, Uganda.  We both jumped out of bed with our hearts in our throats wondering what in the world had happened?  Our immediate reaction was that the city must be in chaos because they were speaking about over 80 people being killed by bombs.  The bombs were exploded by suicide bombers from a terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda, named Al Shabab who operate out of Somalia.  The suicide bombers had targeted popular sports bars who were showing the finals of the world cup match. This was not a good sign.  We quickly ran downstairs and got online to see what we could find out.  The Canadian Embassy had not issued warnings for the area and after reading a few headlines, it didn't appear as though we would be as at risk as we had once thought.  It was obviously very devastating for the city and the country, especially since Al Shabab had promised more retaliation if Uganda did not pull its troops from Somalia.

Later on that day we met with Elizabeth from our tour company who briefed us on the situation.  She had already been in contact with a few people in Uganda who had assured her that flights were not delayed or cancelled and things had pretty much returned to normal, and besides we were not staying in downtown Kampala anyhow...something comparable to say being in Brampton as apposed to downtown Toronto.  Elizabeth assured us our tour would still go ahead and we had nothing to worry about!

That evening we met up with Andrew (Anne's friend) and a few of his other friends.  He treated us as if we were family, picked us up at our hotel, paid for our entire bar tab and the dropped us off back at the hotel even though it was after midnight and he had to work at 6am..oh those crazy Kenyans!  We had a blast just laughing it up and having a few drinks.  It was the perfect way to end our incredible honeymoon adventure!

Last day in the Mara

Today was the first day in a long time that we were able to sleep in past 8am, and after yesterdays insanely long safari adventure, well deserved, in my opinion!  We met up with George for breakfast and we were told he arranged for a local Masai named Solomon to take us up into the hills behind our lodge. It was a great hike and a welcome change from all the driving we've been doing, the views over the plains were fabulous.  We spent quite a long time taking in the view through the lens of our binoculars, watching safari vans drive around and taking note of the locals down below milling about in their everyday fashion.

After listening to George talk endlessly about the local fauna, birds and everything in between both Marlene and I were getting quite tired and a little annoyed with this constant bombardment of information.  Upon returning from our little hike we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, reading, and writing.  A perfect opportunity for me to finally tuck into the bottle of rum I had been carrying around the entire journey!  We had been told the alcohol within the parks can be quite expensive and to bring our own booze, to be honest, we had neither the time, nor the energy to sit back and enjoy multiple drinks per night.  I actually ended up just leaving 3/4 of the bottle for the cleaning staff.

And soon the time had come for our final safari!  It was met with mixed emotions because on the one hand it was kind of sad to be leaving the Kenyan plains, if not for ever, then for a very long time. And on the other hand, a once novel and thrilling experience had began to take on a kind of weary, un-enthusiastic aura. Not to sound like a couple of spoiled brats but we really had seen everything we had come to see and we didn't see the point in going out again.  But alas, we had paid for it and George was gung ho to find us some lions. There were many many grazers lying by the watering hole and Marlene and I would have been just fine to sit there and watch these magical beasts in their natural habitat, taking in all of our surroundings for one last time.  But George was determined, he was going to find us our lion!  For the next 2 hours we drove around in circles attempting to cross a creek, each time we were faced with soft ground, we would have to turn around.  On one of these attempts we found ourselves face to face with a very disgruntled, enormous bull elephant.  He seemed to have been cranky to begin with but our presence in his territory clearly tested his patience as he began to flap his ears and even trumpet his trunk as he slowly began the "charge mode" rituals.  This time I was a bit nervous because we had just climbed up a steep, windy, and narrow road and the only way to evade him was to go back the way we came.  George quickly threw it in reverse, vearing off course in the process.  Luckily we managed to get far enough away from the angry elephant that he decided we were no longer a threat.  We all sat back, caught our breath, and watched/listened as the elephant stormed off in the opposite direction, up rooting trees along the way.  We could still see the trees shaking down in the valley long after he was out of earshot.

The Jackyl

When we retired to bed Marlene and I recounted many of the incredible things we had seen and experienced along our 2 week journey.  We decided that 2 weeks was the perfect amount of time and the we were ready to take on Uganda!  We were very excited for a change of pace, and to meet up with some of Anne's friends who promised to treat us to a night of local Kenyan debotchery! 

View of the Masai Mara from above





In search of the migration

Masai Elephant Family

Quote from Marlene’s journal “Today was the longest game drive ever!” And yes, it was a marathon drive as we had to make our way to the other side of the National Reserve which is 1510 square KMs. The “Mara” as the locals call it, is essentially the northern continuation of the more famous park in Tanzania called, the Serengeti. The two parks (and therefore the countries) are separated by a river, and it is this river that we are trying to find with the hopes that we’ll see some wildebeest swimming across it. Our day began at 8am and we returned to camp at 7pm.  11 hours of game driving is definitely tiring but we say so many incredible things, starting with a family of elephants, which we love to watch.  Along the way Marlene needed a pit stop at the washroom due to all the tea she was drinking, at this stop I got a better understanding of how people in the old days could stumble across a lion with no warning.  It’s hard to imagine that in an open savannah, you could be surprised by an animal as large as a lion, but honestly, the grass is so tall and so thick there could easily have been a lion crouching in the field and I’d never know it.

No lions here...

The sheer scale and quantity of wild life in this park is absolutely mind blowing, I have probably described a lot of things as mind blowing at this point, but this preserve truly is a natural marvel.  To drive over countless ridges only to find more and more grass covered hills with tens of thousands of grazers on each hill side is something that is beyond description.  Because there are so few trees, and the lay of the land is gentle rolling hills, it is possible to see for tens of kilometres.  There were moments on our drive where even though there was nothing exciting happening right in front of us, the beauty and tranquility of being immersed in all that surrounded us was enough to get our driver to stop so we could take it all in.  There were many times along this drive where I thought to myself (sometimes out loud) what are all those specs of white on the hillside?  Sure enough as we got closer, it would be zebra, gazelle, buffalo etc etc. I tried taking several photos to capture this scene, but a photo is such a poor replication that I’m not even sure it merits being posted. 



Thousands of Masai Grazers - all the white and dark specs are a combination of zebra, buffalo, gazelle, wildebeest etc.



Masai Leopard Feast

We drove and drove, over the hills, through the gullies, across creeks, through marshes, until we finally reached the river.  The disappointing thing was that the wildebeest had already made their ways across it.  The amazing part was that we were allowed to get out of the van and have a look around.  There were hippos and crocs in the water below.  We watched them for some time and then continued on our journey.  We eventually came across a cheetah that had just killed a gazelle and was proceeding to drag it into a shrubby area for shelter and cover. I spoke to some fellow safariers who informed me that we had just missed the chase by about 5 minutes!  This would’ve been fascinating to see but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.  Later on we came across a family of 3 leopards who were feasting on a wildebeest.  Our driver got us so close to these animals that we could hear them liking and tearing the beast apart and moaning with delight.  To be there was incredible; unfortunately since they were in the trees it was very hard for me to get a clear shot of the on going carnage.  At this point our driver George turns to us and says “I’m sorry guys I’m not too familiar with this part of the park, I think we should start following the other vans”.  Ok, not the most reassuring statement considering the remoteness of our location but we were surrounded by other guides so we weren’t that worried.  We eventually stopped for lunch under a large lonely tree where we could get some food into us, and George could have a look at the map.

Artistic Masai Giraffes

Masai Leopard Feast 2

Our journey continued on as we passed by many more hippos in the river below, and as we started to make our way back home we eventually did come across some massive herds of wildebeest.  We were both happy to catch a glimpse of what we had set out to find, however George says that what we saw is miniscule in comparison to seeing the actual migration, I couldn’t even imagine it.  We both thought what we saw was enormous and overwhelming to believe that this is just a fraction of the real deal, well that’s just craziness!  Anyway, as we continued on, it became more and more apparent that George of the Jungle, or Genius George, or whatever name we could think of at this point, was LOST.  He kept turning around and looking at me as if to say “any idea which way we should go?” I just kept thinking to myself, if you have to ask me then we’re really in for an adventure.  At one point after driving like this for close to an hour, we came to a steep creek crossing.  Although George had been avoiding these extremely rugged sections all day, we had simply come too far to turn around and find another route.  He turned around and told us to buckle in and hang on, he put the van in 4X and took a deep breath….woo we made it through the downward section and across the smaller creek, now for the tricky part, across another section of mud followed by a sharp turn, and up a steep narrow, muddy path.  This took several attempts and some very creative driving but we eventually made it up.  I was very impressed with these old vans and their manoeuvrability.  We waited for the two vans who were following us, just to make sure they made it ok.  Watching and hearing the other van crash around over the rocks and through the mud made us feel lucky we made it without any damage to the van.

Just as the journey was becoming a little mundane (I know, how spoiled we quickly become!) we came down and around another rolling hill to find a massive conglomoration of vans down below. We figured there must be something extremely exciting going on so, off we went to find out what was drawing so much attention.  It took a while to see just what all the fuss was about, and then there it was, in all its kingly glory...a male lion with its long shaggy mane flayling in the wind.  Of all the incredible things we had seen so far, this was the moment that I had been waiting for for nearly two weeks, to see a fully matured male lion in close proximity.  For me, this without a doubt, completed my African safari check list and a sense of fulfillment quickly emerged.  There were actually two male lions in this location and they appeared to just be hanging out, without a care in the world, and not the least big concerned with the dozens of humans flashing cameras their way. It really is remarkable how much bigger these creatures are then their female counterparts. An unbelievable opportunity that was brough about by taking the long way home.

A sample of Wildebeests in the Mara

On our way back George asked us if we wanted to make a stop at an historic resort/lodge.  It was the first ever lodge built in the Mara and it was pretty impressive with its own pond of hippos along the private boardwalk. We spent sometime looking around in the gift shop as this was the first place we had come across that actually had fixed prices on the products.  At times we were quite satisfied with what we had bargained for with the locals, but of course there were other times where the locals clearly got the best of our judgement.  Marlene decided that she would buy the remainder of her gifts for friends (so she said, but later retracted and bought even more in Uganda!) here at the hotel gift shop as it also accepted credit cards.

When we got back we had been told we’d be saying good bye to our incredible chef Guidian tonight as he was being called back to Nairobi to start another tour with our former driver/guide Mike…they apparently always travel together.  We were sad to see him go, but we were also now going to be upgraded once again, as we had to be put somewhere that had full room and board.  It was a slight upgrade but it had a bar with booze, so that made us a little more comfortable!  And thus ends the longest day (and the longest entry in my blog) of our entire trip thus far.

Tomorrow we are supposed to do yet another game drive, but to be honest, both of us have seen enough of that van to last us an eternity. Instead we decide that we will sleep in for once, and then hire a local Masai to take us on a walking tour of the surrounding area. 



Masai - Wildebeest Migration - This picture shows a lot: the dark area in the foreground is where there used to be grass and it was already eaten by the passing Wildebeests. The dark spots in the background are ALL wildebeests



Onward to the Mara!



Masai Mara - More rain for tomorrow?

Last night it poured ran all night long, luckily Natural Tracks safari was kind enough to upgrade up to a local hotel (free of charge) since our poor little tent is nowhere near being water proof.  Today we enter into the last leg of our trip in Kenya as we make our way to the Masai Mara.  We have 2 nights and 3 days booked in here as we have been informed this is the highlight park of many safaris.  Today will be a long day of driving as we make our way from the ruggedness of the rift valley area, down to the arid plains.  Along the way we stopped in a Masai town where Marlene’s eyes were beaming at the sight of ice cream, it had been quite some time since either of us had anything cold, so ice cream hit the spot and beyond!  In the grocery store we also found some of the magic spice that our chef uses on everything.

Momma with Cub

Once we finally arrived and settled at our latest outpost, we were quickly whisked off for a late afternoon game drive in the Mara!  The Mara is known for two things, the lions and the wildebeest migration.  Today we saw 1 half of that as we (actually, more like me, as I was getting the feel for this game drive business…as our guide was going on and on about this and that as he always did, I spotted a momma lion on the side of the road, he didn’t even see it, I swear we almost hit it!) followed a momma lion back to her safe place where she had 4 lion cubs hiding in the long grass. This was really the only thing in the way of animals that was impressive.  However, the scenery is straight out of national geographic, rolling grass laden hills, with spotted trees and bushes.

Masai Lion cub waiting for momma

Tonight is the world cup final and we are both interested in going out for a true African experience.  Our guide is very excited at this prospect and tells us to go ready.  Not long after we were both clean and dressed, George came to our banda to tell us he had some sad news.  Upon speaking with the locals in the kitchen they advised him that it would not be wise to bring his clients to watch the game in the local bar or restaurant.  We were after all in the middle of nowhere with only local Masai around, apparently they can get pretty abrasive when they drink and our safety would be in jeopardy.  They are not used to seeing foreigners in the village, especially at night, and George did not want to risk it.  So alas, we staid back in our banda, caught up on some reading and writing and were off to bed as tomorrow will be the longest of all safari journeys.  We will be attempting to catch a glimpse of the wildebeest migration happening at the opposite end of the park.

Masai Lion in the Grass