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



Hippos in Baringo



Lake Baringo Boat Ride



Baringo Traditional Fisherman


The next morning was bit rough, a we were awoken at our usual 6am start time.  Due to the heat and humidity, I was quite uncomfortable for the duration of the night and didn't get much sleep at all.  Oh well, today is HIPPO day!!  We enjoyed some tea and biscuits as we watched the sun rise over the lake, no time for a full breakfast as our guide came by to walk us down to the boat launch for the beginning of our hippo tour! We quickly discovered this was more like a bird tour which included a tour of the lack and the hippos as the grand finale.  The funniest thing about this was that our guide would get very excited about seeing certain birds, and he'd say "are we not close enough for your camera" 'cause I wasn't taking pictures, so he'd tell the driver of the boat to get closer!  Later on when he saw my camera, he knew distance wasn't a problem...so he'd continually tap me on the shoulder and say "take picture, take picture" as if I was mentally challenged and didn't understand the concept.  The issue was disinterest, I tried telling him that we were here for the hippos and he just said "later".  So I went along with his little game and took dozens of pictures that I later deleted, Marlene was highly amused by this as he thought he was doing me a huge favour by telling me to "hurry, take picture, TAKE PICTURE...awwww you missed it!"  Good to know he takes his job seriously at least. 



 

Stalking Hippos



African Fish Eagle

Actually, there was one really cool thing we saw relating to birds.  After we met some local fisherman who had been out gathering Talipia in their locally made canoes before dawn, and once we rounded the lake's largest island (inhabited by 1 rich man and his 5 wives and 36 children) our guide pointed to some trees in the distance and said, "watch over there" as he proceded to make the sound of an eagle's cry with his mouth...like a high pitch, very loud whistle.  Sure enough, over in the trees we could see the eagle pop its head up out of its nest.  After several convincing cries, and motioning to the bird that we had fresh talapia for him, the bird finally came swooping in!  This was a really cool sight to see, it was like something right out of the nature chanel because he threw the fish about 10-15 ft away from the boat, so we saw the eagle come down and snatch the fish right in front of us.  He did this a couple of times and then we continued over into the marshy area where the hippos reside.  There must have been a family of 20 or so happily bobbing up and down.  It's hard to count how many there are because they take turns with some resting on the bottom and others keeping watch at the surface, so for us it just looks like the same hippo bobbing up and down, very cute!  At one point there was a hippo that was returning to its mates and was coming up from behind us, this is the dangerous situation we've heard about, that you don't want to be in, if that hippo were to believe that we were trying to stop it from reaching his family we'd be in deep trouble.  Our driver quickly started the engine and moved to the side to let the hippo pass.  We sat there for a good 15 minutes watching the hippos watching us, Marlene grinning from ear to ear, she absolultely adores the hippos.  It is really neat when they come up for air, they blow out huge breaths of air like a whale, and twitch their little ears.

powerful jaws

After uncessufully attempting to find some alligators, our tour ended abruptly.  We returned back to our campsite where George and Guidian were packing up our gear and beginning to serve us breakfast. After a quick stop in Nakuru for some supplies, we were Naivasha bound.  Naivasha is a very unique park in that you can experience it outside the security of a vehicle.  Yes that's right, you can choose to hike or bike your way through the park, its a rare opportunity to be on the same level as the animals themselves.



Talapia Fisherman in Baringo



Fish Eagle



After all of this we now made our way down to Naivasha (Hell's Gate) along the way we drove through bee keeper central and we all had to buy some more to replace the bottle that I accidently smashed yesterday.  What's an adventure without a little drama? The bottles were sitting in a bag and while rooting through things trying to find soap I dropped the bag (full of Marlene's stuff of course) and the bottle broke, but we didn't discover this until hours later...note to self, honey does not come out of ANYTHING very easily. I spent a good 2 hours trying to wash the honey out of the bag and some of Marlene's clothes...ooops!  So anyway, for 100sh (like $1.20) you get a 250ml bottle of fresh honey...in old booze bottles no less.  It certainly has a different taste, but its good regardless, pure and natural.

Amboselli - Kenya - Day 2 Safari



Mt. Kilimanjaro

  

Sunrising over Amboseli



Marlene in the Banda



Our second day began early in the morning (6am) as we were both eager to catch a glimpse of the elusive Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa at just under 20 000ft.  Although we were extremely tired and the morning was quite chilly, the view we got the second we opened our tent was truly magnificent and made us forget everything else.  The camp ground we were staying at sat directly adjacent to the extinct volcano of Kilimanjaro with its ever receding glacier shimmering in the light of the rising sun.  As we prepared for our long day of game driving we were even more pleased with our decision to rise early because the clouds had already begun to obscure the peaks of the giant. Upon entering the park on day two we are met with a little humour.  As we approached the gate, Marlene was attempting to put in her eye contacts, Mike being the comedian he is, decided to have a little fun.  As the locals approached our van to attempt to sell us some crafts, Mike opened his window and said something in the local language.  Suddenly all the women came over to Marlene's side of the van and began to stare intensely. Some of the women stood there for several minutes with looks of awe and disgust.  Meanwhile Mike is just killing himself laughing in the front seat, he turns to us and says "I told these ladies to look at the foreigner, she's putting in her eyes!".  Nothing like a little early morning humour.  As we enter the park we are greeted by large herds of zebra followed by many gazelle and giraffe.  We were beginning to realize that all this hype of animals in Africa was reality...I mean we expected to see animals but we didn't realize they would appear in such great numbers and in every corner of the park. 



Hippos and Elephants with foothills of Killi



Stalking Cheetah



We had started out on a different path today toward the swamp lands of the park in hopes of viewing some hippos but about 1 hour into the drive our driver Mike's ears perked up about a transmission over the CB radio.  We quickly turned around and started heading back to where we had seen the lions yesterday.  Before we reached the lions Mike spots it...its a cheetah!  We watched the Cheetah from a fairly close distance as it attempted to cross the road to reach the cool shaded area on the other side. As it proceeds to make its way toward the trees it decides to have a little fun with the nearby zebra...the zebra take off in a cloud of dust even though the small cat is no threat to them. 



our guide estimated this elephant was about 1 month old



Hyenas trying to get in on the lions kill from last night

Just a few meters from here is where the lions are now guarding their zebra kill from the hyenas who have shown up in numbers today.  Some of the hyenas are attempting to get the lions to chase them in hopes that while the lions are distracted the other hyenas can steal some of the zebra meat. But the lions are obviously too smart for this and don't play into the games.  This one small stretch of road is Africa at its finest. On one side of the road we have 3 female lions and a male lion guarding their food from dozens of hyenas while zebra, gazelle, wildebeest, and giraffe all attempt to cross the road in order to get to the watering hole which lays directly behind the occupied lions.  A few hundred feet beyond that there are elephants, more giraffe, and ostrich all grazing in the plains...we could have easily spent all morning there watching all these animals! 

Killi quickly disappearing behind the clouds

In this part of the park, all the animals return to the forested hills around Kilimanjaro at night, and then head back towards the watering holes in the day time...the road is strategically placed between these two biospheres.  It was just surreal to see all of this happen at once, all within about 1 sq. km.  We eventually proceed to the swampy areas so that Marlene could see her favourite animals, the hippo.  Once in the swamps, we quickly came across a few hippos, but they are hard to spot as they are submerged, however as we continued along the road we eventually came across a pair of them that were out of the water, they sure are massive!  These animals are not particularly comfortable on land and quickly retreat to the safety of the reeds when they see us coming.  In these swamp lands there are also a significant amount of white and pink flamingos which are happily feeding in the receding waters of the park...there are also pelicans, ducks, and storks amongst the flamingos. So much wildlife everywhere you look.

view of the welands

Flamingoes

Today we brought a packed lunch which we enjoyed atop of a large look out point where we had an excellent view of both the wetlands and the plains...and of course the mountains around killi.  It is explained to us that without the glacial runoff and rainwater from Kilimanjaro and the surrounding area which travels to Amboseli via underground rivers, this park would be a desert. All runoff from the mountains flows this way and thus sustains life in the park.  The rest of the afternoon was spent viewing hippos and elephants in the surrounding marshes.  We returned to our campsite for some R&R at around 3pm.  We had a long drive ahead of us...tomorrow we head to the Kenyan highlands.

Bright and Early to see Killi!