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 Lake Nakuru



Thompson's Falls

This morning began like any other on this trip, at 6am...this wake up time is beginning to feel more like a job then a vacation!  Oh well, when there is so much ground to cover and a limited time to do it, this is the result.  This morning it was really cold, I don't think the hotel had any form of heat which made it even harder for me to get up.  The hotel has a feature where you can be notified via a buzzer, located in each room, if any animals of interest are roaming around the water holes in the middle of the night...we didn't receive any buzz.  So off we go!  They rounded us up and sent us on our way back to the restaurant via shuttle bus to enjoy a large buffet of food which included everything from crepes to chicken wings...boy do they have a skewed view of what westerners eat for breakfast LOL...though I guess I didn't help that view any since I went back for seconds.  

Great Rift Valley

 After breakfast we patiently awaited our driver and guide to pick us up, once he arrived he told us he had received some very bad news.  The news was that his mother-in-law had passed away.  The result was that he had to go back to Nairobi and would therefore be unable to remain with us for the duration of our journey...which was sad for us because we really liked him!  Natural Treks Safari was going to be sending a new driver/guide to meet us at Nakuru so it really wasn't a big deal for us but it was still sad to see him go.



Thomson's Falls from below



Today's drive took us through the fertile highlands and down into the low lands of the great Rift Valley.  What a stunning view that was!  We were told many (many) times that the Rift Valley extends all the way from Israel to Mozambique, which is very impressive, but everyone we met in this area insisted on telling us this fact which of course then led to them pushing their crafts relating to this fact.  Along the way we stop at Thompsons Falls for a quick glimpse at the falls which descends a 72M cliff into the lush forest below.  This was supposed to be a quick stop for us, but since we really hadn't had much exercise in the past few days we decided to get adventurous and climb down to the bottom.  I'm always amazed at the sheer energy of the falls, once we climbed down through the dense forest, the temperature must've dropped 10 degrees as the falls blew cool mist into our faces. 

Thompson's Falls

Once at Nakuru we meet out new guide George, who is a total wealth of knowledge.  We are sad that Mike is leaving us but George seems to be pretty good too!  Nakuru is a smallish park, for Kenyan standards at 150sq KM but it has a gorgeous fresh water lake at its epicentre. Here the main attraction are the flamingoes, millions of them!  They estimate somewhere between 1.5 and 1.8 million live here.  They stretch the entire length of the southern shore of the lake, it is quite the sight to see from upclose and afar as the waters look like they are stained with some sort of florescent pink dye! As we make our way towards these shores to check out the birds, where we can get out of the van and walk around, we come across two white Rhino's, a mother and its baby.  This was what I had been waiting for, finally a healthy Rhino with horns! What a sight to see, they just look like an animal of raw power, I for one wouldn't want to be standing in front of a charging rhino!  Anyway, on to the bird viewing.  As described before, we aren't really too interested in birds, but I have to admit, this was pretty incredible to see ALL these flamingoes in one place...just the colours are stunning enough to merrit a visit.  There are also a few other birds around such as pelicans and meribu stroks which look like old men in trench coats when they are sitting down.  These birds are enormous...probably 3-4 ft tall when standing upright.

After spending some time with the smelly flamingoes we make our way into the forest where there are plenty of animals to be seen.  I was completely shocked by this park, at its variety and amount of animals in here.  The first thing we see is what we think are two female lions laying lazily in the tall grass, yawning and rolling around.  Then we hear some rustling in the grass on the other side of the road, yep, two more lions...or is it 3?  Yep turned out to be 6 lions in total!  They really weren't doing a lot until one of them decided she had had enough of the flies and proceeded to climb a tree!  Apparently this is very uncommon in this park and our guide George had never seen that...yet another first! 

Nakuru - Leopard in tree with catch

This game drive just kept better and better, the next interesting thing we came across was a leopard which was sleeping high up above the forest floor on a very large limb.  We almost drove right past it until I spotted its tail and paws hanging from the tree and thought "this doesn't look right...there has to be something in the tree" it took a while for my eyes to focus on exactly what was different about this tree.  For 1, it had a leopard in it, for 2, it had dragged its kill up the tree with it! This was one of the most thrilling things we had seen to date. We weren't very close to this tree which held all these secrets, so all of these things were not seen immediately, in fact I think we were sitting there for a good 5 minutes before our guide with his naked eye (we were using his binocs) said, what is that in the tree beside.  Sure enough, it was a gazelle!  After watching the leopard and then a few giraffes, we started to make our way up to Baboon Cliff (or as Marlene called it, Buffalo Hill...at which point she started to serenade me with Blueberry Hill, filling in her own words as she went along...lets just say she was a little disappointed when I told her its actually called Baboon Cliff which doesn't rhyme at all with Blueberry Hill) and on our way, we actually crossed paths with a black rhino and its offspring!! Once again, an extremely lucky sighting to be there at the exact moment when these animals were crossing...this was really the only place we could have seen it since we were driving through fairly thick forest at this point.  Unfortunately the sighting only lasted a few seconds, it was so quick that I couldn't even get a proper picture of it...darn!

Nakuru - Lion Yawning

Finally we arrive at baboon cliff to watch the sunset over the park, it truly was an inspiring view but what was most interesting was our guide's encounter with the dominant male baboon of baboon cliff! As we drove up to the cliff tops there were a large number of them around but as the van approached they all scattered, except the dominant male who patiently waited.  As we exited the van and headed to the look out point I saw this large male baboon approaching the van out of the corner of my eye.  When I turned to look the baboon needed all of 2 hops and a bound, and he slipped right into the popped up roof of the van!  Now THIS was exciting, how to get an angry male baboon out of the back of a van when you're blocking the only entrance.  Well, George used the only thing he had at his disposal, a plastic water bottle! He yelled at it and continued to slam the water bottle on the seat and faked to throw it at the primate, the primate eventually stopped hissing and baring his teeth and with one carefully executed bound, made his way back out of the van throught the roof.  We all had a good laugh at George's expense and this became a running joke for the rest of our days together.  Actually, this was the second time today that we had a primate in our vehicle, the first time was when we were waiting at the gates of Nakuru, I was outside the van and Marlene was inside on the far side chatting with me when a small monkey lept in from the window and sat directly above her head on the seat rest!  I thought it made for a nice hat!! She could tell by the look on my face that something was wrong and all I had to say was, "I think you should get out" and she darted for the door! HAHAHA that was funny too :)  This monkey just got out of the van without any resistance but it was quite humourous regardless.

After taking in the spectacular view of the park from atop Baboon Cliff we returned to our "home stay" accomodations, had some dinner, and watched the rain come pouring down.  The first time its really rained since we arrived.



Nakuru - Baboon Cliff (all the pink are flamingos)



Aberdares Tree Top Resort



Samburu - Elephants Crosing the River

 

Samburu - Elephants Crossing River

Another early morning departure for our small crew of 4.  Today we are heading to Aberdares park and the tree tops resort.  From what we had read, this place is top notch and we are both really looking forward to having hotel style accomodations for once.  On our way out of Samburu this morning, we exercised the African tradition of pole pole (slowly slowly) and watched the large herd of elephants we've grown accustom to seeing.  Today they were making their way across the river, this was an incredibly stunning sight to see the way they crossed the water in single file, baby in the middle holding on the momma's tail with her trunk.  It was at this point that I really began to get a feel for the natural beauty of Africa, to really appreciate how remarkable this place really is.  The elephants marched on through the river and actually came up the river bank directly beside our van, such beautiful creatures!  We continued making our way out of the park and made it about half way when our driver's eyes light up as he looks at our cook.  He slams the breaks and says "we have to go back, you guys forgot something".  Immediately I checked for my wallet and passport as I have a tendency to forget these all important items (I didn't leave it once on THIS trip!).  He started driving irradictly and we knew we were chasing an animal and not an item we had apparently left.  Eventually after weaving our way around dried up watering holes and bushes we come to a clearing with a large tree in it.  And what lies in the tree? None other then our very first Leopard!! This is what we had forgotten, we had forgetten to complete our big 5 viewing before leaving Samburu.  This was an incredible sight as we watched the leopard stretch out and get comfortable atop his tree limb...ah nature!





Samburu - Sleeping Leopard



 At last we make our way out of the park and head towards Aberdares and what we thought was going to be luxury.  The drive took us from Kenya's dry, remote north, back into the semi-tropical highlands in the centre of Kenya.  It is actually surprising how chilli it is here even during the day as I notice many locals in parkas and tuques!  It is their winter after all. 






Samburu - Yawning Leopard





We are dropped off at an affiliate restaurant which has a buffet lunch on offer. The food is pretty good, but the COLD beer is even better!  Eventually we are instructed to jump on the shuttle which will take us to the tree tops.  This is about a 30 minute drive and upon arriving we immediately think, yes this is a gorgous setting way up on top of a hill, but this hotel is not what we were expecting.  It looks like something that was built in the early 50s and had never been updated.  When we arrive we are given a 30-45 minute prep talk about how things operate here, we aren't really interested in a game drive so we make our way into the hotel for a nice hot shower.  Again, its not what we expected in that we thought we would have our own toilet and shower. Wrong! It was shared with our floor, but luckily everyone else was on safari so it was like we had the place to ourselves for the first couple of hours.  The tree tops hotel original concept is a brilliant one, originally it operated similar to a giant tree house which had a few bedrooms in it and you could watch the animals down below from the safety of the tree.  This newer version has two very large watering holes on either side of the hotel.  The hotel has a rooftop and a very large viewing area from which to view the animals, if there were any of interest.  They do have very large spot lights which allow you to see animals at night and some people spend the entire night on duty watching to see if anything comes around.  Again a neat idea, however it isn't like this is a zoo, the animals are free to roam anywhere within the park boundaries, so seeing animals is rare...we checked the log book and they had seen 2 cats the entire year.  It's like letting the animals come to you rather then going out to find the animals.  At this point for us, watching gazelle and buffalo is nothing novel and we're not very impressed...though I must admit when the hyena came at night, that was kind of cool! 



Tree Tops Resort

 It is world cup time and Spain is playing tonight, it just so happens there are several dozen Spaniards staying in the hotel tonight, so of course they are all very interested in watching the game.  The hotel set up an old TV with antenna in an empty conference style room for everyone to watch.  We thought it was a little rediculous that these people came all this way and they decide that watching the futball match is much more important then anything else.  People actually staked out their seats hours in advance of the game.  We watched the first half, then did some animal watching via spotlight, and then retired to our rooms to read and write.





Samburu - Leopard in Tree