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Published: November 9th 2021
Maasai Giraffe
Seen on the way to our camp. We have arrived in the fabulous Maasai Mara!
Last night I woke up about 3 am and looked outside our room to see if there were any hippos grazing on the lawn, and I saw two! It was pretty amazing. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Lodge, then headed out at 8 am for our 5 hour drive to the Maasai Mara. The road was paved, and so much smoother than the drive yesterday!
It was an enjoyable, very scenic drive. We had a nice view of a Mount Longonot (a volcanic mountain), and there were many lovely vistas to admire along the way. At the start of the drive there were lots of trucks and at one point we saw the aftermath of a bad accident, with two trucks on their sides in the deep ditch (they were very badly damaged). The road is just two lanes, so there are cars and trucks passing slower vehicles constantly. Today there were actually passing lanes on steep grades, the first time we have seen that.
Our driver Stanley is a great driver and I felt totally safe with him at the wheel. I was sitting behind him today
so had a good view of the oncoming vehicles in our lane in the process of passing, before they quickly slipped back into their lane! It was entertaining.
The landscape was quite desert-y and arid, and we passed lots of dusty small towns. Unfortunately there was a great deal of litter along the road around these towns. We saw lots of Maasai tending their herds of cows, sheep, and goats.
We stopped for a couple of bathroom breaks, both at curio shops (I’m thinking those are likely the only places for tourists to use a clean, western style bathroom). We made a few small purchases at the second shop. And we stopped at an ATM for several of us to top up our supply of Kenyan shillings.
We passed through the entry gates to the park, and while Stanley was paying the entry fees our jeep was mobbed by Maasai women selling items (their jewellery and other trinkets). They are very persistent, and we were glad when we could continue. We did see a very nice wide colourful embroidered bracelet, so we may have a look on the way out.
The road from the gates to
the camp is gravel, and very bumpy, which made us appreciate the paved road all the way to the park gates all the more.
We arrived at our home for the next two nights, the fabulous Ilkeliani tented camp. This place is just out of this world. It was flooded out last year, so has been completely rebuilt, and I don’t think has been open for that long. The jeeps park on the other side of the river, and we walk on a suspension bride (so fun!) over the river to the camp. The common areas (dining room, bar, sitting area) are just lovely, and the tents are fantastic, very deluxe. We have a huge tent with a king bed, and a large bathroom area, which is sectioned off at night by the tent flaps. The tents are up on stilts, and come with a screened in balcony. The shower is open on one side (there is a screened window) so we will shower with a view!
The very friendly and helpful staff welcomed us with a delicious glass of pineapple/mint juice and cold towels which were really refreshing, since it was quite hot when we arrived at
the camp. We had a delicious lunch (a choice of starter and main, no buffet here). I had a very nice watermelon, cucumber salad, then a equally nice Indian vegetarian dish, along with a Tusker Lite. We finished with a cup of excellent Kenyan coffee.
We had some time to settle into our tent (and ooh and aah over it), and then we headed out at 4 pm for our afternoon game drive. We are really hoping that we would be able to see some big cats (cheetah and leopard) that we haven’t seen yet. We passed warthog families (the babies are so cute), and a new animal for us, the Topi (a type of antelope), as well as Maasai giraffes, zebras, eland, gazelles, impalas, and a male Maasai ostrich. He had pink legs and neck. He is just huge!
We spotted about 10 jeeps clustered together at one point, so we went to check it out. They were all watching four cheetas (brothers), which were eating a recent kill, in a field quite some distance away. I took about a million photos, trying to hold the camera still with the zoom at maximum, in the hope that
I’d get a few good shots. Some of the photos turned out reasonably well. There were at least 25 vultures waiting on a tree close by, waiting for their turn after the cheetas finished.
We had to stay on the road and not drive closer to the cheetas since there were park wardens watching. The cheetas are not bothered by the jeeps approaching them (they view the people as being in a cage, inside the jeeps), but if jeeps drive off the roads they are subject to a fine. We decided to wait until they finished, in the hopes that they would walk closer to the jeep on their way to sleep off their meal. Eventually the park wardens left, and we quickly drove closer to the cheetas, for a very brief look. It was amazing, seeing the cheetas and the remnants of their meal (a wildebeest) so closely. They had left the stomach of the wildebeest, which was very large. We drove back to the road, and then went to see what the vultures were up to. They had virtually completely demolished the remnants of the wildebeest, including the large stomach that the cheetas had left.
Then
Large bathroom area
The tent is open (screened) on the side of the shower so we’ll shower with a view! we waited, hoping the cheetas would walk in our direction. They did! All four of them walked right by our jeep, which was an incredible sight. The sun was setting at this point, and we drove back to our camp, heading directly to the bar for a G&T. I popped back into our tent briefly (we have to be escorted to/from the tents when it is dark here also), and then we sat down for a terrific dinner. I had a salad to start and Susan had the soup (cream of broccoli). The soups are really good here. We both had the tilapia, which was served with a caper sauce, rice, and vegetables. It was really excellent. We each had a glass of Chilean white wine to accompany the delicious dinner.
We were escorted back to our tent (which has been readied for bed for us with the tent flaps zipped up, the flaps between the main room and the bathroom lowered, and the bed turned down. We also had hot water bottles placed in the bed, but they are not really needed here as it only goes down to 18 degrees or so. A very nice touch though
(and with driving on all the bumpy roads, I will use it to soothe my slightly stiff neck).
I am falling asleep so I will sign off now. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s two game drives!
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Jo Dunaway
non-member comment
Amazing variety!
What an amazing variety of animals & birds! It must be almost overwhelming to see so many different exotic creatures. I'm starting to think of elephants as “ordinary”. ? Thank you for the wonderful photos.