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Published: September 27th 2006
Masai Kids
KENYA - MASAI MARAAfter an eventless flight, we arrived in Nairobi, or Nai-Robbery as it is informally known as. We stayed at a place called Nairobi Backpackers, and it was a great place to get things rolling in Africa. It was mega chilled out, and even though it was hot, they had a bon fire going every night, where everyone chilled out and drank Tusker beer. We liked the place.
Nairobi itself didn't seem to have a lot to offer, so the next day we went out and organised a 4 day safari to the Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru. We went with a company called Planet Safari. They seemed a bit dodgy, but then again, most companies out here selling safari's seem that way. That night it was time to hit the restaurant that had been making Chris' mouth water for months. It's called Carnivore's, and as the name suggests, it's all about MEAT! It's basically an all-u-can-eat BBQ, offering you everything from Lamb and Beef, to Osterich and Crocodile. It was awesome! We both ate so much we though we were going to explode! I This place is a must do if you ever make it to Nairobi.
Next stop-
Landscape/Paisaje
KENYA - MASAI MARA Masai Mara. The ride there was a shoker! Roads in Kenya aren't the same as most places in the Western world. It's a dirt track 80% of the way, and on the spots that there is bituman, the surface is that bad that nobody drives on it. Instead, everyone takes a dirt paths either side of the road as the ride is a little me comfortable. finally, we made it to the Mara, and embarked on our first game drive... WOW!! What an amazing place the Mara is. Within about 10 minutes of being inside the reserve, we'd already seen countless zebra, wildebeest, Thompson's gazelle, elephants and impala. The abundance of life is amazing! It had the feel of being in a zoo, but far more wild, and you knew these animals didn't have any fences holding them back. They were free to roam wherever they wanted. This time of year, the majority had migrated over from the Serengeti in Tanzania as everything is far too dry out there, and most of the grasses are dead, meaning they had no food. The Mara is pretty dry too, but it had enough life in it to support the animals for a
Lionesses/Leonas
KENYA - MASAI MARA couple of months until the rains start in Tanzania around the end of October.
After an hour or so of driving around, we ran into a pride of lions. Fantastic! Unfortunately, they weren't too active, but seeing them in the wild was amazing! the next day, we spent the whole day driving around the Mara in our van. This place gets better and better, and there's always something news to see. We saw a couple of lions that had just finished feeding on a wilderbeest that they had caught, and about 10 vultures were cleaning up the leftovers. It was an amazing site. The birds were going mad! And within about 30 minutes, there was only the skin and skeleton left. That day we also saw a cheetah, a herd of buffalo, girraffe's, warthog's, monkey's, and many more.
For our last day at the Mara, we were doing a morning drive. We still hadn't seen a leopard, and were hoping that this was going to be our morning! We got into the park at around 6.30, just as the sun was coming up. 2 minutes into it, we saw a pack of hyena's trying to get a wilderbeest for
Lioness/Leona
KENYA - MASAI MARA breakfast. We watched them for a while, but they weren't very successful. We carried on, and a couple of hundred meters down the road we spotted a pride of lion's in the distance. When we got closer to them, we could see that they had killed a wilderbeest, and were still feeding on it. Once done, 4 of the lions walked off to get some rest, but 1 was reluctant to leave her meal. There were already a handful of vultures and jackels waiting around to clean up the scraps. Everytime the lion would walk off, the vultures and jackels would scoop in and try and get an easy meal. The lion wasn't happy with this, and would turn around and chase everyone off as soon as they got near her kill. Quite an amazing site! This went on for sometime, but in the end, the lion gave up and let them have the scraps. Nothing else topped that encounter, although on the way out of the park, we saw that the hyena's finally got their kill as once again, vultures were feasting on a fresh wilderbeest carcus that wasn't there earlier on.
From the Mara, we headed to
the Lake Nakuru, famous for the thousands of flamingo's that live there. Rhino's also lived in the area, and they were one of the Big 5 that we were yet to see. once again, the trip there was rough, and it took a good 8 hours, although we only travelled 300k's or so. That night was an early one and we were up at the crack of dawn again for a game drive around the lake. Like we were told, a lot of flamingo's live on the lake. When I say lots, I mean thousands and thousands! The whole lake looks totally covered with flamingo's! They were smelly buggers though. We saw some rhino's too, but our search for the elusive leopand was coming to an end, and we were unable to spot one.
That was the end of our first safari, and what an amazing one it had been! From here, we headed back to Nairobi for a night, before heading off to Arusha in Northern Tanzania to see Ngongoro Crater, another wildlife mecca...
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Despues de un vuelo sin novedades, llegamos a Nairobi o mas conocido como Nai-Robo. Nos quedamos en un lugar para mochileros
llamado Nairobi BackPackers. El lugar era muy relajado e ideal para organizar el viaje. A pesar del calor, habia una chimenea/fogata encendida en el patio donde los turistas nos juntabamos a tomar una tusker, cerveza local.
La ciudad de Nairobi no tiene mucho que ofrecer, por lo que al dia siguiente salimos a organizar un safari de 4 dias en la reva de Masai Mara y lago Nakuru. La agencia de turismo era Planet Safari y parecia ser bastante turbia, pero al final todas las empresas funcionan igual. Esa noche fuimos al restoran al del que Chris habia hablado por meses. Se llamaba EL CARNIVORO y como el nombre lo dice es todo sobre carnes. se trata de comer parrilladas hasta reventar y ofrece desde cordero y vaca hasta aveztruz y cocodrilo. Fue espectacular! comimos hasta que pensamos ibamos a reventar! Este restoran es definitivamente una visita obligada si es que andas por Nairobi.
La proxima parada fue en MASAI MARA. El viaje fue agotador. Las rutas en Kenya no son como en paises mas avanzados. El camino esta tan destruido que el 80% del tiempo hay que andar por los costados del camino. Los saltos son tan grandes
Vultures/Buitres
KENYA - MASAI MARA y el auto es tan duro que las tripas quedan en la mano. Finalmente llegamos al Mara. Aca hicimos nuestro primer safari. IMPRESIONANTE! dentro de los 10 primeros minutos dentro de la reserva ya habiamos visto innumerables zebras. wildebeest, gazelas, elefantes e impalas. La vida que hay en el parque es espectacular. Como estar en el zologico, pero mucho mas salvaje y sin las barreras que te protejan de los animales. En esta epoca del ano la mayoria de los animales migran desde el parque Serengeti en Tanzania al Masai Mara en Kenya, donde se abastecen de comida y agua por un par de meses hasta que las lluvias empiezen nuevamente a final de octubre en Tanzania cuando cruzaran de vuelta.
Despues de una hora manejando nos topamos con una manada de leonas. Fue fantastico!! deasfortunadamente no estaban muy activas, pero verlas tan de cerca y tan salvajes es inexplicable! Al dia siguiente tuvimos un dia completo manejando dentro de la reserva. El lugar sorprende a cada minuto. Vimos como 10 buitres limpiaban los restos de un pobre animal que habia sido presa de leones. Los pajaros se volvieron locos y en 30 minutos solo quedaba piel y esqueleto.
Vultures/Buitres
KENYA - MASAI MARA ese dia tambien vimos una Cheetah, manadas de bufalos, jirafas, cerdos salvajes, monos y muchos mas!!. En nustro ultimo dia en el Mara hicimos un safari de madrugada. AUn no habiamos visto un leopardo y esperabamos que esta fuera la ocacion. 6.30 am , recien amaneciendo, y lo primero que vimos fue un grupo de Hyenas tratando de desayunarse un wildebeest. El aullido, estilo risa es terrorifico. No tuvieron mucho exito asi que seguimos hasta toparnos con una manad de leones a la distancia. Nos acercamos y vimos que habian matado un wildebeest y aun se lo estaban comiendo. Cuando terminaron, 4 leones se tomaron un descanso, pero uno se reusaba a abandonar la presa. un monton de buitres y chacales estaban desesperados por agarrar los restos, pero el leon se acercaba a echarlos cada vez que alguno daba un paso hacia el animal muerto. Asi por un largo rato y los pajaros pretendian mirar al cielo o estar haciendo algo mas, cada vez que el leon se daba la vuelta a vigilar su comida. Al final, el leon se dio por vencido y los dejo comer sus sobras. Eso fue lo mejor de la jornada, aunque a la salida
Vultures/Buitres
KENYA - MASAI MARA del parque vimos que las Hyenas habian capturado a su victima y una vez mas los buitres se estaban dando una fiesta con un fresco y recien muerto wildebeest, los que parecen ser el plato facil y preferido de la selva.
Del Masai Mara nos fuimos al lago Nakuru., famoso por los miles de flamencos que viven ahi. Varios Rinocerontes rodean el lago y ellos son uno de los "5 GRANDES" que teniamos que ver. Nuevamente, 8 horas en un camino durisimo y solo avanzamos 300Km. Madrugamos para llegar al lago y tal como nos habian dicho. el lago era ROSADO cubierto con Flamencos, miles y miles de ellos!. claro que algo ediondos.. Varios rinocerontes fueron la novedad, pero lamentablemente nuestra busqueda por el leopardo no fue exitosa.
Este fue el final de nuestro safari y que impresionante que fue!! desde aca, nos vamos a Nairobi por una noche para luego partir a Arusha en el norte de Tanzania. Alla nos espera el crater Ngorongoro y el lago Manyara que son otra meca de vida salvaje....
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Lee
non-member comment
Looks like the Vervet Monkey was happy to see you bro! Sounds like you´re having a fantastic time mate - nice effort on the length, duration and detail of the update - hehe.