Advertisement
Published: October 24th 2009
Oct 14 - Flew to Nairobi from Joburg and met up with Robbie
Oct 15 - Spent the day in Nairobi. We thought we would be clever, and walk from our beautiful hotel, The Fairmont Norfolk, to the downtown business center, get some breakfast , and do some shopping. Before you know a local approached us and struck up a conversation. We engaged with him and asked him where some stores were. He took us to a street with many local stores. Two more locals then approach us to try to get us to go to their stores. The 3 of them followed us around for a while, so I told them that we just want to get a decent breakfast. They escorted us to a nice place - the Nairobi coffee shop. The first one asked the other two to leave and walked in to the restaurant. I turned around and told him that we wanted to spend time alone, and he was not welcome. So the three of them waited outside for us. When we finished breakfast, we walked out of the cafe, and the 3 of them continued to follow and harass us. Finally I turned around
and told them to piss off, that I wanted to spend time with my son. They finally backed off. We were quit annoyed about all of this, so we returned to the hotel and asked them where a decent mall was. We got back on track and finally got everything we needed.
Oct 16 - high 25 low 19
We met Tristan from offbeat Safaris this morning at Wilson Airport, a small private airport in Nairobi. Many people in Kenya fly small planes instead of driving, because the roads are so bad. Tristan flew us in his 4 seater Cessna 128 to Lake Nakuru National park. Here we met up with his wife, Cindy, who had driven their Land Rover from their home, Deloraine Lodge which is about an hours drive away. Cindy left us the car so we could do an afternoon safari drive on the way back to their place, and she took the plane. We spent about 3 hours traveling through the park and Robbie got his first taste of African Wildlife: elephants, giraffe, white rhino, black rhino, etc. Before proceeding back to the lodge.
Deloraine Lodge was built in 1920 by the son of
a British lord. The place is absolutely majestic. Situated on a 3500 acre farm property owned by an African trust, the current owners Tristan and Cindy bought the place 17 years ago and turned it into a base for their Safari operation.
After we got settled in, we went for an early evening ride up the side of a volcano that borders their property. On our way back it started to rain, which put a little damper on things.
Saturday,Oct 17 -
We got up to a fresh pot of coffee and cookies on the balcony off our rooms, which overlooks the English country garden. 7:30 we got on our horses for an early morning, pre breakfast ride around the property, including, of course, a visit to the polo field. Somehow, a few cattle had managed to get thru the fence and onto the polo field. So of course we had to round them up and move them out.
Following a full English breakfast, we went to the polo field to play a little 2 on 2, with Robbie and I taking on Cindy and Tristan. Diplomatically the game ended in a 5 all tie.
Back at the lodge more guest were arriving. Being a weekend they had invited friends and family. One group arrived for a late lunch: Tady, Roxy and Sophie, nephews and nieces from England, all around Robbie's age; Richard and Linda, neighbors; Theresa a lovely women who also lives nearby; and Bimm and Toby, friends from England originally, now living in Tanzania.
The young people played a few games of croquet and some tennis. A few more people arrived for dinner, Philip ( who goes by the nick names flip, flop, flip flop or floppy) and his lovely wife Katie. Before dinner, we went for our third ride of the day. This time, there were about 9 of us. Because of the larger group, not all experienced riders, I assume it would be a nice easy walk in the park. Wrong. Cindy lead the group, and once we got to the open fields, she told us that their were several jumps. Whoever wanted to do the jumps would follow her and the others would go around. Well eventually 8 of the 9 chose to do the jumps. It was amazing. At points we were doing a full out gallop, jumping
attacks of branches roughly 3 feet high. What a rush. Lots of fun, but as Rob said, not as much fun as polo!
Back to the lodge for pre dinner drinks, a lovely dinner, after dinner drinking games led by Robbie and even some dancing.
Sunday Oct 18
Up again at 7:30, coffee on the balcony, then off to the polo field for a little 3 on 3. This time it was Rob, Katie and myself against Tristan, Cindy and Flop. We won in the 8th minute of a 7 minute chukker. Back to the lodge for another lovely breakfast. We packed up our bags, jumped in the Land Rover and headed down to the grass air strip on their property and flew to the Maasai Mara to begin our six day horse back riding safari.
Our driver, John, met us in the Land Rover and we headed across the plains to our first campsite. It was situated on the banks of the Mara river. Quite a setup! We each had our own tent, outdoor hole in the ground loo, outdoor bucket shower. Their was a dining tent, with full bar service, snacks, etc. Their was
a staff of 12 local Swahilis, 2 of which were the grooms, and the rest were there to make our life comfortable, while roughing it in the great outdoors.
Once settled in, we went for a ride on our new horses. We once again saw lots of wild life.
We had dinner outdoors in front of the fire by the rivers edge. For appetizers, we had a local specialty, live termites about an inch long. After I ate mine Tristan informed me the I was supposed to take of the wings first. Oh well, it all tasted wonderful anyway. After dinner, about 9:30 we went on a night safari, where we spotted a few nocturnal animals.
Monday, Oct 19
We were awakened at 6 am with a fresh pot of coffee being delivered to our rooms. By 6:30 we were in the land rover for an early morning game drive. Our first major siting was 5 lions crossing a field and heading towards the bush, one male and four females. We watched the matriarch first stock a warthog, and then 2 Wildebeests. Tristan figured they had eaten fairly recently and were just toying with the their potential
pray. At one point the lion crossed about 5 feet from our vehicle. Wow. What a way to start the day.
Today we rode for about 6 and a half hours to our next campsite. On the way out of camp, we rode our horses by the lions. As we approached them they headed off into the bush. Thank goodness they weren't hungry! We rode across the great planes of the Maasai Mare. It was very dry as they have had a major drought this year. There were many skeletons of zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, etc. After lunch in the bush, we headed up to the top of an escarpment which overlooks the plains. We arrived at our camp around 4:30. While enjoying a cup of tea, we realized we had seen 4 of the Big 5 on horseback(elephant, lion, Black Rhino- which are very rare and Cape Buffalo). All we had to do was see a leopard to make all 5, but it just wasn't in the cards. . Truly a rare and special experience. We had a half hour of free time (just the way I like it) before heading off on a hike. Tristan brought his shotgun,
primarily because we saw 2 Cape Buffalo near the camp. Cape Buffalo can be very dangerous and will charge if they are upset. When we reached our destination, a rock cliff with an incredible sunset view over the Maasai Mara. Much to our surprise, Tristan had arranged for cocktails while looking at MMBA - Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa! - a phrase coined by Winston Churchill.
Tuesday, Oct 20
Another busy day! That's what I love about this Safari, we are always doing something , very little down time. Here's today's program:
6 am - coffee in room, wash, get dressed, head out on game drive. Came across a Zebra that died last night during childbirth. Tristan opened it up with a knife so that the vultures could get at it.
7::30 - back at camp. Full English breakfast , including crepes.
9:00 - the 3 of us head out on horse back. Crossed the escarpment and encountered many Maasai villages and Masai tribes men out tending their herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Came off the escarpment by getting of our horses and walking then through a jungle path
with many rocks and narrow paths. Tristan mentioned that elephants also used this path. I commented that I hope they don't use it today! 5 minutes later we saw fresh elephant poo. Then we spotted two elephants a few hundred feet ahead of us. Oh shit! We had no where to go. So Tristan, our fearless leader took out his bull whip and cracked it a few times. Eventually the elephants took the hint and backed off into the bush.
We finally arrived on the plains. The first thing we see is another African bull elephant. We rode very close to it on our horses. He wasn't too impressed and faked a charge. Scared the crap out of us and our horses. We cantered away until we were I safe territory.
One of the reasons we came on this Safari was to see the Great migration of Wildebeests. Well, we couldn't have planned it better, there had to be at least 100,000 of them. As we approached a herd they would start running. We would pick up a cantor and before you know it we were galloping along with them. What a rush! This is what I had
dreamed about! This exemplified what it meant to be in Africa. We spent several hours in the plains- walking cantorring, and galloping with them. There were mostly Wildebeests, but also Zebra, Cape Buffalo, Eland, impala and occasional giraffes and elephants.
At one point we came across a wildebeest that was stuck in the mud. He tried to get it out by pulling on its horns. It wasn't working, so he called for Robbie to help him. Together they got him out, but he didn't have enough strength to get up. Unfortunately, we had to leave him there to die.
5:00 pm - back to camp on top of the escarpment. Everyone was exhausted by all the activity. What a day! So we had a before dinner drink, chilled for a while, then got in the land rover to go and see how the dead Zebra was. Vulchers had already started feasting on it, but not as much as we expected. I am sure by morning after the jackals and hyenas finish with it their won't be much left.
Wednesday, Oct 21
Another 6 am morning. This time we were up early so that we could visit
a nearby Maasai village. The Maasai people are an indigenous tribe occupying the southern region of the Great Rift Valley throughout southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are a semi nomadic tribe herding mostly cattle, but also goats donkey and sheep. They estimate that their population is between 150,000 and 1,000,000
We had seen several Maasai herdsman on the plains in their bright red shukas (traditional dress - basically a red shawl wrapped around their body, but this was a real opportunity to see how they lived.
The particular village we went to was the home for about 4 families. The village was enclosed by a wall made from branches of trees. Their was a paddock for their cattle.
We had a long ride ahead of us today, about 6-7 hours across the Maasai Mara. It was a relatively uneventful ride, arriving at our new campsite at 4:30. Tristan knew some people at a campsite nearby, so we went over to see them. A few hours earlier, a Cape Buffalo had died after being shot with a bow and arrow, probably a your Maasai warrior. The animal was beside one of the tents and obviously had to
be moved. They tied a rope around its horns attaching the other end to a land Rover and dragged it about a half a mile away. Observing this process we spotted a pride of lions, 3 males and 4 females. We got relatively close to them and assumed that they would eventually realized that dinner was waiting not too far away. Sure enough about a half hour later, the lions picked up the smell of the corpse and moved in. We situated ourselves, in our land rover about 20 to 30 feet away and observed close up these lions feasting on the Buffalo. It was Robbie's first Lion feeding.
Thursday, Oct 22
We have now settled into our 3rd and final campsite of the trip. We had a coffee then went for a 2.5 hour early morning horse back ride, our first one of the trip. We toured the area around the campsite before returning for a mid morning breakfast. Tristan had planned for us to go in the Land Rover, and then hike on foot to a water hole. However, we were exhausted from the long ride in the hot sun the previous day, so we opted
to have a relaxing afternoon at base camp. It was a good time to read and get caught up with organizing photos and writing up notes from the past few days.
At 4:30 we went for another ride, returning in time for a quick "bucket" shower and dinner.
Friday, Oct 23
The campsite we have been staying at is actually outside of the Maasai Mara game reserve. So we decided to do a pre-breakfast ride, and then hop into the land rover to do a park game drive. On the morning ride, the highlight was spotting a large bull African Elephant. We rode our horses toward it, gradually getting closer and closer. The elephant then spotted us and he lifted his trunk up and flapped his ears indicating that he was quit upset with the new intruders. We stood and watch as he started coming towards us. Tristan said, "we should go" as I turned to move away, he then yelled "hurry, hurry move quickly". The elephant sounded his trumpet and charged us. O my god! We went into a cantor riding across rocks to get away. After about 100 yards we slowed to see what he
was doing. He didn't let up so we picked up a cantor again, until we were in a safe spot.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0331s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
julia
non-member comment
Wonderful to hear from you
Quite the adventure you are having, from 5 star to camping and roughing it!! It is most interesting and thanks for sharing your stories. J