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Published: September 1st 2006
Of course one’s African experience would not be complete without Safari - Swahili word meaning to travel or journey. This blog is especially for my Aunty Val. Many of you might not know that it is my Aunty Val who instilled in me at an early age my love for animals and my love for adventure. Aunty Val, I thought of you so many times when I was on Safari in the Mara - wishing that you were with me. I think you need to plan a trip!!!! And Chicas - we definitely are going on Safari!
I arrived back in Nairobi from Dar on Friday, August 25th. I had made arrangements to go on a two day Safari in the Maasai Mara…about a 35 minute flight from Nairobi or a 4 hour drive from Kisumu. Given that I was travelling on my own - I decided to fly. And I am glad I did - for the flight was quite the experience. Dash 7 landing on dirt road or grass landing strips. I thought of Dave many times knowing he would be very at home in these bush conditions. The Mara, as the locals call it, is on the
southern border of Kenya and Tanzania and is an extension of the Serengeti. One of the travel magazines has said the Mara is one of the top ten places to visit in the world - as you will see - it did not disappoint!
We left Nairobi Wilson airport at 10:30 and arrived at the Mara Safari Club private landing strip at 11:30 am (after 3 stops on the Mara - each camp tends to have its own landing strip). I met two Canadian girls (from Toronto area) who had been working as missionaries for the past 2 weeks and we were whisked off in a Safari jeep to the camp. The Mara Safari Club is a tented camp along the Mara River. The river is full of hippos and crocodile. Needless to say there is no swimming, fishing or boating! The residents do not take kindly to human visitors. There is a story of an experiment whereby a remote control boat with 2 dummies strapped on board was floated along the Mara. It came upon a pool of hippos. Five bulls moved out from the gathering and within 30 seconds flat there was nothing left of the boat.
So moral of the story - keep a respectful distance. Which I did from Tent 42 which was located right at one of the bends of the river. As you can see from the photos - the tent was quite posh! My favourite part was the veranda over looking the river. Five to six hippos provided wonderful entertainment. The day is planned at the camp and looks something like this:
6:00 am - Wake Up Call and Tea or Coffee Delivered to Tent
6:30 to 8:30 am - Game Drive
8:30 to 9:30 am - Breakfast
10 to Noon - Game Drive
12:30 to 2:30 pm - Lunch
3:30 to 6:30 pm - Game Drive
7:30 to 8:30 pm - Maasai Lecture or Entertainment
8:30 to 10 pm - Dinner
Crash!
So we arrived just in time for lunch. And the food was spectacular - BBQ and Buffet. Thank heavens I was there only two days or I am sure I would have put on 10 pounds. Mind you it is amazing how gruelling riding or really bouncing around in the roofless Safari jeep is - I still have bruises from bracing and getting knocked about a week
later.
I settled into my tent, took copious amounts of pictures of the hippos and with much excitement and anticipation prepared for my first game drive. I joined a family of 4 from the UK and spent the next 2 days with them. It was great fun to be with children: Jasmine age 8 and Joshua age 12 - as I was feeling like a kid too! And what sites we were in for. The wealth and beauty of this land is unimaginable. It is a grass land savannah and as the cypress trees in Italy define the landscape - so do the umbrella trees here. Our first sighting was gazelles - the boys club as our very knowledgeable driver Daniel fondly named them. They graze separately from the females. Then zebras and wildebeest came into view. It is the time of the great migration - millions of wildebeest and zebra migrate north from the Serengeti looking for water. Quite staggering the numbers really! We then met a family of giraffe and were entertained by 2 males wrestling. How do Giraffe wrestle you ask? Well they intertwine their necks and try to make the other one fall over! Quite
comical to watch! There are many varieties of deer like creatures such as topi and water buffalo that also graze on the savannah - a wonderful buffet for lion. And we were the first to come upon a pride of lions sleeping in the grass bellies full of wildebeest. This is one of my highlights to date to be so close to sleeping lions and cubs. Aunty Val you wouldn’t believe it..I still can’t! We stayed and just took in the magic and majesty of the moment. I remember saying to Daniel that those 10 minutes were worth the whole trip. Of course word got out and before we knew it the area was teeming with Safari vehicles - so we got out of there. What was also amazing about the whole thing is that the lions were very unfussed by all the attention and noise.
Our next sighting was a herd of elephant and once again it was amazing how close we got. Truly amazing how graceful these creatures are. Of course the baby elephant was adorable. By this time the sun was starting to set and it was time to head back to the camp.
That
evening a Maasai warrior spoke about their lifestyle describing their manhood rituals - yes boys circumcision is involved, their customs and activities. The Maasai are warriers and farmers (mostly goat and cattle). They eat meat and drink milk and blood….sometimes mixing the two to create what was described as a strawberry milkshake. Yum!! Not! I learned that evening that I could make arrangements to visit a Maasai village - so that is exactly what I did. After a wonderful dinner, enjoying a second glass of red wine by the fire place in the lodge - I wandered back to my tent…was thrilled to find a hot water bottle tucked under the covers. I promptly fell asleep to the sounds of crickets and hippos snorting.
The wake up call came what seemed to be in the middle of the night - 5:45 am and it was pitch dark! I had slept like the dead - fresh air and all. For a moment I contemplated staying snuggled warm in my bed - maybe I would skip the game drive and just enjoy my tea with the hippos - and get up at my own pace. But then excitement set in -
how on earth could I miss seeing the sunrise on the Mara. Out of bed I jumped! So just as dawn was breaking we all scrambled into our jeeps and we were off! The sun was just rising over the hills and there was a dreamlike quality to the landscape. We came upon a herd of water buffalo fending off one hyena. An ostrich then came into sight. In the distance we spied elephants and just as the rays of the sun were casting a yellow warmth on the land we spotted a lion tracking a herd of wildebeest -- Again what majesty in her movement. She almost seemed to be toying with the herd and they soon moved off. Her full belly explained some of her disinterest! We followed her for a time as she made her way through the grass and trees. At another stand of trees we found several giraffe munching on the tree tops - Daniel our guide and driver made light of the salad they were enjoying. We then came across a hyena eating what was left of a baby wildebeest and off in the distance we discovered several more. We laughed at two cubs
playing peek a boo in a hole they were digging to hide from us. And just as we were returning to the lodge for breakfast we game across a gazelle giving birth. Now what a site this was as mom cleaned her young and tried to help it stand up for the first time - usually takes 10 to 15 minutes for them to find their legs. Absolutely necessary in this environment - otherwise they would not survive serving as lunch for an eagle or hyena.
We enjoyed a fine hearty breakfast and regrouped at 10 am. We were off to the hippo pool -- some 50 or more. We learned that hippos feed during the night. They come up from the river...you can see their tracks. It is also amazing how skinny the path is from the river to the grazing place - hard to believe they can squeeze through with their girth. After they feed on grass all night, they then head back to the river at dawn where they sleep all day, sunbathe in the sun and cool off in the river. Quite the laidback lifestyle!
Our next stop was a Maasai Village. As we
were flying to the Mara I remember seeing circles dotting the landscape. More structure than crop circles. And these were Maasai villages - they are arranged in circles, mud huts surrounded by thickets of branches to keep the predators out at night. There is often an inner circle in the village where large livestock are kept. Goats and calves sleep in the huts with the family. I was impressed with how ecologically friendly these villagers are - using and recycling all parts of the animals and the land for all their needs. Of course their way of life is under immense pressure to change. They are sending their children to schools and thus dressing them in street clothes as opposed to their distinctive red robes. We were welcomed into a home…truly a thatched mud hut - quite cool inside but could hardly breathe with the smoke. But even the smoke has its purpose - it keeps the insects particularly the malaria infected mosquitoes away. Our visit finished with a stroll in their market place - impressive wood sculptures, bowls and masks, beaded necklaces and bracelets were the fare. The funds generated are used to cloth the children and buy school
books. I stopped by every stall then proceeded to negotiate a bulk deal on bracelets. Rule of thumb in bartering - Kenyan style…begin by offering half of the first price quoted and then settle somewhere in the middle.
We got back to the camp at about 12:30 pm and I was still full from breakfast. So I grabbed a bottle of water and decided to hang out on my deck and read for the afternoon enjoying the company of the 5 resident hippos. Having got up in the middle of the night (for me) I of course dozed off but was awakened to the screeching of some sort of animal…took me a few minutes to realize it was a baboon - a whole family of some 15 right across the river from me! And two of the adults were having quite the dispute - as they screeched and chased each other through the trees. The other baboons also scrambled about appearing to be quite agitated over the shenanigans. This soap opera entertained me for some 90 minutes. Finally I think they wore themselves out. It was now time for the afternoon game drive and it also looked like we
were in for quite the storm.
We were lucky though. Just before the heavens literally opened up we enjoyed quite the lightening show and came upon three white rhinoceros. Rhinos are endangered so it was quite the privilege to come across these three. We were also able to get out and walk for the first time…again amazing how close we came and how oblivious they were to us. Mind you Daniel did say afterwards that they can charge at anytime…so you have to be aware. Glad he said that afterwards!
Then came the rains and we watched the Mara turn into a series of lakes before our eyes. We had no idea we had signed up for the 4 wheeling option - impressive driving through mud by Daniel! It was interesting to see that the grazers remain grazing - they just turn away from rain - and it was coming down hard! I thought they might head for the shelter of the trees - but no. Daniel pointed out that the animals revel in the fresh water and their coats insulate them from the cold. Quite amazing really to see the Mara under these conditions. One image that
will stay with me is the sight of 4 giraffe heads hovering above the tree line in the pouring rain.
I enjoyed a quiet evening after dinner in my tent reading a book by lantern and listening to the rain. I don’t think I made it past 10 pm - completely pooped!
This time I was awake before my tea arrived at 5:45 am. I quickly got dressed and watched the first signs of dawn appear sitting on my deck while a hippo waded back into the river. It was going to be a mud fest out on the Mara this morning. I couldn’t wait! And mud there was! I was mightily impressed with the traction of the jeeps and the skill of Daniel in navigating the pathways. Again we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and I was glad I was wearing my rain jacket - as it was quite chilly. The savannah was full of animals grazing - the usual suspects - zebra, wildebeest, gazelle, water buffalo. We saw a couple of ostriches and a very strange two legged bird called a secretariat. We then got word that a pride of lions had been spotted. So the race
was on as Safari jeeps and vans converged on the described spot. Again I have to praise Daniel for his skill and positioning - he managed to set us right in front. We watched with amazement some dozen lions and cubs, walking in single file, come towards us. Now again this is an image that will forever remain with me and it brought tears to my eyes.
Suffice to say my cup runneth over! And with that we headed back to the lodge for breakfast catching one last glimpse of zebra, wildebeest and giraffe as we left the plains.
I got word that the flight to Nairobi would be delayed to11:30 so I was able to pack leisurely and enjoy a cup of tea before checking out. We were transported back to the airstrip and my Mara Safari had come to an end. I had seriously contemplated staying another couple of days (they even had room!) …but arrangements had been made and I was expected in Kisumu that night. So I sadly got on the plane - vowing of course to return…this time with friends! And that folks was my first safari experience - definitely one of my
top ten life experiences!
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Gary Brown
non-member comment
Safari
I want to know what it would take to become a Chica. Since your next Safari will likely include this exclusive group, after your description of the Mara, I simply must find a way to be included. It strikes me that you are taking it ALL in!! Marg and I have enjoyed your insightful descriptions of the issues, the despair and the hope. You have given us a glimpse of the beautiful people of Africa and the dedicated new friends you have met who are trying to make a difference. You have been kind enough to share a personal search for your leadership role within this complex landscape. And now this this bonus..... this journalistic work of art you have painted for all of us who may never get to enjoy the experience of a Safari. Be proud Aunty Val. Look forward to your continuing adventure with much affection and ongoing admiration.