Blogs from Masai Mara NP, Rift Valley Province, Kenya, Africa - page 18

Let's play safari jeopardy! You know the game. What are the correct questions to the following answers? 1) Wildebeest Tail 2) Leopard and 3) Pink Flamingos. Questions are provided at the end of the blog! The week of October 30th was spent on safari with the Safari Chicas: Sheila, Janet and Kim and what a special time! We can proudly say that we have all seen in the wild Africa's Big Five: elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard. The latter being the most illusive and we were blessed to see two! Our certificates are in the mail! We also enjoyed seeing giraffe grazing on trees, wildebeest & zebra grazing on the plains, hippos snorting, vultures eating, crockodiles sunbathing, baboons grooming, and elephants racing. We also saw jackals, hyenas, monkeys and several species of gazelle and deer ... read more

After 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' ... read more

The 250 km drive from Nairobi through Narok into the Masai Mara took us almost twelve hours. This gives you an idea just how bad the roads were. In fact, most of the roads were so bad that our driver chose to drive next to the road instead. It was fun getting to know the people who would be around us 24-7 for the next few weeks, and it only took the first day to realise which seats were the crappy seats (ie the ones right at the back: when you went over a particularly nasty pothole your head practically hit the roof!). On our first day, we experienced an African thunderstorm which cleared away to give us a glorious sunset. The effects of running on “African time” were already showing: we arrived into camp under ... read more

Today we had breakfast first and then left on a game drive at 07.30. We were going to have a longer drive, aiming to be back just in time for lunch. John wanted to take us to the hippo pool right on the border to Tanzania and then have ample time to look for other animals. We took the main road down to Keekorok Lodge. Just next to the lodge there is a football field with proper goals (surprise). This morning there seemed to be a match between the impalas and the warthogs. In reality the animals were simply eating the nice green grass on the football field. Along the road we saw hot air balloon tourists having breakfast. It was an impressive arrangement with chairs and tables and a group of cooks in full uniforms. ... read more

The trip from Nakuru to Masai Mara is some 300 kilometres. We made it. And we have already seen buffalos, lions, gnu (wildebeest), zebras, giraffes and elephants. We left Sarova Lions Hill at 7.40. We knew the road down to Naivasha was bad. It had not improved since yesterday. We learned that it is five years since to road was brand new. It is built on a foundation of concrete with asphalt on top. Apparently the concrete breaks because of excessive weight from the lorries. After Naivasha there was a stretch of fairly decent road. But the 60 kilometres prior to Narok was a total nightmare. There the asphalt was dotted with huge holes all over the place. I do not think it could have looked much worse if it had been bombed recently. For many ... read more