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Published: July 23rd 2006
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Cheetah at Samburu
A mother cheetah gazes across the Samburu country-side looking for prey for her and her three cubs. Right now I'm in the middle of an eleven day safari, which is more than most people do, but I really wanted to see the main parks and make an attempt at climbing Mt. Kenya. When I arrived I found out that it’s difficult to arrange for tours of the parks without going through one of the safari companies in either Nairobi or Mombasa. Of course, it would be technically possible to find a guide privately to go to each park, but this would be hard to do and possibly not that much cheaper.
So far I’ve toured three of the main national parks that Kenya is famous for: Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Samburu. I took seven days to make my way through them, which felt like a good amount of time, since we saw most animals that the parks offer and spending additional time may just lead to complacency with the truly amazing wildlife and landscape.
Maasai Mara
I spent three nights in Maasai Mara, which allowed to two full days of game drives and a tour of the nearby Maasai town. I was lucky enough to stubble into the country at the perfect time to
Maasai Warrior
A Maasai Warrior dancing a traditional dance celebrating the lion hunt. When each Maasai male comes of age at around 16 to 18 years they are sent into the bush where they live off the land with some of their peers. During this time, the group must kill a male lion with only spears, daggers and clubs before they can be called a Maasai Warrior. go to Maasai Mara. From July to November each year there is a large Wildebeest migration from the Serengeti to Maasai Mara. Following the Wildebeests are the big cats that prey on them and hordes of tourists wanting to see both. That’s why it’s a good idea to come early in the migration because the park hasn’t yet been completely overrun by sun burnt foreigners wielding cameras capable of photographing rocks on the moon.
The game drives were amazing. I saw so many awesome animals it started to become overwhelming. Here’s a quick list of animals, birds and reptiles: Lions (although they were sleeping all day after filling they bellies), a leopard (which was carefully camouflaged in a bush), hippos, millions of wildebeests, Tompson’s gazelles, impalas, hartebeests, cape buffalo, elephants, Koli bastards, secretary birds, vultures, marabou storks, Maasai (or common) giraffes, crocodiles, dik-diks, and many other small birds.
The second day I was there I got the chance to tour a Maasai village, which was very cool to see. However, I think I would have got a better experience if our group would have paid their first ridiculously high asking price for the tour. They wanted $20 USD
Marabou Stork in Flight
This is a Marabou Stork in flight with a backdrop of millions of flamingoes. The Marabou is a scavenger bird that at Lake Nakuru feeds on the many dead flamingoes. It is equipped with an air sack in the front of its neck, which it uses to breathe from at high attitude. The Marabou can reach a height of 9000 meters. per person for the half an hour tour. We eventually that $8 was fair, however, our guide who was the chief’s son was fairly bitter about what we paid and gave a very lackluster tour from then on.
Later that day the chief himself took some of us up a nearby hill to a look out point that overlooked his village. The chief, Oli Narok, was very different from his son. He was truly one of the nicest men I’ve ever met. His was a fantastic guide, taking time to make each of us a walking stick and explaining how the Maasai use different trees for medicine or hygiene.
Lake Nakuru
I only spent one night at Nakuru and did only one game drive, which was enough to see the relatively small park. It is, of course, unless you’re dead sent on seeing a black rhino. They are exceptionally hard to see because they are browsers instead of grazers, which means that black rhinos stay deep in the trees. White rhinos, however, are easy to find at Lake Nakuru and they are much less aggressive than their black counterparts. But, most people come to see the millions
White Rhinos at Lake Nakuru
White rhinos are easy to find since they graze on grass in the open. Their squared mouth makes grazing easier, while black rhinos have angular mouths for browsing tree branches. of flamingoes that frequent the park. From the lookout point the entire lake is lined by a thick border of pink and white, although there are flamingoes standing throughout the lake because the lake is only a couple of feet deep at any point. This is great for now but the lake may not be around much longer since after the trees in the surrounding area were cut down to make way for housing evaporation of the lake increased because the wind increasingly sweeps the water away. Now some years there is no lake and no flamingoes.
Samburu
Samburu is a semi-arid region, which is much drier than its southern equal, Maasai Mara. Because of the climate change there is a whole new group of animals to see at Samburu, although many animals are common to both parks. I saw several cheetahs up close while in the park. The flat landscape and the sparse vegetation make the park ideal for Cheetahs to run down prey. According to our driver, Wanjo, cheetahs can reach a top speed of 120 km/hr. I can see why they wouldn’t want to be surprised by a tree in their path if they are doing 120. Here’s a quick list of other animals I spotted at Samburu: Oryx, giraffe gazelles, Grant’s gazelles, Tompson’s gazelle, dik-diks, leopards, reticulated giraffes, zebras (a larger type than in Maasai Mara), baboons, velvet monkeys, crowned (or crested) cranes, super starlings, waterbucks, jackels, mongooses and kudo (which are rare to see since they are usually in the nearby hills, instead of on the plain). All in all, Samburu was a very relaxing, cool place.
Next Up
Starting tomorrow I’m going to attempt to climb Mt. Kenya. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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