Masai Mara

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Ready to set off early for the Masai, the group, split into smaller trucks and headed across country to game reserve. After several hours of travelling we arrived at a nice secluded campsite on the edge of the park. We were delayed slightly as the remainder of the missing bags turned up at the hotel and people arranged their stuff for trip to the Masai Mara.

On the journey we saw zebra, warthog, gazelle, giraffe, ostrich, flamingo, vultures, wildebeest and Dik-Dik. The roads in Africa are at best unmade potholed tracks that in the UK would not be considered accessible by car, but as we would discover they were to get much worse.

The camp that we arrived at was fairly basic, but was clean and catered for our needs, the beds were camp beds and they had a kitchen where they prepared our food for us. We had a campfire in the evening and were able to buy cold beers from an eski (a cool box). The local beer for Kenya was called Tusker. This camping seemed pretty comfortable for Africa.

Today was our first safari drive. The trucks (customised Toyota Hiace) had viewing canopies that lifted up out of the roof and enabled for better viewing of the game. We entered the park and followed the main track around until Simon; the lead driver saw some vultures circling in the sky. A kill maybe, we headed off the track towards the area and saw several vultures pulling apart the carcass of a zebra that had been killed earlier that morning.

We headed on and down towards the river where we saw hundreds of zebra and wildebeest waiting to cross. This was the main migration of these animals and they had to wait until the water level was right as they were easy picking for crocodiles and cats that were in the area. At the rivers edge there were some more vultures and storks feeding on the remains of wildebeest that had been taken only an hour or two earlier.

More game was spotted in the afternoon, but on our return to the camp a leopard was sighted in some trees about 100 metres from us. I was unable to focus my camera on him because he was too well camouflaged, but the beauty of this animal was amazing, and he it was only when he moved slightly that we were able to spot him.

We passed a Masai village on our return to the camp and stopped outside it so that we could walk the remainder of the way to our camp. The Masai keep a watch over the camp at night. That evening I heard an elephant only metres from our camp.

The next morning we left the camp early and headed back into the park, we soon saw a family of elephants walking along the edge of the track and several giraffe. The area was dry and dusty, but there was more greenery than I expected to see. In areas there were several groups of Acacia trees that looked like they could be home to some large cats, but we didn’t spot lions basking, or a leopard.

Then in the distance, a cheetah walked from under a tree over to a small group of rocks, he sat on the rock cleaning his paws and coat. As we got closer other trucks had spotted that we were stopped, looking at something and so came over to the same area. The cheetah stood up and walked towards the vehicle, heading towards the path we were on. She strolled very slowly past us, onto the same path and walked towards a stream running alongside a hedgerow. She stopped and looked at us, a very sleek and athletic body, and then she walked with a few metres of another truck before disappearing into the undergrowth. Moments after this a family of elephants walked close to our trucks and down towards the stream. There was a large male bull elephant, a female and young baby ‘jippy’ elephant holding on to her tail. This made for a beautiful photograph as they passed us.

Our driver then caught a smell of something and we headed off down an old disused track, he smelt lion. Within a few seconds we were circling a small group of bushes looking at a couple of old male lions. They were magnificent. Their bodies were old looking and battle scarred, where they had fought for many years, but they had obviously been forced out of the family group by some younger more dominant males and left to fend for themselves. They didn’t seem to be bothered by our truck approaching them and they just lay in the shade of their tree cleaning their paws and basking in the sun.

After seeing the lions resting we went on the search for the kill that they had caught that morning. A lioness was spotted near a watering hole and there were several other trucks gathering around to see if there was to be any further activity, but she just sat and drank. As we were leaving one of the trucks in our party said that she started to stalk a zebra that strayed close to where she was sitting. She crouched down and walked quietly towards her prey, moving silently, stalking the lone zebra. As the zebra got within about 20 metres of her she started to take chase alerting the zebra to her presence. The zebra turned and ran with the lioness in pursuit, but the distance between them was too great and she gave up the chase, returning to the watering hole for a drink.

The next area of the reserve that Simon drove us to was back to the river, an area where we would see several Hippos wallowing in the mud and sleeping. There must have been nearly 40 hippo on the opposite bank, sleeping on top of each other, and there were many more in the water, swimming, or floating under the surface. As we watched more would appear and others would dive, they can stay under the water for about six minutes at a time, and count for the most human fatalities in Africa because they are extremely aggressive if disturbed. For this reason there was a ranger at the edge of the river with a gun, just in case one made a move towards the near shore.
Despite the nature of these animals we ate our lunch only metres from this spot with no guards or protection from wildlife.

After lunch we headed back to camp and then packed our stuff and headed cross-country again back to Nairobi to pick up the truck and camp for the night.
The drive back to the capital of Kenya took about four hours of bumpy roads and bouncing off the ceiling of the truck over some bumps and getting bashed about the truck as it went.

When we arrived at the campsite on the outskirts of Nairobi we were joined by Chris, another member of the group that had been delayed out of Malaga and whose bag had not turned up at Nairobi either. We cooked a BBQ in the camp and then went to the bar for a few Tusker’s.

This evening my stomach wasn’t too good. This was probably due to the change of water and the bumpiness of the journey back to Nairobi, but I didn’t eat much and only went easy on the beers. Tomorrow was to be a long day in the truck, not very fun if I was going to be unwell.

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