I've always said that I don't like the idea of safaris because I was always worried about seeing more jeeps than animals. Not to mention that they're one of the most expensive things you can do in Kenya (which, surprisingly, is quite an expensive place). However, Anna and I decided, after some advice from various people, and given it is currenly low season, that we would head to the world famous Masaai Mara National Park and do some animal spotting, aka 'game drives'. I find this term rather perculiar - like we're going hunting the big 5 or something - but that's what its called.
So, Monday morning we jumped into our white pop-top van - perfect for scanning the countryside for elusive creatures - and headed off towards Lake Naivasha, before turning off toward the town of Narok and entering Masaai country. Dry, dusty, with scarce, thorny vegetation dotted around and not much else besides herds of cattle, goats and sheep being driven by red blanked-cloaked Masaai men across the countryside in search of food. Here and there we passed shabby towns dotted in between the Masaai villages with their telltale circular fences made of tree branches for keeping the animals at night.
Even before we reached the gate (not before enduring the backbreaking, pot-holed road for a good 5 hours) there were herds of zebra and giraffes grazing elegantly, nonchalantly watching us as we passed, wary families of warthogs trotting off with raised tails and solid African buffalo chewing their cud.
It was straight into the 'game drive' when we arrived late afternoon, and for the next couple of hours we drove the grassland plains of the Mara looking for our soon-to-be-familiar companions in the park. While it's low season, which thankfully means few tourists, this is because there are also few animals - not huge numbers of them that you see in David Attenborough's nature documentaries. Its the end of the dry season and only the animals that stayed in the Mara - choosing not to migrate back to the Serengeti in Tanzania with the others - were to be found. Come August/Sept the millions of wildebeest will be back, along with the packs predators and the other herds of animals, chasing the food that the rains bring.
So, while this meant we had to drive a lot further to find smaller numbers of animals, there were still plenty to be found. We were greeted by herds of grazing giraffes, zebras, elephants and Thompson's and Grant's gazelles in their hundreds. Other animals to be spotted included water buck, antelopes, buffalo, warthogs, guineafowl and numerous other little birds flitting about. We were also extremely lucky to spot a beautiful leopard hiding in the grass, feeding on something we'll never know about; a pride of sleeping lions and their cubs, lazing around under the bushes, oblivious to (or ignoring) our presence; a couple of male cheetahs, just cruising around; vultures and secretary birds, perched in the few acacia trees growing on the plain, and two solitary hyenas.
The animals are active in the early morning and late afternoon, when the searing heat of the sun has gone. In the meantime, all you can do is sleep! ... as we did, heading back to our tents in the middle of the day when the sun was too hot for us too.
Other sightings during our time in the park included two beautiful crested cranes, their yellow head feathers crowning them in gold; a family of hippos wallowing in the lake, ever watchful of the giant croc sunning itself on the river bank, as were the Maribou storks standing quietly on one leg; a family of lions out for a morning stroll, mother not keen to feed all 4 of her cubs at once but having little choice; another group of cheetah cruising around; a huge male lion, sunning himself right next to the road, not caring if we pulled up right next to him; and a mother leading her twelve baby ostriches across the plain, all in single file.
Most exciting for me was coming across a cheetah on the prowl; she'd lined up some Thompson's gazelles for a kill, but failed fairly quickly when the gazelle moved too far away. Our driver/guide quickly noticed however that she immediately went back to the same place, and it was then that we discovered she was a mother, and three tiny cheetah cubs emerged. they were only 2 weeks old and still maintaining their afro hairstyles - in the form of baby fur.
And so we were sad to leave the Mara for the long drive to Lake Nakuru, the next part of our trip; but we were also excited, as Nakuru is home to thousands of flamingoes who live there, feeding on the shrimp in the saline water; We'd also read that since the introduction of tilapia fish into the lake, large numbers of pelicans had also taken up residence there. What we didn't expect were the thousands of pelicans that seemed to have taken over the place, hanging out with the Maribou storks, and while amazing in their numbers, there were so few flamingoes that their pink feathers were difficult to spot amongst the sheer white masses of pelicans. Apparently many more flamingoes are normally present in Lake Nakuru but they return with the rainy season. Still, the numbers are extemely low compared to what once were there.
One fantastic thing about Nakuru is that it is the only totally fenced National Park in Kenya. Why is that fantastic, you may ask? Well, the fences keep in the endangered black and white rhinos that have been relocated there for conservation purposes - and keep people out. We came across ten white rhinos on our first drive there, and up close they are certainly magnificent creatures. On the second drive we were also extremely lucky to see a black rhino (though you can't tell the difference by the colour; they look exactly the same! You have to look at the shape of their mouth to differentiate them).
Other animals we spotted in the reserve were gazelles; antelopes; rock hyrax, resembling giant guinea pigs; big families of baboons, many with tiny babies; water buck; guinea fowl; and stately giraffes, wrapping those long tongues around the spiny acacia trees to get at the leaves.
All in all it was a great wildlife-spotting adventure. We even topped it off with a slice of luxury accommodation at the Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge (inside Lake Nakuru NP mind you; go figure) and its massive buffets and cool leafy gardens full of colouful and cheeky little wrens, weaver birds and finches vying for your breakfast left-overs. And so it was back to Nairobi for one last night before the REAL adventure.
MADAGASCAR.
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