Our day in Maasai Mara

We have arrived at our final destination where we will be for 3 days which is very nice as we have moved a lot.  The travel between lodges and preserves has been torturous at best...many bad roads and lots of dust.  Once we arrive, always it is beautiful, so we put up with the inconvenience.

Late game drive yesterday in the Maasai Mara brought great rewards after what had been a rather boring time.  ( can't believe we are bored with elephants, giraffes and zebras!). As we head back to the lodge, our guide hears something on the radio and takes off at breakneck speed.  We are rewarded with 2 female lions, their 7 cubs and a recently killed zebra.  The antics of the cubs entertain us all for a long time.  In the meantime, the African sunset captivates some of us.

                   

         

                   This is about as much of a kill as most want to see.

Our long day has a spectacular ending and we are so tired most of us struggle to stay awake through dinner.  A good night's sleep and we will be good to go again tomorrow.

Heading toward the Maasai Mara

It is Friday morning and we are on our way south to the Maasai Mara. This is the name of the Serengeti in Kenya. It is called the Serengeti in Tanzania. We are close to the border and can see clear to Tanzania.

Our journey takes us on down through more of  the Rift Valley through fertile areas, much of it owned by the family of Lord Delamere, one of the earliest colonial settlers.  His descendants own thousands and thousands of acres with enterprises in dairy, cattle and flowers to name a few-- all the way from Lake Nakuru to Naivasha.  

The journey takes nearly 7 hours and we tire of the rough van ride.  Below are the pods which will be our home for the next three days and we are grateful to be here.  Lunch is late and we settle into our rooms and prepare for our afternoon game drive.

The spotted hyenas entertain us all over the plains.  They are seeking cool, muddy spots as once they have eaten, their body temperature rises 50% and they try to cool down.

We see the usual suspects, the zebras, giraffes and elephants.  How blasé' we have become over seeing the more plentiful animals and can be entertained fully by sighting the hard to find ones.

Our Day at Lake Nakuru

In the earlier post I mentioned the plight of the flamingoes, so one of the main attractions here at one time was a " no show " for this trip.  There used to be an estimated 1 million birds on this lake at one time.  The entire surface looked pink.

Other attractions here in this park are the rhinos...both black and white rhinos. The black rhinos are few and far between and weren't to be found, but we had a treat to see five white rhinos up close and personal.  These guys aren't white at all, but were misnamed when people misunderstood the Dutch name for " wide mouth " and they thought it was white.

                   

For the first time we saw a Rothchild giraffe.  We had seen the Maasai and the reticulated ones at other parks.  This one has white stockings, but you can't see them in this photo.

            

Toward the end of the game drive, our driver took off driving like crazy, and we knew he had heard on the radio of a sighting of a lion, a leopard or the black rhino.  It turned out to be a lioness in a tree.  She stayed up there quite a long time, trying to decide when, where and how to jump down.  By now, there are at least 20 safari vans and clients looking on.  She finally jumps and then to the delight of all, she continues walking down the line of vans, perhaps only 20 feet away.

We are thoroughly worn out now after our long drive from Mt. Kenya and our game drive here.  But we had an encore on the way back to the lodge as an entire pride of lions is sighted well over 500 yards away.  With strong binoculars, some of are able to spot a gorgeous male lion with a full mane, which many times we do not see.  There were four youngsters cavorting in the grass, along with 2 females.  Because of the distance, most photos were not significant.

What a great way to end our day.

Moving on toward the Rift Valley

We left Mt. Kenya Lodge early this morning on our way to Lake Nakuru.  This is the area where all the flamingoes are.....usually.  However, this year with the extremely high rains and subsequent flooding, the flamingoes have dwindled significantly.  The lake is so diluted that the algae that makes them pink has not been prolific, so they have moved to other lakes.  

The ride over to this area had its usual bumps and grinds, but the scenery was amazing. We crossed through the area between Mt. Kenya and the Abedare Mountains which was somewhat infamous during the early 1900s through to the early 1930s as a decadent playground for some of the aristocratic Europeans. The book ". WHITE MISCHIEF ", along with the " Ghosts of Happy Valley " tell some of the most graphic tales. 

                                                  

 This area is on the windward side of the mountains and receives much more rain.  The agriculture here is crops such as tea, coffee and maize ( corn ).

                        

Again we shared the road with assorted vehicles, animals and people.

                              These motorcycles are the local taxies and we have seen as many as 4 people on one cycle as well as assorted animals at other times.

 This is the sparse bit of flamingoes that we saw at Lake Nakuru.

Watch the next posting for our adventures at Lake Nakuru with the lions and the white rhinos.

Living on Mt. Kenya

We arrive at our lodge high up the slopes of Mt. Kenya. We are at 7200 ft and the air has a slight chill, which is a change from the hot desert air of the last two days.  

Each  room has a balcony overlooking the watering hole where a host of animals come to drink.  We have seen buffaloes, waterbuck, and bush bucks.  For a very sort time there was a leopard. We have left a wake up call should he appear in the middle of the night.   

Bob, Judy, Gene and Kathy all went for a Nature Walk and were treated to tea and cake in the forest.

Joyce stayed back at the lodge to rest and work on uploading the blog posts. ( and enjoy some quiet time)

Leaving Samburu ( Buffalo Springs)

We have enjoyed two great days here at the Samburu Buffalo Springs Preserve.  Our last game drive of the day presented some new experiences.  We found a giraffe getting ready to drink at the waterhole.  We had never seen this before and were quite fascinated as we waited and waited before he struck this pose.  The photo does not do the process justice as he works so hard to be able to reach the water.

Later in the day as we were searching for the elusive  leopard we came across what is usually a very shy, nocturnal cat-- a caracal.  We found a mother and her two kittens.  This photo is one of the two kittens.  The mother was standing on guard and would never give us a good pose.  Isn't he the cutest thing?  Our guide, Aaron said he had only ever seen this cat one other time in the Samburu Preserve.

Another animal who fascinates us all is the gerenuk.  This is one of the many antelopes we see through out the parks.  He is one of only two animals who will stand like this to eat. The other is the common goat!  There is no mistaking him, even at a distance.

Samburu Day Two and a Village Visit

Today our game drive started at 6:15 and we were greeted with an awesome sunrise.

 This was what we hoped for as the last time we visited Kenya, many mornings were cloudy and no decent sunrise.

The highlight of our morning after breakfast was a trip to a Samburu tribal village.  This one village had 130 people and they were part of a greater community of 9 more villages for a total of around 1300 people.  The women are responsible for constructing their housing.  

       

 This one seemed larger than the one we actually went inside. 4 tall people had real challenges to stoop and enter a doorway 4 ft high and 18" wide.  Kathy and Gene made themselves quite at home in the bedroom on the cowhide floor. 

The children always tug at our heart strings as they are so precious and eager to see us.