Meandering Through The Mara

We stayed in the Mara Serena Lodge for 2 nights which meant that we were able to do a full day game drive.  We left at 8:30 in the morning and spent the day covering 100 km of road through the park.  And we saw animals everywhere!  The Mara is definitely full of treasures!

Zebra grazed along the road, mixing with the wildebeest.  Chris said they like to hang together.

The reserve was full of wildebeest, who had come from Tanzania, grazing on the plentiful grass.  (More on them tomorrow.)

We saw several groups of  elephants, again existing peacefully with the other animals.

And 2 lionesses were sleeping near the river.

In the river, adult hippos relaxed

while their young gathered on the bank.

Where there are animals, there are also predators!  This jackal was hanging around, looking for some action, I think.

Which brings us up to one of the most exciting and spectacular things we saw during the whole trip.  Lots of pictures of that to come soon.

Mara Game Drive

The Masai Mara National Reserve and the Conservation Area are managed by the local council and a group of Masai people.   The 2 areas are part of the same ecosystem as the Serengeti in Tanzania.  Some rules are slightly different in the reserve than the conservation area but in both places, tourists are seen as visitors to the animals space.  Safari vehicles must stay at least 25 metres away from animals but if you are on the road and an animal approaches your vehicle, you are not in violation.  Chris told us that the fine for being too close is $10,000 Kenyan shillings (not an exorbitant fee according to our standards but quite severe on a Kenyan's salary).  It was interesting to hear about the management of the park.

The east side of the park is about 240 kilometres from Nairobi and is a popular destination for tourists having only a few days to do a safari.  We crossed through the Conservation Area, over the Mara River and then through the park to our hotel.

While enroute we managed to find some interesting animals - like this leopard!

He crossed the road behind our vehicle and then laid down in a small bluff of trees on the edge of this bank.

Cape buffalo are the most difficult of the Big 5 to hunt.  This guy definitely kept an eye on us but we never saw any of them being aggressive - at least from the inside of our vehicle!

This jackal was eating an afternoon snack.

We saw all of these in just the hour or so it took to get to our hotel.  The next day we did a full day game drive - and it was amazing!  Stay tuned!!

Masai Mara

I apologize for stepping away from this blog for a few days!  I think I just needed to take a break but I definitely want to continue with sharing our pictures and adventure.  This has become a journal / online scrapbook for me and I want to save the stories.

In the Masai Mara National Reserve, we stayed at another lovely Serena Hotel.  Each unit was designed to look like a Masai manyatta (mud home) and their location at the top of the ridge is spectacular.   You could look out over the valley for hours and early in the morning, hot air balloons could be seen floating down below.

Each unit had a balcony that looked out over the valley below.

The swimming pool, reception area and dining room was in the center.

The style of the room and the decorative elements here were very artistic.

We were so lucky to have beautiful rooms on our whole trip.

As part of his mountain hiking training, Bob got up early in the morning and walked around the hotel complexes several times.  As the sun was just up most mornings he got some great photos.

Just down the hill from our room were all kinds of animals, coming and going.  These giraffes, some warthogs, lions and Cape buffalo all visited a waterhole nearby on this day.   You can tell how steep the hill was here.

The hotels all had beautiful grounds and meandering paths that connected the areas.  These paths also made little fences which defined the areas where we could walk.  There were very strict rules about walking outside the compound and in some places we actually had to have an escort if we walked when it was dark.

We had spectacular game drives here so tomorrow we'll head out to spot some wildlife again!

A Quote

"One's destination is never a place,  but a new way of seeing things." Henry Miller (as seen on stacyjulian.com    under the Places tab)

Driving to the Mara

These are the tire shop boys with Chris (in the white shirt on the RH), surveying the damaged tire (remember that from our day driving to Lake Nakuru).  He packed this tube back into the vehicle, maybe so his office could actually see why he needed a new tire, I guess.

Throughout Kenya and Tanzania, little stalls along the road were common.  Sometimes they were empty, sometimes they had a few tomatoes or potatoes.  I don't think we ever saw anyone buying from them which made us wonder about their profitability.  This one was close to a truck stop place and sold bags of oranges.

Just as we were leaving Nakuru town, these two clever bicyclists were hitching a ride on the back of a transport truck loaded with maize stalks.  It was much easier going uphill this way, I'm sure!

One kind of taxi we saw was this funny 3-wheeled little guy.

Often along the roadside, people would be gathered, sitting or waiting.  Waiting sometimes for another person to come along looking to hire a day labourer, sometimes waiting for the bus/van, probably sometimes just waiting - waiting for something to happen.

Those are empty bags of soil cement used in road construction.

Highway construction, Kenya style.

A camp near the road construction area, probably housing local people who might be working there, including women who would cook for the workers.  Yes - those are empty bags forming the walls.

The little donkeys were loaded with 5 gallon water jugs, coming from the river.  A Masai woman (they have shaved heads) is walking alongside and goats are grazing in the background.

Someone's home

and the fence made of thornbush branches that encloses the kraal, inside the Masai village compound, where the cattle and goats are kept at night.

A local school - the uniforms were pink and purple - so bright and cheerful.

And then it started to rain!  Big, fat drops pelting out of the sky, drenching everything.  Kenya is so, so dry and it was good to see the rain coming to this area - even as we wondered how the Masai people stayed dry herding cows and goats, wrapped in their skukas (blankets).  We drove through rain for about 20 minutes on our way to the Mara River crossing. 

Let's Back Up -

I knew it would happen!  I skipped over part of our drive from Samburu to Lake Nakuru - so today we are going back to catch up.  This place deserves a post!

This town is at 2360 ft. in elevation, which makes it one of the highest towns in Kenya.  And it's famous because most of the great Kenyan long distance runners (you know, the ones who win at the Olympics all the time!) come here to train.  High up, dry, and hot, it makes a great place for camps and practice runs.

It is also the home of Thompson Falls, named after a man who walked from Mombasa to Lake Victoria (maybe 500 miles?) in the 1880's.

We had our lunch at a picnic table in a park beside the falls.  It was very well kept with plants and a lodge for guests.

And I must tell you about the famous box lunches!!  We had these several times while we travelled from one park to another - and they were always supplied by the hotel and they were pretty much the same every. single. day.

Inside: juice box, yogurt, bottle of water, apple, banana,  (dry) cupcake, hard-cooked egg, 2 pieces of roast chicken, and a sandwich - unlike any other sandwich we've every seen!

Picture this:   3 slices of white bread + butter on 4 or sometimes 5 sides of the bread + 1 thin slice of salami or ham = your sandwich.  A few times we had a wedge of foil-wrapped cheese and one day we hit the jackpot with 2 carrot sticks and 2 wedges of cucumber.  It was amazing but it was food and we didn't starve.  We usually had some leftovers and Chris always collected them in one box and shared them with the carwash boys or the attendants at a shop we might pass.  They were always accepted and I was glad to know that food wasn't being wasted.

There was a very simple children's playground at this park -

and then this incredible sign hanging in the trees!  I have never seen a place where you had to pay to play on a playground in a park.  Needless to say, there were no children on the equipment but it really was a tourist park and perhaps there were no children there that day.  It made us sad to think that some kids might not be able to play here.

Back on the road, we were able to get a picture of a donkey cart.  There are almost no pickup trucks and so much hauling in Africa is done this way.

Next up - off to the Masai Mara - my favourite park!

Tire Trouble

Our guide and driver, Chris, had just talked to another driver to say we were half an hour from the Lake Nakuru park gate when Clarence heard a whooshing sound and we had a flat tire!  Luckily Chris wasn't going too fast and safely got the truck off the main road onto the shoulder in a village.  It just so happened to be a spot where a group of local men were gathered, waiting for something exciting to happen!  And a flat tire on a safari vehicle  with 6 white tourists was excitement!  As this all developing, I glanced over at Chris and he was shaking his head as if to say, "I can't believe this is happening to me."

Chris quickly phoned the other driver from our company to let him know we'd now be late, called his head office and then stepped out to assess the damage problem.  Instantly about 6 or 7 men rushed over to help!  At first Chris wanted the 6 of us to stay inside, safe from the gathering crowd, but this problem was right in Bob and Clarence's area of expertise and there was no way they were staying inside - especially Bob! The jack was buried under our luggage in the back of the vehicle so Chris proceeded to unload the suitcases and get out his tools.  This meant our suitcases were now on the side of the road so Clarence assumed the role of luggage guard so no one could walk off with anything.   Bob got involved in the actual tire changing, helping with blocking and jacking and guiding as Chris had to actually drive up on some rocks to get high enough to get the jack under properly.

The whole time this was happening, more people were gathering and wandering by.  A little girl and her big sister walked by shyly and I opened the side window to give them each a pen (thanks, Sandra and Albert!) and get the biggest smiles in return.  Three toddlers in front of a nearby shop kept calling, "How are you?"  I think that's one of the very first English phrases anyone learns!  Albert went out to help watch the luggage and was soon passing out candies to the little ones.

Chris was able to get the spare tire on very quickly and within about 20 minutes the tools were stowed,  the wrecked tire was inside, the suitcases were back in and we were on our way again.  He later told us that the crowd of men gathered right where we'd stopped  were known as being big fans of the local brew made from the fruit of the sausage tree.  I think that was part of his initial apprehension.   After getting us to the lodge, Chris returned to town that night to try to get the tire fixed.  Most safari vehicles carry 2 spare tires but we only had one initially so now that it was flat, we were  in trouble.   Chris talked to his office again and after he picked us up the next morning we returned to the tire shop to see what could be done.   The tire was not repairable so he bought a new one and the Nairobi office made arrangements to get another spare out to us with drivers that were coming to the Mara in the next couple of days.

It seemed a little tense at times during the whole drama but it all worked out fine.  And none of us got any pictures - we were just praying that everything would work out and trying to blend in with the locals!  Thankfully we had no more tire trouble the entire trip!