Safari in Kenya
Amazing - yup, that’s how I would describe it. For years I have been thinking about what it might be like - 5 years ago I even planned a trip to Zimbabwe, Botswana & Namibia but that went up in smoke - long story… Anyway, I decided not to put it off any longer and booked it a few months ago - I knew my Mum had always wanted to go so I thought I would treat her - bank balance notwithstanding!Overnight flight from Heathrow to Nairobi was uneventful but unfortunately not punctuated with periods of deep sleep and relaxation. Immigration was a breeze - $50 and you’re in - once through we were greeted by extremely friendly cab drivers eager to relieve us of our newly gotten currency. Met up with our group and set off in 2 minivans to Lake Elementaita, where we were going to spend the first couple of nights. The roads outside Nairobi are diabolical - huge potholes, broken tarmac, and massive ruts meant that driving in anything like a straight line was completely impossible. So, no sleep, dazed and jolted wildly for several hours - I sometimes wonder why anyone would choose this for a ‘holiday’!
Once we arrived at the Lodge (gorgeous colonial building overlooking the lake) we could rest for a while, grab some food and then we went for a walk down by the Lake with a local Masai, called Joseph (strangely they all have Masai and English names - which I think is a shame) and we went bird spotting - not something I would normally get very excited about, but then we don’t have 500 species in the UK - we saw storks, herons, pelicans, flamingos (at the right time of year there are enormous flocks - this wasn’t it), eagles and woodpeckers - our guide could spot and identify them when they were only a brown flicker to the rest of us
After a couple of hours we retreated to the Lodge (I love saying that) and had a quick nap - then onto the patio for a cold beer and watch the sun go down - I would love to describe the incredible sunset for which this part of Africa is rightly famous, but it was slightly overcast so it just went from light to dark… After dinner we were invited to watch some local dancing - this worried me - it’s a bit package holiday/cruise ship kitsch but amazingly it was really cool - they were really fun - tons of energy, they really seemed to be enjoying themselves which was highly infectious - and of course they made us join in…
Day 2 - early start to travel to Lake Nakuru, famous for huge flocks of flamingos as seen in Out of Africa. We went down to the shore and got out of the vans - to one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen - flamingos as far as the eye could see - thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, packed tight like sardines and making lots of noise - we also saw some buffalo, storks, pelicans and a small group of zebra - you really wanted to be able to turn your head 360 degrees so you could take it all in… then a fish eagle appeared and landed amongst the flamingo (which are part of his diet) and they all shuffled up and provided him with a safe area of maybe 10-15 metres - quite surreal.
Later on in the park we also saw White rhino, various gazelle and topis - around every corner was the promise of spotting more animals - I like that we choose to hunt animals with cameras now rather than guns.
The following day we made the long, and extremely bumpy ride to the Masai Mara, broken by a trip on a lake where we saw lots of birds, including pelicans, and some hippo - although most of them remained underwater and teased us with mere glimpses. After many hours on the road we were all exhausted - on the plus side we arrived at a beautiful camp site right in the park - no fence, no separation between us and the animals. Our tents had proper beds, electricity, running water, proper loos and a shower - luxury! We were told that once we had gone to bed we weren’t allowed out of the tents without a guide (just in case something was prowling around looking for an easy meal!)
Before we settled in we went for our first game drive and saw elephants (from afar), giraffe, gazelle, impala, and lots and lots of wildebeest - enormous herds having migrated from Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya. It was amazing - open plains, a blissful soundtrack and wild animals just doing what they do with us as observers…
Back at the camp we sat around a fire and discussed our day and swapped photos with each other - then we sat down to a fantastic meal (made by the camp’s Italian chef) and a few cold beers…
Next day we were fortunate to spot a couple of male cheetah (not sure if animals get pluralised), one of whom jumped up into a tree which was amazing to watch…
We only had a couple of days at the camp and it went so fast - but we were very fortunate to see a large number of animals - in particular we had three sitings of lions - a couple of females hiding in the bush, a lone female looking for her pride, a male lion out in the open protecting a recent kill, and best of all a couple of lionesses with their cubs - possibly the nicest thing I have ever seen…
