Kenya Safari: Masai Mara

Todd told us we had been working hard and needed a vacation, so we happily obliged.  Due to Kenya being on the terrorist watch list and recent violence on the coast, its tourism industry is crashing due to lack of people visiting.  Because of this and being students, we were able to get a really great deal for a 13 day Safari through Kenya and Tanzania.  We ended up going with Terminal Tours Kenya, which is a great company in case anyone reading my blog is looking for a trusted and recommended budget safari company (since so many can be quite bad), I recommend them. 

Day 1

We started our Safari by getting a ride with Laura in her 4-runner down to Nanyuki and then taking a Matatu to Nairobi.  Nelson, the owner of the company was there to pick us up and then escort us, with some of his employees to Debbie's apartment.  Debbie is the manager of the company.  Because they knew we were on a budget, they told us we could stay with them for free at their apartment and that they would also cook us meals free of charge, which was a very generous offer.  They lived in a tiny apartment in the "suburbs" of Nairobi, just on the city centre side of the slums.  Debbie welcomed us with chai. 

Elisha and I explored their neighborhood a little bit.  Hitting the supermarket for some snacks and getting myself a knee brace.  Debbie then made us a tasty dinner and we watched Mexican soap operas dubbed into English the rest of the night.

Day 2

They drove us into the city centre to settle our bill and pack all the supplies up for our journey.  We joined an Indian guy living in South Africa, who called himself Mr. Kahn.  On our way out of Nairobi, we picked up a Czech couple...Olga and some Czech name to hard to pronounce let alone spell.

Shortly after the climb out of Nairobi we reached the Great Rift Valley viewpoint that looks down on the Great Rift Valley.  The Rift Valley extends from the middle east down through Africa.  It's a giant rift that in several million years will cause part of Africa to separate from the main continent (similar to what is happening to California). 

We soon continued on our way and eventually arrived at Narok, a bustling and dusty Masai capital.  Here, Elisha and I had to get signed and stamped permission from government officials in order to get the discounted price in the reserves.  There was a party at the gov't buildings going on, so it took an extremely long time, which was also slightly nerve wracking b/c my Student ID hadn't arrived in time.  Elisha had her Gator1 card, but mine was still in the mail, so the best I could do was show them my letters of affiliation and my FloridaBlue Gator Student Healthcare card.  Eventually the papers were written, signed, and stamped.  The funny part was that the way they wrote up the permission was that we'd be allowed to conduct research in the Masai Mara and National Parks, which is pretty hilarious considering that is not what we intended.

Because of our delay in Narok, Sammy (our driver-guide) pushed it on the hours of rough roads between Narok and the Mara.  He did an amazing job, and we managed to reach the Mara in time for an afternoon game drive.

We stayed at Rhino Camp, which was pretty plush.  It is a tented camp with attached bathrooms and not showers.  At first I complained a little bit about how fancy it was b/c I wanted to go primitive camping (being the cheapest).  However, by 1 in the morning, I was no longer complaining as I had gotten a nasty case of traveler's diarrhea. 

Day 3

we were meant to leave at 6:30 am, and there I had been sitting on the pot for the last several hours.  I was unsure of what to do, b/c obviously there aren't bathrooms in the Mara (just lions hiding in bushes), and we would be with our group of people.  But the Mara is crem de la crem of game reserves.  It's not a place to miss!  It's Todd's favorite place in the whole world.  So around 6am, as I sat on the pot, I called Dr. and Mrs Guy for some advice.  Amazing what modern medicine can do.  After a little immodium and cipro, I was good to go and soon forgot I had even been sick as I watched lionsl

The whole day game drive was unbelievable!  We timed the migration perfect, so the whole landscape was covered by millions of wildebeast and zebra.  The landscape by itself is gorgeous...reminding Elisha of Montana and me of the Paloose of N. Idaho.  But add the herds of the migration and it becomes even more spectacular.  Of course with all that meat walking around, there are lots of fat, sleepy lions to find as well.  We saw loads of sleepy, fat lions, and even a few lion cubs.  We also saw a cheetah. 

Eventually we made it down to the Mara River which is famous for the epic struggle for life of the wildebeest and zebra crossing to greener pastures and trying to survive the muddy water, the crocodiles, and lions waiting on the other side.  On this day, there was no river crossing, but we saw a few crocs and lots of hippos.  We ate lunch at the river and then headed back. 

On the way back we saw some more lions, but realized our van was leaking fuel.  The roads in the mara are of course rough, and we probably had hit some rock.  So Sammy headed us towards one of the fancy lodges to see if we could get more fuel.  On the way, a leopard was spotted a bit away.  I wanted to drive to see it (Leopards are the hardest of the Cats and the Big 5 to see), but we first needed fuel and to fix the leak.  As Sammy sped to the fancy lodge, I was nervous, nervous that the leopard would take off before we could get there.  We got to the lodge and Sammy was able to somehow fix the leak using body soap.  We got some fuel and then were on our way to see the leopard.  To our delight, the leopard was still there, snoozing in the tree.  It was a great sighting of one b/c all the leopards we had seen at Mpala were always super brief as they trotted off into the bush.

The evening was spent around the campfire at camp.

Day 4

As Sammy was taking Mr. Kahn back to Nairobi and the Czechs to Lake Naivasha and Hell's Gate NP (places I wasn't enthused to visit especially when we could have another day in the Mara), Elisha and I switched drivers and joined the van of George who was the guide for 2 Chinese and a Spanish family.

We had another amazing game drive down to the Mara River seeing lots of lions and a couple of cheetahs.  But at the Mara River, we were treated to an amazing event.  We had the amazing luck of witnessing one of the natural wonders of the world...the migration crossing the river. 

We saw a large herd of Wildbeests and Zebra congregating near the river.  They were acting nervous, and it looked like they may cross as more and more were joining.  So we sat in the van and had our lunch there.  But then the wildebeest apparently seemed to change their mind, and they started to run back away from the river.  We were kind of bummed, hoping to see the crossing.  But then we waited a bit longer, and the crazy wildebeests changed their mind.  So sure enough we eventually got to see the huge herd frantically cross the Mara river and scramble up to the other side.  As the migration had been occurring for some time, the crocs were all satiated and full, so there wasn't any of that drama, though one wildebeest did end up drowning.

It was another enjoyable game drive on the way back, full of elephants, giraffes, a fe lions, and the typical wildlife of the kenyan savannah. 

That evening we enjoyed watching a family of vervets with their newborn play around camp before dinner and then another nice evening by the campfire.

Below are pictures from the Mara.  If they don't all load (b/c there are a lot of them), you can still click on the empty pictures and the picture should open up so that you can see it.