Yes, I have been before - Twice - summer of '97 and 2012. I am guessing about the year of the first trip because it was pre-blogging and I didn't keep journals. I guess I assumed that I would never get old and forgetful - obviously, a big miscalculation! The '97 (?) trip was actually to a friends house in South Africa. Marty Moody and her two boys and husband were living there for a year. My job was to bring them a supply of American clothes and food items such as Oreos and cheese grits and Marty's job was to accompany me on a couple of safaris. It was wonderful! So wonderful, that when the Galland family went in 2012, Maria Savoldi and I gleefully joined in.
Summer 1997 ?
July 2012 - Maria and I with the Galland Clan
This year, when Margie Varnadoe said she always wanted to go to Africa -- I jumped at the chance to join her for another great adventure. There are a total of 5 in our group with one of them being Ann Owens, our SSI travel agent and who is also our local Kenya/Africa travel expert. She has handpicked the best quide and our camps to stay. Can't wait - I am all packed (33 lb limit) and ready to go. Listed below is our schedule. Will add photos and tales whenever we can get an Internet connection. If you are interested in just the photos - go to my flickr Kenya 2020 album
February 29 JAX to JKF - stay in the TWA Hotel
Drive down to JAX was uneventful ( saw 3 wild pigs and 1 wood stork) ticketing was fine, security line was short, but Auntie Anne’s cinnamon nuggets weren’t cooked .... i decided to wait. While waiting, Margie squirted something in my hand - “ gotta be safe” turned out to be bug repellent. Not sure if that can prevent the Coronavirus Bug but no mosquitoes bit us while we were in the airport. We eventually found the correct hand stuff and the nuggets were worth the wait.
TWA hotel is just as neat as advertised 60’s music and lots of interesting things to play with. Definitely took me back to the days we had to dress up for air travel and all the stewardesses were a size 6 or less.
March 1 - flight to Nairobi
Coronavirus is scaring off travelers - even to a place like Kenya that has no known cases. A good percentage of the tourists are Chinese which seem to be absent. Bad for Kenya but nice for us. Extra seats on the plane and other advantages that we haven’t benefited from yet.
We had ASSUMED that the TWA Hotel to our terminal was all inside so we were a little chilly getting to and from the terminals. We dressed and packed for equatorial Kenya not nippy NYC.
Ticketing and security were uneventful. Kenya Air flight was long but with the extra seats tolerable.
March 2nd and 3rd- Nairobi - Ole Sereni Hoel
We arrived an hour early with Patrick, our Nairobi tour guide, waiting for us. We had short lines at immigration and customs - and no missing baggage! Traffic jam to the hotel but it gave us time to ask questions and listen to Patrick tell us lots of local information. We actually saw a giraffe walking in one of the parks beside the slow moving traffic. Checked in to our nice hotel and sat outside watching the Chinese and Kenyan workers building a road right in front of the park. There were some cape buffaloes and a couple of DLTs (deer like things) that were grazing and totally ignoring all the noise and diesel smells. We had a small lunch and then treated ourself to a massage and steam, which helped us fall into a really nice deep sleep that night.
Tuesday we did the touristy things that were located in Nairobi. First stop was the Catholic run orphanage to meet the primary school children. They serve kids that are HIV positive or have had parents that have died of AIDS. It made me miss teaching a little but not enough to start back up.
Second stop was Kazuri Bead Factory. Unemployment is about 45 % and they have no government help program. This program was started in 1977 to help single mothers support themselves and their children. Basically it is a clay bead/jewelry making outfit, which may sound rinky-dink but the final products are whimsical, attractive and well made.
We fit a tour of the Karen Blixen house in next. She was the one that wrote “Out of Africa”. She (played by Meryl Streep) got syphilis from her coffee baron husband, had him move out, then had an long time affair with David (Robert Redford in the movie). She was super popular with the locals - so popular that the area is called “Karen” with lots of schools, hospitals and other businesses named after her. Besides writing she also wrote songs and painted.
Next in our morning travels included the Rothschild Giraffe which is an endangered species. They have a different pattern than other giraffes as well as “white socks” on the bottom of their legs. After cleaning your hands you are given a little bowl of giraffe pellets to hand feed the statuesque creatures. They had very long tongues and slimy saliva but they were so sweet and interesting.
The best part of the day was the private tour at the Sheldrake Elephant Orphanage. I got to see, touch and visit with my adopted baby elephant Lorro (Ann, adopts one for each of us). We got quite muddy but every splatter was worth it
We hopped on a small plane for a ride to the Masai Mara. This is why you are limited to 33 lbs. our co- pilot was also the flight attendant - which involved passing back a plastic tub of hard candy mints. Cloudy most of the way but a great way of avoiding the dirt roads.
Leaving the landing Zone I actually spotted our first lion, but only because it was just 6 feet from our Jeep. Jackson our spotter, guide, driver and teacher is exceptional at spotting things I can only see with my monocular but I beat him this ONE time. This lion was an older lion who has been kicked out of his pride by a younger male - now he has to hunt for himself.
Our tent is second from the left ...
We had a little siesta then took a “sundowners safari” besides the normal DLTs and a hyena the high point were hippos playing. Afterwards we stopped for a drink and snack at sunset. We arrived back at camp right before the rain and had a nice dinner. Wonderful busy day!
Wake up knock with delivery of our hot tea and coffee at 6 am - left for our sunrise safari at 6:30. OMG what a day! It is sort of like a reality version of Where’s Waldo - because you are scanning the land and trees for anything that doesn’t fit in that catagory - a flick of a tail, a twitch of an ear, or any movement.We started out with spotting jackals, then hyenas, THEN the LIONS. It was a feast ,,,,, during that morning safari we saw a total of 26 different lions from 2 different prides and a territorial and stinky meat dispute between an old guy and younger guy. It was fantastic. A tiny fraction of the photos below.
Younger one “marked” our cars.
Another pride napping - full after a kill
Another good lunch, then we went on our sundowners safari where we had our cocktails while watching a huge crocodile munch on a eland. Jackson told us the crocodile was longer than our Toyota Land Cruiser and the eland was about the size of a steer. After another croc joined forces they dragged the eland under water. We played dress up with the Shukas because it was chilly.
Jennifer a visitor from Savannah, Margie and I
Jackson our guide
Jennifer was playing with the portrait mode on her iPhone
Second day at camp
Another hot tea and coffee were delivered to our room at 6:00 am and then we started another safari. I got a good zebra shot with the sunrise. You generally start safari at 6:30 after have some tea/coffee and a small ginger bisquit then have a picnic breakfast a couple of hours later in the park. The camp staff pre-prepares a full breakfast with some type of eggs, sausage, fruit and cereal. We had little quiches a few times, breakfast wraps, hardboiled eggs ... you get the idea. Another treat is that at night when you climb into bed you will find a hotwater bottle warming things up. It sort of scared us the first time but after that we fell in love.
We came upon a recent kill - the cleanup crew had taken over for the long gone preditors.
Hyenas, vultures and maybe a jackal
Even Vultures have to maintain their appearance....
Ostriches were our next spot. Black ones are the boys but these guys haven’t matured yet because they don’t have bright pink legs yet.
Jackson stopped in the middle of a herd of Cape buffalo and gave us a lesson on how to tell the difference between male and Female without looking underneath. The BOSS - the horns - in the male are thicker at the top of thier head. We also learned about a worm that can bore into the horns and skull of these animal - yuck !
Giraffes were our next spot.
We caught the beginning of a testosterone fueled fight between two Thompson gazelles which was really interesting. The bigger one 'won'. Video below of part of the 'battle' - Sorry I should have switched it to horizontal -- but I was too into the moment.
We came upon another two kills with the lions still eating and the clean up crew waiting in line. Same pride as yesterday so we can’t add to our 26 lion count.
The sundowners safari was fairly close to camp. We watched a sleepy lion chill then returned to the river area right below our camp for campfire and cocktails. Nice almost full moon.
Our other two SSI adventurers - besides our fearless leader -Ann Owens
Above are Diane Baldwin and 'Unknown Male'
(he's a self-proclaimed luddite (still uses FILM camera) who doesn't like social media
so I told him I wouldn't ID him)
Oh BTW, over Robert's rt shoulder are little dots- they are the Hippos that hang out in the river below our camp. You can hear them at night when they come up closer to the tents to munch on the grass. That is why at dark you don't -go to or leave from - the tent without a Masai warrier with you - yes a man with a flashlight and either a gun or spear or big knife. We had a whistle in our tent for emergencies.
Next day we went to a different section of the Mara. To get there we used “the major government highway”. It was still dirt but it was SORT of maintained with actual drainage ditches and way less rocks and holes bouncing you around. The standard joke that EVERY African guide tells you as you are holding on and trying to stay in your seat and vehicle, “that the ride is really an African massage”. The weirdest thing is by the end of the day your knees hurt and you are tired even though you haven’t been walking. It even fools your pedometer in your Iwatch and iPhone. It said I walked 10,200 steps today NOT ! The most I walked was to get out of the Jeep and pee by the back of the vehicle. Remember you can't get out or move very far from the car or guide - there are hungry lions out there.
I always thought of Africa as Tarzan-like - dark jungle, tall trees, vines etc. It is rocky and grassy and MUDDY during the wet season, which started a little early this year. The weather was cold whenever the sun was not out. You dressed in layers, used sunscreen and added a "Shuka" from the car when needed. A shuka is a blanket that you tie around your neck. 99% of the time it is red and a type of plaid. Weather Ranged from low 50-'s to high 70's F with not much humidity. Sunny durring the day and to make for an exciting early morning drive, it would rain at night. It left the roads? very slippery and muddy. Both drivers were great at driving sideways down the messy roads. By afternoon it was mostly dry. But wet or dry- the roads were very bumpy.
Anyway this park provided us with a change of scenery and lots of elephants and giraffes. Actually my favorite part of this day was something much much smaller. We surprised a group of mongooses (or mongeese?)
must have been a lot of bugs in this patch of grass
not sure what alerted them but they all popped up at the same time
This area of Africa was built with lots of volcanos and plate movement.
While getting to this area we had previously crossed a couple of other rivers that looked pretty scary. This next one looked a little easier. The crossing was ok but we ran into trouble climbing out of the other side. It was a mess of slippery mud which made us slide sideways into a knee deep hole. Left front tire was in the air. When we got out of the car our shoes acquired an extra couple of inches of dirt that was really hard to get off.
We got out and tried a couple of things but no luck and also no cell signal. Jackson had to walk out of the valley to get a signal. He always had an eye on us but we did a lot of clapping to let the animals know we were around. Jackson called for help and got out our picnic breakfast and chairs. It took about an hour before hero Fred from an neighboring camp sent a tractor to pull us out.
After that our luck changed and Jackson found our first cheetah. We stayed with it for a while because it was attempting to hunt. We gave up when it gave up and took a nap.
Driving back we encountered 5 giraffes trying to cross the river (different spot from our mishap). The crossing was definitely one way and they had the advantage. Boy are giraffes cautious and really slow. Thirty minutes later it was finally our turn to cross.
Next we came upon a pride of lions finishing up it’s kill. This was a different pride so we added it to our total. Total for the whole trip was 52 unique lions. We watched for a while until all of them took their post Thanksgiving-like nap. The hyenas took over the clean up - even eating the bones. (you could actually hear them crunch the bones)
Did you notice the hoof/leg the young lion kept to snack on later?
Notice the storks - they are also waiting for their share of the kill -- always imaged them in our picturesque marsh - NOT hanging around a bloody, smelly pile of meat and bones.
Travel day - this is the day we changed camps from Tanqulia camp to Acacia House. Breakfast and a staff photo then back in the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Jackson and our future guide Martin split the difference and met in the middle of approximately a 2 hour drive. It was the usual dirt road but there were villages to add to our scenery of game, grass, and trees. When we arrived at the Nature Conservatory (too hard to explain with thumb typing -but the main point is that in this area the government pays the Masai families a monthly stipend to use their land - will add that interesting information later ) When we arrived in the area I saw one of the largest and longest tusks on an elephant that I have ever seen.
They monitor this elephant - you can see the contraption on top of his head
March 9, 10, and 11 - Masai Mara Park - Acacia Mara House Camp
It isn’t a camp it is an unique olive wood crafted home with a living room, kitchen and 4 bedrooms. The only difference between this and a five star hotel is that it is all solar - so no hair dryer (we cheat and use the portable fan)
Group living room/dining room with fireplace
our front porch - looking out onto a pond
Margie and my bedroom and bath
After a wonderful lunch on the bug-free open porch, we settled in and explored the compound.
Ann had a visitor, Karia, that brought all of us presents. Ann paid for Karia's guide training.
beads adorn everything
Karia the new "graduate" is on the left - our 'unknown male' in the middle and a back staff member named Kuno
Later that afternoon we took our first sunset safari tour.
We saw lots of zebra and their babies
baby is nursing
baby is nursing
This is a water buck
wildabeests and their babies
We hadn't seen a lot of wildabeasts at the other camp -- To me they look - not put together right and not real smart.
The mounds can get really big and can support a lot of weight. The wart hogs live in the old deserted ones. The termites actually eat fungus they cultivate underground.
The warmth of the sun helps grow the fungus.
A little side note - I didn't want to carry a big ole set of binoculars or pay a large amount of money for them so I bought (75 $) a mid range MON-ocular. It came with this attachment for your phone. If you are really patient and can hold your breath and be as steady as possible you can get some decent photos. I took this while the Ground Hornbill was in a high tree. You have to have time to attach the gadget then to find the subject again then try to hold steady. The monocular was great but I only used the attachment maybe 20 times out of the hundreds of photos I took.
Ground Hornbill
Second day at Acacia House
It ended up being a really long day - we skipped lunch and did not get back until 5 in the afternoon. The usual schedule at most camps is -
- a long morning drive (7-12) where we arrive back around 1 or 2 for lunch
- chill/nap/read -then have tea and cake at 4
- leave for a sundowners drive at 5 and be back around 7
- dinner is usually around 7:30 or 8
This day started out with Martin and Ptinga (our spotter) cutting branches to fill in some of the worse holes in their long driveway.
I was able to use my monocular attachment for a couple more bird photos. Please note the photos turned out pretty good because the birds were willing to sit still while I got my setup ready to go...
tawny eagle
This is called a "dazzle" of zebras - when they move all the stripes play tricks on your eyes.
Next were a group of elephants with the tiniest baby I had seen so far. I used the monocular gadget again for the close-up.
Baby just about ready to nurse.
We stopped for a picnic Breakfast at the river
Next came the lion ! - Oops my mistake it was a Hyena - But the NEXT one really was a lion.
with Monocular gadget
The next spotting was what made the day really long. At about 12:40 our guide and spotter saw the cheetah mother and the 6 cubs on top of a hill and very close to a small village. The mom wanted to hunt but there were baboons in the area and cheetahs don't like them. This caused her and her cubs to eventually move down the hill and across the dirt road.
She made a noise sort of like a bird - but she was calling the last of the 6 to come to the new location
By 1:30 she was in a new position with all her cubs close by.
The mom was trying to hunt but the kids kept playing around - alerting the prey.
monocular and gadget photo
At home when I watch nature shows I feel sorry for the prey but here I was cheering for the preditor and kill. She has 6 babies to feed. Mom moved again but this time the kids stayed back so that she could sucessfully hunt. We saw her miss on one animal then finally chase down a female DLT into the bushes. We know it was a kill cause she came out after a bit and called her cubs. They quickly came and followed her into the bushes to have their meal.
I was in the wrong position to photograph the chase but this is her at 3:30 after the kill calling her kids. TV spoils us in that they would get all of this 3 hour drama in 20 minutes or less. So if you want to see the real thing - you will have to patient and not expect things to happen when you want them to. This was the first kill I had witnessed and I consider myself blessed. Ann put us with small camps so that you don't have to follow a set schedule and the guides can re-adjust when they return depending on what we are fortunate enough to see that day. It was definitely worth the long wait.
Sunset off our Acacia House Porch
Third day - Acacia House
A couple of days ago I had developed a cold - no not the CoronaVirus Flu. Thankfully it was just a dull ordinary cold. I had brought some cold medicine with me but Ann gave me some Musinex which which worked even better. Since it was the third day at the same park I decided to take the morning off and chill infront of the pond and see if I could get the internet to cooperate (internet in both places was adequate but not great with large files like photos). I got to see some game at the pond right infront of us - DLTs, Baboons, and wart hogs were the 3 that I was able to spot. I have to admit that I did have a few major bouts of FOMO that morning - but the rest was good for me.
With all the early rain most of the grazing animals look very healthy
FOMO had finally won so I had to join the late afternoon safari. Basically it ended up being a last night celebration on top of the mountain. Road was challenging but the view was worth it. We saw a giraffe on the way up.
On our bumpty ride to the airstrip we saw - a Topi doing it's thing - (They like standing on top of mounds.) and zebras and a giraffe triming a tree along with a new type of DLT - But sorry I can not remember their name.
We finally got to the airport - no ticket counter - just a guys that keeps the runway clean of the animals and a bathroom.
The top of the mountain where the staff set up for our "sundowners"
starting a fire the without matches
Ptinga, our spotter and fire maker
Diane and our 'Unknown Man'
Martin climbed a tree and held up his machete. An end of a great trip.
Well the end is not yet .... we had a game drive on the way to the airstrip. Right away we saw a monkey we hadn't seen before. We still didn't get a photo of the monkeys that have bright blue balls, but we did get a photo of a bright blue lizard though....
Topi alway have a blue tint on their butt area so it looks like they are wearing blue jeans
Surprize! - another pride of lions - which brought our total up to 52 ! We didn't bother counting the over 100 elephants and giraffes we saw. Cheetahs were a small number - just 8 and Leopards 2.
Ann and Martin
We will miss both of them !
March 12 - Nairobi - day stay Four Points by Sherton Airport
Ann was heading back to the Tanquila Camp for some R and R - The four of us were headed to Nairobi for some shopping and a really short R and R at a hotel near the airport. We left later that night. The flight was a lot fuller - It might have been about yesterday's Trump announcement of preventing EU citizens from entering the US. Kenya at time of departure had no known cases of Coronavirus.
