Safari Day 2 & 3 - The Masai Mara

Day 2 Eight hours "in the saddle" today and I feel sorry for my Driver Maurice. It's a long day and all I had to do was stick my head out the hole in roof of the minivan. Poor Maurice had to negotiate the maze of dirt tracks that crisscross the planes of the park.

There was plenty of highlights though. In the morning, we saw a couple of lions mating. while we (and about 7 other minivans) were intruding on the lion's intimate moment (they didn't seem to mind too much), Maurice spotted another male coming down the hill. The third lion headed for the other two, paying little attention to the wall of Toyotas

that lay in his path. I thought that he might be looking for trouble, but the third lion at least seemed to respect the privacy of the first two, and disappeared into the long grass with disturbing ease.

We then headed further into the park to catch up with the main migratory herds of wildebeest and zebra. There was thousands of the buggers - hundreds of thousands. The hills were covered in thousands of dark specks, like those little chocolate sprinkles on a cupcake. They reckon there are about one million wildebeest that make the annual treck to the Masai Mara from the southern Serengetti, next door in Tanzania.

The herds were mostly grazing around the Mara River. If you've ever seen any docos on the migration, then the Mara River is the one you see the wildebeests trying to cross while being chomped on by giant crocs. However, this year was a "bad migration" according to my driver, since the rains were small and the river low, meaning the crossing was easy, and there wasn't much chomping. Bad for the tour groups but good for the wildebeest, I suspect!

Anyway, on the Mara River, we saw herds of hippo. It was the middle of the day so they weren't up to much, which is probably just as well since they have a reputation of being pretty grumpy creatures.

A park ranger took me along the river bank to see some crocs sunning themselves. I got a little nervous when there ws a rustle in the bushes nearby that made the brids take flight. The nerves weren't helped by the fact that the ranger slipped the safety off his kalashnikov and continued glancing about - despite assuring me that it was only a worthog. Needless to say, I made it out alive to see the largest croc I've ever laid eyes on. The ranger had dubbed him Solomon and reckoned he was 90-95 years old. All I reckoned, was that he must have eaten plenty of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle in his life because he was HUGE!

We had lunch by the mara river, gladly far enough away from the water to not be worried about crocs or hippo. We were however, pestered by a family of small monkeys who liked the look of the fruit in our lunch boxes. A small branch occasionally waved in their direction was enough to keep them at bay. After lunch we started making our way back across the park towards our camp. Of course, that included stopping off to see the poor harassed cheaters who I'm sure are starting to get hungry by now.

On the way back to camp, we stopped off at a "traditional" Masai village. I use the inverted commas because it felt a little like a theme park. The villagers performed a couple of dances. These are the jumping guys you may have seen on Tele. I had a go and had to work hard to jump as high as the "chief" who was a good head shorter than me. Then it was into one of the huts to check out the living conditions - dark and gloomy - and to have the dietary habits explained. The Masai diet consists of meat, milk and cows blood. It didn't sound too appetizing, and I was glad they hadn't put on a "feast" for me. After that it was the obligatory trip to the village market so they could peddle some souvenirs.

Day 3

It's up for an early morning game drive before heading back to Nairobi. It was a pretty successful trip as we saw 6 lions this morning. The first two were a couple of males strolling around looking for a feed. While we were watching them, the driver spotted a couple of more males wandering along the other side of the valley so we zoomed over for a look before

the rest of the minibus herd arrived. They seemed to have the minivans worked out. One of the pair hung bacK, lay down and seemed to sulk for about 5 minutes while the other one strode ahead and away from the vans.

The sulking lion eventually got up and went looking for his mate. This involved a few impressive roars and a fair bit of looking across the valley - it seems lions even have trouble spotting each other in the long grass! As it turned out, these two males were heading back to the male and female we had seen mating the day before. In the end the four ions just lay down amongst a scrum of the beep beep, click and whir of 15 to 20 minivans, patiently waiting for the tourists to lose interest so they could get on with the job of finding their next meal.

(The link to the pics are in my last post)

We headed off back to camp, but not before stopping off one more time to annoy the cheater family - just for old times sake.

The trip back to nairobi was pretty uneventful after the excitement of the last few days. We have a few more days here until Shez has finished presenting her training, then it's back to the Middle East on Friday.

Safari Day 1 - Heading Outback

Ok, so it's not THE outback, but the Masai Mara is Kenya's version of it. The Masai Mara Reserve is in the south western corner of the country. The park borders Tanzania's Serengetti planes. The park is nestled in on the western side of the Great Rift Valley (dig for your high school geography book for that on) and is famous as the backdrop for the final stages of the annual wildebeest migration.

The park is about 5 hours drive from Nairobi. I was picked up by the driver/guide, or in the local lingo drivaguide at about 7am so that we could arrive for lunch. The road out was pretty good, though in places there were more patches than original tarmac and the last 50km was dirt - no big deal. Apparently, the whole thing was supposed to be paved in the good old days, but the last 50km worth went kick backs. Things are better these days, and the road is being slowly improved. We passed though a variety of landscapes on the way. Firstly, there was the mist of the range west of Nairobi, before dropping down the dramatic escarpment to the floor of the Rift Valley. After, of course the obligatory stop at a lookout and trip through an overpriced souvenir shop.

On the way, we passed through Narok, the main Masai town and the last major outpost before the park. The town has a frontier town feel about it. This was aided by the fact that the main street is under repair and, as such, it is currently a heavily pocked dirt road, spewing dust on the ramshackle collection of shops, cars and mini mini-van taxis (they look like a mini-van but smaller!). The only things to remain clean seemed to be the chrome encrusted motorbike taxis that congregated in the shade of the few available trees, and many of the people, who remained immaculately dressed in a mix of modern and traditional Masai costume. It seems like a place with big plans that just don't quite come off. Like the grandly named Narok Stadium which is no more than a decrepit wooden shack of a stand with a slight southerly lean, overlooking a bare dirt football (soccer) pitch with rough cut tree branches passing for goals.

After arriving at our camp there was time to eat lunch and have a quick kip before it was off to the park for a late afternoon game drive for a couple of hours. It was worth the trip even after just these few hours. We saw a lioness resting after a kill. Unfortunately, she had killed a cow, so she will be in trouble with the local Masai herdsmen and will have to watch her back. This, despite the fact that the Masai are not supposed to be grazing their stock in the park. I think the local rangers turn a blind eye to this, especially at the moment as there is a drought on and everything outside the park has been grazed to a dust bowl. We also saw elephants and giraffe grazing, and even a cheater family lazing around. That's not to mention zebra, wildebeest, and countless gazelle, impala and other grazing animals. And all this within 5km of the gate.

The other beast that seemed to be thriving in the area was the tourist hauling minibus - me included of course. I found myself often watching this peculiar herd so that I think I could now put together a short David Attenborough style doco on it's habits (read the following in your best impersonation). The herd starts by dispersing widely across the valley in search of "prey", stopping often for it's belly full of camera toting tourists to gorge on the sight of different animals. This continues until one of the herd lets out a "big cat call" (ie the two way radio starts buzzing about the sighting of a lion, leopard, or cheater). The herd then stampedes to the the sighting like vultures descending on a fresh carcass, and crowd around the hapless creatures with a whir of cameras and excited exclamations. The cats usually resign them selves to laying down and hoping the herd will move on, because there's no chance of catching game when shadowed by twenty minivans.

Here are the safari pics - I've tried to cut them down!

Baby Giants and Giant Babies

Shez had a day off from her training today so we met up with her ex work colleague and friend, Sarah, who has just moved to Kenya. Sarah is working for UNHCR doing "needs assessments" in Somalia - better her than me!

We hired a taxi for the day and headed off to the Nairobi National Park to see the elephant orphanage. We didn't go into the park proper, which is apparently is a good place to do a safari if you're short on time. It's only ten or so kilometers form the centre of town so you can see things like giraffe, rhino and lions all roaming around with the city skyline in the background - weird.

Anyway, we were here to see orphaned elephants being fed at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. I had seen these guys on several TV docos and have been keen to see the real thing for ages. Basically, this self funded charity rescues orphaned elephants and rhinos that, are usually the victims of poachers, to eventually rehabilitate and return them to the wild. This is an intensive care program, with the green coated minders staying with their charges 24/7. As well as feeding (every 4 hours) and keeping the stables clean (a good idea since the keepers sleep on the hay with the elephants), they teach their charges to forage, mud bath and play soccer etc - you know all the essentials for an adolescent. Once they're ready, at about 2 or 3 years of age, the elephants are transferred to a half way house in one of the game reserves where they are introduced to older elephants. As they get older and more confident, they wander further afield until the eventually just stop coming back. The whole process is very intensive and takes years. To keep the funds ticking over, they open the Nairobi centre for 1 hour a day for a public display of feeding.

The little fellas troop out like a football team and run to their keepers who are holding large bottles of milk formula. Very cute. It's funny to see the different personalities, from cheeky to very shy. Some are still getting over the trauma of seeing their mothers killed. After the elephants were done feeding and led away, a 3 month old black rhino calf came out for a feed - also very cute! All in all, it was good fun watching them.

After the baby elephants, we headed off to the Giraffe Centre to see the endangered Rothschild Giraffes. The centre was started in 1979 by the Kenyan grandson of a Scottish earl who started by raising a baby giraffe in their Nairobi home. That home is now the world famous Giraffe Manor. Alas, we couldn't afford the small fortune required to stay overnight in the Manor where giraffe are free to steel your breakfast through the window and smaller giraffe have been known to wander through the house. However, we were able to feed the giraffe which was kind of fun. One greedy guts in particular was at the feeding station (a raised platform) from before we got there until after we left over an hour later. Apparently she was pregnant and happy to get all the food she could. She acted a bit like a child though. If no one happened to hold out a hand to feed her a pellet, then she'd happily head-but the nearest onlooker in protest. Very funny to watch - from a distance! We had lunch at the centre and then headed off to to the nearby Kazuri Beads and Pottery Centre.

The centre was set up to help single mothers earn an income. From the original two mothers, there are now over 200 employees making beads for export all over the world - apparently they have an agent in Australia so you may have seem them. Anyway, after a brief tour and explanation of the art of making clay glazed beads, we entered girl heaven - a shop full of brightly coloured necklaces, ear rings and bracelets. Sarah tried in vain to control herself, all the time mumbling, "I don't have to get it all now - I'll be back" and "I can see this is going to cost me a fortune". For you girls reading, I'm sure you know the feeling - for the boys, just imagine a shop full of your favorite beers at bargain basement prices. Needless to say, we eventually dragged ourselves out with heavy bags and light wallets.

All in all, a good day at the office.

Here are some more pics of the elephants etc - very cute.

Nairobi Kenya

I know the Palestine posts have been a bit "heavy" so I hope my trip though Kenya will be a little more on the bright side!

It was a relief to travel a little "less secure". Traveling from Jordan to Kenya certainly has less security hassles than traveling within Israel and the OPTs (Occupied Territories - do I sound like a local yet?). I even managed to break the 100ml hand luggage limit - only by about 10 times and no one worried. Oops

The highlight of the first few days in Kenya has probably been the trip in from the airport. I know that doesn't say much about my first few days, but I've mostly getting orientated while Shez is busy with the training. Where the traffic slows on the lead up to a round-about on the main road, hawkers dodge and weave between cars selling their wares. You can buy just about anything here from the mundane: newsapers, hats, flip flops (not sure how you try them on); to the outright bizarre - like a large blow up tele tubby kids seat! Just what you needed on your way to work right. The vendors choice of product was also sometimes bewildering (tele tubbies aside). For example, I saw one guy selling belts and car steering wheel covers. I don't know about you, but I've always thought "jeez, I need a wheel cover" whenever I've been out buying a belt!

I'm largely running my own show while we're here in Kenya. Shez is busy with training. She'll be running the last 1.5 days on integrating protection into country programs, but she needs 2.5 days, so is trying to condense the material. There are about 18 participants from all over East Africa attending. Anyway, since I'm under my own steam, I've been into the city to see if I can book a short safari while Shez is hard at work. I'd much prefer it if she could come along, but we just don't have the time when she finishes the training. Oh well, I'll just have to fly the banner I guess - hard work I know.