It has been a few weeks since I have been home and honest am still processing what we experienced in Kenya. Beth and I got together to make notes on what we had seen/experienced and the list just goes on and on. Lion, lioness, lots of rhino, black and white; zebras, elephants, wart hogs (pumba’s) impala, gazelle, cape buffalo, hyena, silver hyena, wild dog, hippo, giraffe
One night we did a night game drive and saw nothing for an hour then, WOW. Two female lionesses’ having dinner on some sort of animal (turned out to be a baby buffalo); there were a few hyenas around as well and we had passed a group of buffalo on our way in. Naturalist think that a pregnant buffalo gave birth and the hyenas moved in – then the lions moved in on the hyena. Nature does have a pecking order, after all. Whilst it was crazy sad to see, it was just the most perfect national geographic moment ever
There was a hippo in a pond that was being eaten by hyenas and other creatures; our guide assured us that it had died of natural causes. I had continually remind myself that THIS is the cycle of life although the hyena disappearing INSIDE the hippo was a little disconcerting
There was a male lion we saw shortly after we left the girls to their feast and he was majestic in the bush; we saw a few males and they are darn hard to spot but when you do your heart starts to beat when you realize the power these kings of the jungle have
The amount of elephant was crazy and in Amboseli park we saw a ‘super tusker’; these guys have tusks that will grow up to 120 pounds each and of course it is this the poachers want. I think there are only 8 or 9 supertuskers left in Amboselli. Look up Craig; we saw a couple of his sons; Craig died of natural causes some time ago but what a story he had to tell. When an elephant dies, the tusks are taken by scientists and preserved in Nairobi.
The elephant itself is left right where it is for mother nature to do what she does and soon there is no sign of the elephant; the cleaners and sweepers have done their jobs. There is a cemetery in Amboelli with small memorials to elephants of the past; many of whom were killed by poachers. (There has not been an incident of poaching in Kenya for 9 years)
The amount of grass these elephants need is astounding and they walk miles and miles in search of it. SOOOOOOO many elephants it made my heart so happy; and there were a lot of little ones too. The little guys are really the ones in charge; the group will move when the little ones say it is time to move….and they do love to play
The antelope, (impala, gazelle, etc) and there were a bunch of varieties of them, were hysterical to watch as the lone male has the job of keeping his females close by at all times…..and some just don’t pay attention to the rules. One night as we sat outside our tent we watched 4 females jump from the watering hole over the electric fence into the neighborhood…..then right behind them came buddy with the horn to make sure his girls didn’t have TOO good of a time.
They wandered all over the property and saw them drinking from the swimming pool
Once a male can’t keep his herd together anymore he is banished and called a ‘loser’ likely to spend the rest of his years grazing and not trying to impress any females
There were two ostriches that provided us much entertainment. Ostriches are ALWAYS in pairs and in this case there were a few pair around but one in particular that decided he wanted a piece from his mate. They do this crazy dance to get the mate’s attention and ideally she is impressed enough to give it up to the guy. Well, in this case our girl said not good enough and took off running down the field with the male in hot pursuit. He caught up to her for a bit and they had a small kerfuffle but off she took again running back the way she came making it painfully obvious she didn’t want any. Man, can those critters run fast and look so fierce – in fact coming as close as we did to so many animals was intimidating in a special kind of way
I went to Victoria Falls afterwards; ‘the smoke that thunders’. The town of Livingston was really colonial and larger than you think; had to cross the border/bridge to get to the Zambian side…..not unlike crossing from Canada to USA at Niagara Falls but a hell of a lot more interesting
The helicopter flight was worth every penny and it just blew me away to see it all from the air; I adore geography!
The water was running very high so some activities were not happening including rafting below the falls. I did do a dinner cruise at sunset on the river and it was delightful; we saw some hippo but really it was the sunset that took the cake. I even decided to zip line. Yup. I did. And I do not have the video to prove it as they kept my money and never sent 😊
The places we stayed were camps and quite nice; the first one was tents and a big ass watering hole so that was probably my favorite. We were not staying in over the top kind of places; lovely and clean camps some with spa (which I took advantage of with a massage) and some a little more humble than others. If I ever see another buffet again it will be too soon but if you think about how else can you feed so many people? The largest we stayed in had about 45 rooms the smallest 20. Loved the fires in the evening time and Massai Mara help with bags, are there for security and have sling shots to keep the monkeys away. Yup, it is a real job and yup those monkeys (baboons) are REALLY good
Yes, it happened to us at our last place in Amboselli; getting ready to leave and Beth had left some biscuits in a box wrapped in foil on the desk. Damn monkey waited for the door to be open, skipped in and stole the biscuits…..and ate them right there. It was something watch him reach in the box, open the foil and then take a full cookie out and eat it there – we got video. They really are a nuisance though and you are warned everywhere. One of the ladies was carrying an apple in the outside of her backpack and a monkey pretty much attacked her case to get the apple…..he bit right through the netting. Needless to say she pulled out the apple and threw it to him
So many highlights once I start to really think about what we saw and took in; I did the hot air balloon ride and although we didn’t see much from the air I enjoyed the experience very much – I admit to having seen much more last time I took the balloon in Serengeti (Tanzania part of Massai Mara). The roads sucked and of course you can’t go off road here (am told you can in other countries) but my back was sore enough with what we had – they call it an African Massage. It does take time to get from one place to another and we did do quite a bit of driving; more than I recall doing in Tanzania – I think the parks there are closer together and here you have to do more driving
There was lake Nakuru which is being fed from underground springs and growing at these really amazing rates; the locals call the lake ‘shifting’ and just when the road is re routed cause mother nature claimed some more land….off the water goes shifting in another direction. This is all part of the rift valley and how the lakes in the valley function – it is SO clear you are in a valley with huge cliffs on either side of you. We got up to over 8,000 in our driving. There was another lake that we took a boat cruise on; Lake Naivasha and it was so interesting as you can clearly see where mother nature has taken back what is hers; on our boat trip we did see a couple of guys fishing in the lake but it was incredible to see how much water the lake has consumed. There was a polo field out here with a building….now underwater. Bunch of hippo call this area home so we had a chance to see them – not too close though. You sure can hear them. As you know they come out of the water at night to graze and like elephants will walk for miles and miles to get what they need before they go back into the water where they came out. Their skin is kinda delicate and burns easily so that is why hippos spend so much time IN the water; dirt helps keep them like a sunscreen. They are crazy territorial, can turn their ears 360 degrees and use their tale like a helicopter blade to spread their poop in the water and mark their territory
By chance did you read anything about Bumpy? A hippo being hand raised in Kenya at the Sheldrick Center as he was found with his mother deceased of natural causes. He is a riot; look him up. We didn’t get to see him but we sure saw lots of hippos in their natural environment
We did get to a Massai village as well; man can those folks be aggressive when it comes to selling their beaded wares but what an interesting experience. They are their own culture; they drink cow blood daily and your cows are your bank; that is how wealth is measured. A man can have more than one wife, if he can afford her and the village is usually made up of 8 or so families. The houses are mud and cow dung with sticks – that the women build. When things start to fall apart after 7 or 8 years they move on to another location. The blood is drunk daily, even by the little ones and the ‘hole’ that is in the cows neck is plugged with cow dung. Nobody has cancer, no one wears glasses or has trouble hearing; they do eat a few other western things but no meat. The men are sent off to become warriors after they have reached a certain age and have been taught certain skills; years ago they used to have to prove themselves by killing a lion but today this does not happen. The guys are sent off for a week in the forest in the hopes they don’t get eaten by a lion (!) and perform a variety of tasks that will take them into manhood. Upon their return to the village they can select a wife and move on with life
Oh, and jumping is how things are settled and how a guy gets more attention from the ladies; yup it really is true the guy that jumps the highest is very highly regarded. I went to a village in Tanzania previously and this village was much like that; you pay a small stipend to enter which goes for the education of the girls in the village and the guys put on a ‘welcome’ for you. Now I would have thought this was a load of crap and a real tourist thing but it isn’t. Well, it is if you get into a bargaining situation with these folks….they are good. But their beaded crafts are beautiful but wow, assertive folks!!!
Days were filled with lots of driving either getting to/from a place of doing a gamedrive. During the gamedrive the jeep has the pop up open and it is easy to see 360 degrees although sometimes it is nice to chance seats with people. The jeep holds 6 people (plus one in front) but it is tight when full. Water in the fridge in the back and you stand on the seats in your sock or bare feet to look out. You can sit down too but that is the beauty of the vehicles is that you choose. I admit the windows where Beth and I were sitting were hard to roll up/down (like I was telling you) but we really only rolled up because of dust and switched sides when our arms got sore! You just sit there and let the animals do their things; the elephants in particular come to mind as we were on the road and they were just walking past us on all sides. Monkeys and baboons were playing around on the road, zebras were crossing, a giraffe or two would appear in the distance – you didn’t know where to look
We would drive in the morning then go out again around 3:30 until sunset which was 6pm. We were so close to the equator that 6am sun up 6pm sun down 365 days a year – no change. Some very beautiful sunsets but I must admit I didn’t see many of them. On our last morning driving back to Nairobi Mt Kilimanjaro decided to come out for us; it had been behind clouds for the two days we were there and then suddenly there she was in all her glory!
So yup I want to go back, in fact that is all I have been thinking about since I got home is how to get back. Tanzannia? Maybe Botswana? I have heard a lot about South Africa but know little – maybe time for an education.
