8 OCTOBER 2010 - Mating Lions, Fail.
KENYA DIARY - THE FIRST VISIT
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7 OCTOBER 2010 - Nairobbery, Hell’s Gate and the wonders of the Masai Mara (a guest entry by Lauren Webb)
A long flight ended with a long bearded Mark picking me up from a stinking hot Nairobi airport. That was surprising. Nairobi was a pleasant-enough place to stay for two nights whist we prepared ourselves for the safaris ahead. In Nairobi, we were fortunate to meet up with Arjun (Mark and Steve’s high school buddy) as he accompanied us for a night of good food and drinks at a great roof top bar overlooking the city. A nice introduction to Africa!
After just 3 days on the African continent, the boys gave me my first National Park experience at Hell’s Gate National Park. The park was around 1.5 hours drive outside Nairobi and is one of the few National Parks in Africa that allows visitors to walk and bike ride around off-road to really get up and close with the animals (most can’t eat you). Hell’s Gate was particularly memorable for me, as it coughed up my first wild African animals, other than Nairobi's stray dogs and a few South Africans at Jungle Junction. As night fell, African living took a whole new perspective as the howls and green eyes in the torchlight of unknown animals filled the campsite. Steve cooked up Thai chilli roast chicken on the campfire while I got stuck into toasted marshmallows and red wine. With a full stomach, I crawled up to the cosy rooftop tent and fell asleep to the loud cries of lion, zebra and hyena.
A long flight ended with a long bearded Mark picking me up from a stinking hot Nairobi airport. That was surprising. Nairobi was a pleasant-enough place to stay for two nights whist we prepared ourselves for the safaris ahead. In Nairobi, we were fortunate to meet up with Arjun (Mark and Steve’s high school buddy) as he accompanied us for a night of good food and drinks at a great roof top bar overlooking the city. A nice introduction to Africa!
After just 3 days on the African continent, the boys gave me my first National Park experience at Hell’s Gate National Park. The park was around 1.5 hours drive outside Nairobi and is one of the few National Parks in Africa that allows visitors to walk and bike ride around off-road to really get up and close with the animals (most can’t eat you). Hell’s Gate was particularly memorable for me, as it coughed up my first wild African animals, other than Nairobi's stray dogs and a few South Africans at Jungle Junction. As night fell, African living took a whole new perspective as the howls and green eyes in the torchlight of unknown animals filled the campsite. Steve cooked up Thai chilli roast chicken on the campfire while I got stuck into toasted marshmallows and red wine. With a full stomach, I crawled up to the cosy rooftop tent and fell asleep to the loud cries of lion, zebra and hyena.
The highlight of Kenya was the Masai Mara, with its panoramic views stretching forever (or at least to the horizon!). At a hippo pool, we spoke to an overland truck guide who had seen lions that morning. His directions: go that way (gesturing vaguely), the lions are just past a giraffe with a baby. On no more information than that, we drove for 15 minutes until "it felt right", saw a giraffe and baby a kilometre away, headed south based on some alleged grass movements Steve supposedly spotted, and a minute down the road we have lions. The boys have got good at tracking wildlife! And not just lions, we had front row, voyeuristic seats of the lions mating just meters from the vehicle. The luck just kept rolling that day. We saw 15 lionesses, Mark counted over 70 elephants and 60 giraffe, we witnessed a wildebeest river crossing, and watched a male lion keep a crowd of vultures off his kill. That was all before we saw the hyena with its rear left paw ripped clean off, and Mark got night-stalked by 8 pairs of eyes - green in the reflected light but not hyena green - peering at him from out of the night and slowly coming closer, closer, as he packed up camp before bed. Steve said he felt like a meat tray in the ground tent...
Even though the boys have been seeing animals for over four months now, I hope I managed to re-excite them with wildlife spotting - even managing to re-spark the thrill of the humble and plentiful Impala and Thompson's Gazelle!
- Lauren Webb
Even though the boys have been seeing animals for over four months now, I hope I managed to re-excite them with wildlife spotting - even managing to re-spark the thrill of the humble and plentiful Impala and Thompson's Gazelle!
- Lauren Webb
9 OCTOBER 2010 - We noticed the mud, but fighting?
Leaving the Masai Mara, we took a relatively obscure road west towards the Kenyan/Tanzanian border that soon disintegrated into impassable mud. At one point we (okay I) accidentally got the car 90 degrees sideways while trying to fight back up to the crest of the road. So we left the track, paid off the villagers so we could drive through their land, then almost got stuck in the middle of a 200 metre stretch of muddy field, largely because I was in the wrong gear (and there ain’t no changing once you’re in mud that thick). Luckily, we pulled through, and spent the next hour or so with Mark walking out front with the handheld radio scouting the lay of the land.
Finally out of the mud, we ran into a military roadblock. 4 dark green Land Rovers were pulled across the road. About 15 soldiers with AK47s, body armour and combat kit, were lounging under the green spread of an acacia tree. Up strolls the officer...
“Jambo!! Did you see any fighting back there?”
“Ahh... no.”
“Eh! There was fighting on the road about an hour ago.”
SC
Leaving the Masai Mara, we took a relatively obscure road west towards the Kenyan/Tanzanian border that soon disintegrated into impassable mud. At one point we (okay I) accidentally got the car 90 degrees sideways while trying to fight back up to the crest of the road. So we left the track, paid off the villagers so we could drive through their land, then almost got stuck in the middle of a 200 metre stretch of muddy field, largely because I was in the wrong gear (and there ain’t no changing once you’re in mud that thick). Luckily, we pulled through, and spent the next hour or so with Mark walking out front with the handheld radio scouting the lay of the land.
Finally out of the mud, we ran into a military roadblock. 4 dark green Land Rovers were pulled across the road. About 15 soldiers with AK47s, body armour and combat kit, were lounging under the green spread of an acacia tree. Up strolls the officer...
“Jambo!! Did you see any fighting back there?”
“Ahh... no.”
“Eh! There was fighting on the road about an hour ago.”
SC
