If you think what I saw till wednesday was exciting... wait till you hear about what happened on Thursday!!!
Thursday, post breakfast was an uneventful 2 hour drive to Sweet Water Tented camps. As the name says, the rooms are actually tented camps! Large green tents that reminded my mom of M*A*S*H, and once you enter is a completed different world of comfortably beds, dressers and hot showers. These rooms have no doors or locks and just have to be zipped down as you leave. Overlooking our tents here, was another watre hole, where we saw plenty of giraffes stopping for a drink, and also a few doing stretches early in the morning. For those who haven't seen giraffes on National Geographic, they are so tall that they have to stretch to a very uncomfortable position to bend down enough and drink water. Its a rare sight to see them in this pose and for a couple of hours after lunch that I spent outside the tent reading a book, this was my backdrop.
Our evening game drive from 4-6 p.m. was quite uneventful ( in that we saw tons of deer and boars and buffalos but as I said, that was no longer such a big deal for us! :))
The speciality of this particular hotel ( other than its cleverly designed rooms) is the night safari they have from 7-9 p.m. or 9-11 p.m. They also have a lion tracking from 6:30 a.m. - 9 a.m. We decided to go for the night trail and then depending on what we saw, maybe we'd track lions in the morning and watch them hunt.
The most eventful part of the journey so far has been the night safari... We told the driver and the spotter ( the night safari had another guy sitting in front with a very powerful lamp trying to identify the animals) that we'd seen all the animals at Masai Mara, and tha the only thing remaining was to see a kill. He promised to do his beast and took us around. After about a half an hour of scouting around, we spotted a hyena running with a limb of some animal, we guessed there must be a chase or a kill somewhere closeby. But it wasn't as I assumed. This was froma kill probably many hours ago by a cheetah or a lion. When we searched, we couldn't find anything close by.
But these drivers are so well tuned with the wild, that they know all possible places where the king of the jungle sleeps. We stumbled onto a pride of lions just preparing for bed... not just a few of them.. a grand total of TWENTY!!! Four lions... about eight cubs and the rest lionesses. Our driver informed the rest of the cars as well... to come and take a look at this magnificent pride. Disturbed by all the lights shone on them, they all tried to move away into the trees and away from the unwelcome visitors. But we refused to give up that quickly! We followed them and took photos and videos, from every possible angle. When we were all watching the cubs stretching on a tree, I turned around and got a shock of my life! Just a foot away, to my left, the lion had gotten up and slowly was making its way into the jungle. I was so startled... I almost jumped out of the car!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
WEDNESDAY 6TH JUNE
Our stay at Keekorok ended with breakfast on wednesday, and we bid farewell to Masai Mara and proceeded to Aberdare country club.
It was a long, strenuous day, travelling from dawan to dusk. We stopped at Naivasha ( a town about 2 hours from Nairobi) for lunch. The 'sopa hotel' at Naivasha was breathtaking. All the hotels we've been to so far have been so luxurious, yet not the floors made of marble and granite type that we find in Chennai. All made from indegenous materials, wood and carpet, have been tastefully decorated and so pleasing to the eye. After a bumpy ride on the roads, are so cozy and inviting.
Not much to comment about this day... but lots to comment about the night!
We reached Aberdare country club by tea time, took one look at their hotel and fell in love. Lush green lawns, tiled roof that look almost a little chettinad and gazelle roaming about freely. I could get so close to one, to almost touch it! When I get a bit of time, will upload that video for sure!
From the country club, 'The Ark' is about an hour away, for which one has to travel only by their transport ( A bus that leaves at 5 pm everyday.) We took our overnight suitcases( no huge suitcases allowed) and travelled on a small path towards the wooden house at the ark. The scenery in this area is so much different from that of Mara... it has much more trees and green, easier for any animal to hide from tour watchful eyes. But we did spot a few topis and deer along the way, and an odd giraffe or too. The Ark has 60 rooms in total, in three levels labelled "A","B" and "C" decks, similar to ship. Each floor has a viewing gallery ( open to air/ closed by glass) to overlook a small water hole. The speciality of this area is the rock salt that is sprinkled along the banks of the lake by the hotel management. All animals come to lick this salt and the area is called the "salt lick". We saw 2 elephants and a herd of buffalos as we walk in. The system at night is an alert souned in all rooms when an animal is spotted.
1- elephant, 2- rhino, 3- lepoard, 4- any unusual sighting.
Its pretty unsafe to leave the lodge after dark as its not fenced off so we had amazing dinner ( thanks to a chef of Indian origin, it had good uppu kaaram ( hot and salt) ) and headed to bed.
We were rudely woken up at abour 2:45 am by the sound of two bells. A rhino! I had to get up 'cuz I hadn't seen one at Masai Mara, and went to the viewing gallery. Shivering in my tracks n sweater I watch the rhino basking under the spotlight. It was such a wonderful sight to see it from such a close distance.
It was a long, strenuous day, travelling from dawan to dusk. We stopped at Naivasha ( a town about 2 hours from Nairobi) for lunch. The 'sopa hotel' at Naivasha was breathtaking. All the hotels we've been to so far have been so luxurious, yet not the floors made of marble and granite type that we find in Chennai. All made from indegenous materials, wood and carpet, have been tastefully decorated and so pleasing to the eye. After a bumpy ride on the roads, are so cozy and inviting.
Not much to comment about this day... but lots to comment about the night!
We reached Aberdare country club by tea time, took one look at their hotel and fell in love. Lush green lawns, tiled roof that look almost a little chettinad and gazelle roaming about freely. I could get so close to one, to almost touch it! When I get a bit of time, will upload that video for sure!
From the country club, 'The Ark' is about an hour away, for which one has to travel only by their transport ( A bus that leaves at 5 pm everyday.) We took our overnight suitcases( no huge suitcases allowed) and travelled on a small path towards the wooden house at the ark. The scenery in this area is so much different from that of Mara... it has much more trees and green, easier for any animal to hide from tour watchful eyes. But we did spot a few topis and deer along the way, and an odd giraffe or too. The Ark has 60 rooms in total, in three levels labelled "A","B" and "C" decks, similar to ship. Each floor has a viewing gallery ( open to air/ closed by glass) to overlook a small water hole. The speciality of this area is the rock salt that is sprinkled along the banks of the lake by the hotel management. All animals come to lick this salt and the area is called the "salt lick". We saw 2 elephants and a herd of buffalos as we walk in. The system at night is an alert souned in all rooms when an animal is spotted.
1- elephant, 2- rhino, 3- lepoard, 4- any unusual sighting.
Its pretty unsafe to leave the lodge after dark as its not fenced off so we had amazing dinner ( thanks to a chef of Indian origin, it had good uppu kaaram ( hot and salt) ) and headed to bed.
We were rudely woken up at abour 2:45 am by the sound of two bells. A rhino! I had to get up 'cuz I hadn't seen one at Masai Mara, and went to the viewing gallery. Shivering in my tracks n sweater I watch the rhino basking under the spotlight. It was such a wonderful sight to see it from such a close distance.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
TUESDAY 5TH JUNE
We were all so tired after a long day's ride, that as soon the head hit the pillow I was asleep. Tuesday began VERY early, five thirty a.m., thankfully I still operate at IST so it wasn't a big problem. We get up have a hot cup of coffee/tea ( milk in my case) and get into the car by six forty. The early morning drive was from 6:40 a.m. to about 9 a.m. Unaccustomed to the cold climate, I wear socks, shoes, a jacket and a shawl on top of it all to cover my ears.
By this time, we are accustomed to seeing gazelles jumping around so it doesn't seem like a good enough reason to stop the car. We drive past and see a herd of elephants just off the path. One of them seemed very old, and with great sadness in its eyes. I always feel that elephants looks very sad. It didn't seem very pleased that we were interrupting its snack time, so we took our pictures and left as fast as we could.
Interesting facts about elephants-
They live for 60-70 years. They are very protective of their young and always live in groups.The gesation period of an elephant is 22 months and their milking glands are between their front two feet, like humans. Elephants don't have any predators as they can toss the largest of lions by a few meters with their tusks. They die a natural death unless poached by humans for their tusks ( that contain ivory). The age of an elephant can be calculated by the size of the tusk ( that starts to show only after the age of 2). They have six sets of molars that grow in their lifetime, when each wears out, another erupts. When the last set of molars wear out, the elephant can no longer chew food, so die of starvation. I also heard froma guide, that when an elephant dies, the entire herd goes into a period of mourning. They bury the dead elephant, and sometimes, after a while dig up the bones and scatter it all over the jungle. this is their way or remembering the dead.
The giraffes we saw, on the other hand, love to pose for photos. The peep out of the trees and always make sure you get a good look at them. The giraffe has a very well developed set of hind legs, so they can kick any predator away. Only when they bend to drink water are they most vulnerable, because they spread their feet, and that particular position is very unstable. A giraffe's saliva is very stickyand supposed to contain antiseptic.
We saw other animals, like topis, wildebeests, buffalos and wild boars.
As we moved on, we got a page from another car, that they had spotted a lepoard on a tree. The drivers have a wonderful system of communication like the cab drivers in Chennai. They are all tuned to a frequency, and can let others in teh vicinity know if they have spotted anything special.
Lepoards, unlike cheetahs and lions are very shy animals. They run at the sight of humans. As we rushed to the place where the lepoard was spotted, we clearly saw it climb down from the tree and hide way in the grass. By this time, there were about 8 cars circling the grass all around to try and spot there the lepoard exactly was, because the grass is so long, it can easily camoflage itself inside it. We drove around, in all directions, and finally spotted it moving slowly. As soon as we went near and stopped the car, it sprang and sped away, leaving us dumbstruck about the speed of this animal. We got to see the lepoard in its true form... running at about 80 kph!
We also drove around so another part, getting word that a pride of lions were sitting on a rock. We could only see it from a distance as they were offtrack, but could see three lionesses distinctly with our binoculers. We returned to the same point in the evening drive, and went so close to them, two feet away and look a video of the entire pride, which was not 3, but close to 15 lionesses and cubs.
Another very exciting moment, was in the evening game dive, when we came across to cheetahs havind dinner. We just missdthe kill but got there to see them finishing up. Later, we returned to the same spot, saw them walk away with my brother hoping they go for another kill. A kill is a very rare sight and only the very lucky get to witness it. We got to see the 2 cheetahs walk right beside out car, across and away without a care in the world.
By the end of the day, we were excited only to see carnivores and none of teh herbivores seemed to interest us anymore. When we saw a car stopping to take a photograph of a bird, called the secretary bird( the name due to the way it walks), I had to comment "Are they stopping for a bird!!!!" The same person, who the previous day had stopped even for a cameleon!
I think we were very lucky, as we got to see all the animals, from a very close range. Only two feet away.... I believe what they say is true... Masai Mara never disappoints!
By this time, we are accustomed to seeing gazelles jumping around so it doesn't seem like a good enough reason to stop the car. We drive past and see a herd of elephants just off the path. One of them seemed very old, and with great sadness in its eyes. I always feel that elephants looks very sad. It didn't seem very pleased that we were interrupting its snack time, so we took our pictures and left as fast as we could.
Interesting facts about elephants-
They live for 60-70 years. They are very protective of their young and always live in groups.The gesation period of an elephant is 22 months and their milking glands are between their front two feet, like humans. Elephants don't have any predators as they can toss the largest of lions by a few meters with their tusks. They die a natural death unless poached by humans for their tusks ( that contain ivory). The age of an elephant can be calculated by the size of the tusk ( that starts to show only after the age of 2). They have six sets of molars that grow in their lifetime, when each wears out, another erupts. When the last set of molars wear out, the elephant can no longer chew food, so die of starvation. I also heard froma guide, that when an elephant dies, the entire herd goes into a period of mourning. They bury the dead elephant, and sometimes, after a while dig up the bones and scatter it all over the jungle. this is their way or remembering the dead.
The giraffes we saw, on the other hand, love to pose for photos. The peep out of the trees and always make sure you get a good look at them. The giraffe has a very well developed set of hind legs, so they can kick any predator away. Only when they bend to drink water are they most vulnerable, because they spread their feet, and that particular position is very unstable. A giraffe's saliva is very stickyand supposed to contain antiseptic.
We saw other animals, like topis, wildebeests, buffalos and wild boars.
As we moved on, we got a page from another car, that they had spotted a lepoard on a tree. The drivers have a wonderful system of communication like the cab drivers in Chennai. They are all tuned to a frequency, and can let others in teh vicinity know if they have spotted anything special.
Lepoards, unlike cheetahs and lions are very shy animals. They run at the sight of humans. As we rushed to the place where the lepoard was spotted, we clearly saw it climb down from the tree and hide way in the grass. By this time, there were about 8 cars circling the grass all around to try and spot there the lepoard exactly was, because the grass is so long, it can easily camoflage itself inside it. We drove around, in all directions, and finally spotted it moving slowly. As soon as we went near and stopped the car, it sprang and sped away, leaving us dumbstruck about the speed of this animal. We got to see the lepoard in its true form... running at about 80 kph!
We also drove around so another part, getting word that a pride of lions were sitting on a rock. We could only see it from a distance as they were offtrack, but could see three lionesses distinctly with our binoculers. We returned to the same point in the evening drive, and went so close to them, two feet away and look a video of the entire pride, which was not 3, but close to 15 lionesses and cubs.
Another very exciting moment, was in the evening game dive, when we came across to cheetahs havind dinner. We just missdthe kill but got there to see them finishing up. Later, we returned to the same spot, saw them walk away with my brother hoping they go for another kill. A kill is a very rare sight and only the very lucky get to witness it. We got to see the 2 cheetahs walk right beside out car, across and away without a care in the world.
By the end of the day, we were excited only to see carnivores and none of teh herbivores seemed to interest us anymore. When we saw a car stopping to take a photograph of a bird, called the secretary bird( the name due to the way it walks), I had to comment "Are they stopping for a bird!!!!" The same person, who the previous day had stopped even for a cameleon!
I think we were very lucky, as we got to see all the animals, from a very close range. Only two feet away.... I believe what they say is true... Masai Mara never disappoints!
The Actual Safari Begins!
The week starting 3rd June to 9th June was the first leg of our actual safari in Kenya. We covered Masai Mara, The ark (part of Aberdare reserve),Sweet Water tented camps, all well-known for spotting the BIG FIVE (lion,elephant,rhino,buffalo and lepoard) and each with its unique speciality.
What I saw in these five days I will try and put into words, but I'm sure no words,or photos and videos can do justice to what i witnessed.
Thinking of the past week, I am at a loss for words and dont know where to begin. So I do the most logical thing... Recollect every incident chronologically!
MONDAY 4TH JUNE-
We left Nairobi at 730 am ( pretty punctual I must say!!) and got onto the coombi( atleast I think thats how its spelt) and headed to Masai Mara. This is a part of a huge reserve in Africa that is present in Kenya. The continuation of this reserve in Tanzania is called Serengeti. The five and a half hour journey was filled with pot holes in the roads... and for most of the stretch no road at all! The weather was pleasant and drizzling for a little while but in no means did it dampen my enthusiasm to get into the savannah.
We enter the main gates of the Masai Mara, heavily and into the wilderness. Along the way, the farther we got from the city, the closer we got to Mara, the closer we got to witnessing the actual Africa. The untamed country famous for its animal kingdom.
We started spotting groups of deer, (through the next couple of days I learn to identify one type of gazelle from another) elephants and a few zebra. We noticed every small bird and insect that came our way. Stopped, took photographs and videos of their movements, and I wonder how they are so unpurturbed by the thousands of visitors that come every year.
There are several hotels inside the Mara, and we stayed one called the 'Keekorok'. The symbol of this hotel is that of a cheetah and as we entered, we all marvelled at the paradise in the middle of no-where. It reminded me a lot of the resort in mahabalipuram ( and one of my favorite places to goto) Temple Bay. Individual cottages as rooms with all luxuries of a five star hotel with breakfast, lunch and dinner spreads fit for a king.
As we check-in all the hotels give a welcome drink and we were right away ushered for lunch. At four p.m., we started off on our first game drive. The coombie is specially manufactured such that the roof can pop-up by two feet and all passengers can stand and look on either side for any animals.
I have to mention our driver - cum - tour guide for the week, Mr. Benson, who's been in the business for twenty years and who knows his way around the wilderness. If not for him, i'm sure I'd still be stuck somewhere unknown trying to get back to the hotel! He also a very sharp pair of eyes, and can spot a cheetah half a km away in the grass, which he did!
As we come out of the hotel, again we see tons of gazelle and a few giraffes, elephants, doing about their daily routine, eating.... the entire day... they eat, drink water and watch their backs.
We get a message that the migration is coming. We are all a little excited, because I know it means something but I have no clue what to expect. Now, you're probably wondering what the 'migration' is...
Year after year, zebras and wildebeests migrate from Masai Mara to Serengeti in January, and back to Mara in the beginning of June. It is a yearly ritual, the reason I'm not exactly sure about but guessing that the grass is fresher in Kenya during June- december.
Benson turns the vehicle around and takes us to the edge of Masai Mara, slowly along the way we first see tens, then hundreds of zebras just walking across. The sight was just breathtaking! Thousands and thousand of zebras, till the eyes could see, walking across, some so far away that they looked like striped ants, some so close to the car that if I reached out, I could touch them! As we drive past them, a few seem a little purturbed by the sound of the engine, but most just go about their work and we have to wait for them to cross the road and give us way. It seemed a little authoritative, like establishing themselves as the residents, and we the visitors.
As we approach a gate, I wonder how we can get past that as a few km past that gate is the kenya-Tanzania border, and we aren't allowed to cross it. The watchman at the gate smiles at us and says "Karibu" ( welcome!) he seems as excited as we are, that we are the first to witness the migration this year. He smiles and waves us past, Benson eing a well known figure helps. We drive right past the gate only to see more zebras making their way back to Masai Mara. When we are satisfied with seeing so many of them, we drive back to Keekorok and back to our cozy rooms.
What I saw in these five days I will try and put into words, but I'm sure no words,or photos and videos can do justice to what i witnessed.
Thinking of the past week, I am at a loss for words and dont know where to begin. So I do the most logical thing... Recollect every incident chronologically!
MONDAY 4TH JUNE-
We left Nairobi at 730 am ( pretty punctual I must say!!) and got onto the coombi( atleast I think thats how its spelt) and headed to Masai Mara. This is a part of a huge reserve in Africa that is present in Kenya. The continuation of this reserve in Tanzania is called Serengeti. The five and a half hour journey was filled with pot holes in the roads... and for most of the stretch no road at all! The weather was pleasant and drizzling for a little while but in no means did it dampen my enthusiasm to get into the savannah.
We enter the main gates of the Masai Mara, heavily and into the wilderness. Along the way, the farther we got from the city, the closer we got to Mara, the closer we got to witnessing the actual Africa. The untamed country famous for its animal kingdom.
We started spotting groups of deer, (through the next couple of days I learn to identify one type of gazelle from another) elephants and a few zebra. We noticed every small bird and insect that came our way. Stopped, took photographs and videos of their movements, and I wonder how they are so unpurturbed by the thousands of visitors that come every year.
There are several hotels inside the Mara, and we stayed one called the 'Keekorok'. The symbol of this hotel is that of a cheetah and as we entered, we all marvelled at the paradise in the middle of no-where. It reminded me a lot of the resort in mahabalipuram ( and one of my favorite places to goto) Temple Bay. Individual cottages as rooms with all luxuries of a five star hotel with breakfast, lunch and dinner spreads fit for a king.
As we check-in all the hotels give a welcome drink and we were right away ushered for lunch. At four p.m., we started off on our first game drive. The coombie is specially manufactured such that the roof can pop-up by two feet and all passengers can stand and look on either side for any animals.
I have to mention our driver - cum - tour guide for the week, Mr. Benson, who's been in the business for twenty years and who knows his way around the wilderness. If not for him, i'm sure I'd still be stuck somewhere unknown trying to get back to the hotel! He also a very sharp pair of eyes, and can spot a cheetah half a km away in the grass, which he did!
As we come out of the hotel, again we see tons of gazelle and a few giraffes, elephants, doing about their daily routine, eating.... the entire day... they eat, drink water and watch their backs.
We get a message that the migration is coming. We are all a little excited, because I know it means something but I have no clue what to expect. Now, you're probably wondering what the 'migration' is...
Year after year, zebras and wildebeests migrate from Masai Mara to Serengeti in January, and back to Mara in the beginning of June. It is a yearly ritual, the reason I'm not exactly sure about but guessing that the grass is fresher in Kenya during June- december.
Benson turns the vehicle around and takes us to the edge of Masai Mara, slowly along the way we first see tens, then hundreds of zebras just walking across. The sight was just breathtaking! Thousands and thousand of zebras, till the eyes could see, walking across, some so far away that they looked like striped ants, some so close to the car that if I reached out, I could touch them! As we drive past them, a few seem a little purturbed by the sound of the engine, but most just go about their work and we have to wait for them to cross the road and give us way. It seemed a little authoritative, like establishing themselves as the residents, and we the visitors.
As we approach a gate, I wonder how we can get past that as a few km past that gate is the kenya-Tanzania border, and we aren't allowed to cross it. The watchman at the gate smiles at us and says "Karibu" ( welcome!) he seems as excited as we are, that we are the first to witness the migration this year. He smiles and waves us past, Benson eing a well known figure helps. We drive right past the gate only to see more zebras making their way back to Masai Mara. When we are satisfied with seeing so many of them, we drive back to Keekorok and back to our cozy rooms.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)