Kenya - Masai Mara

We arrived in the afternoon of the 24th after the 4 plane flights and various forms of paperwork to leave Tanzania and arrive in Kenya. We were met at the little airstrip adjacent to Masai Mara Park in Kenya by our guide/ driver for the next 3 days- Boniface. This is his adopted name rather than his Masai name. He was very nice and as we got to know him we found he is very knowledgeable about the animals. He said something to us about the plane normally landing at another airstrip, but we didn't quite follow what that meant. As we drove along we saw a number of familiar animals, but he pointed out that some dark clouds were coming and it would rain soon in some areas. We had not seen any rain in Tanzania. He started driving toward the camp and we got a few sprinkles, but it got quite chilly. We wrapped ourselves in the Masai blankets in the open car and road along. "Boni" said something about taking this road and it sounded like he was saying that another is very rocky. however, it turned out that he was saying that this "road" was very rocky. This turned out to be the understatement of the whole trip. A more accurate statement would have been something like " The planes usually come in at another airstrip where the road is really bad to get to and fro. However, your plane landed at this airstrip where there may some day BE a road to go to and fro!" It was really bad! Huge ruts and boulder and gullys- most of the way, the only thing that implied this was a road was the lack of vegetation on it. The zebra stood in the path in places starring at us and wondering why any creature would take this way! The "road" actually passed through a village before it became more of a "cliff" than a rocky path- but no one was moving along on the "road"- they only walked along side it where they could. After we went down the cliff- where, by the way, we saw a brand new looking cell phone tower- we were at the Mara river. Fortunately the bridge was actually OK and we drove across, but as we passed signs advertising the road commission we hit more rough spots. Finally, we came to a little sign saying "Olonana camp"- home for the next 3 days. We went in and unloaded. The camp managers were very nice and explained that the planes normally come to the airstrip that has only the bad road and not to the strip where we had to take the non-existent road! Boni said that he had made 4 trips on the non-existent road this day- a hardy fellow!
We checked into the lodge and were then led to our tent where we relaxed awhile. We did not want to go out again after the long day of driving, flying, flying, flying, flying that culminated in our drive off a cliff. We relaxed and had a good , but not great dinner. This place is similar to the Grumeti Camp in that it is along a river that is inhabited by hippos. We liked hearing them again, but there were fewer here and they seemed less vocal. We slept pretty well. We had seen so much already that we decided not to go out on a drive in the morning. We were sharing the car and driver with another couple who were taking a balloon ride over the area. but they had to get up before 5AM and we would need to leave the same time because Boni would then drive to pick them up. We rested instead. We arranged a walk with "Benson" whose real name is something like "Oreu" (Or-ay-yu) He was dressed in traditional Masai garb and we walked out of the camp. An armed guard soon caught up. We were going to go to the river to see the hippos up a little closer, but the guy with the gun spotted a hippo in the bushes and said we'd better go another way. As we walked along we came upon a young guy watching a herd of cows. Janet wanted to take a video of the cows and get the audio of the bells. Benson said we should give some money to the guy, as the Masai don't like having people take pictures of them or their animals or their homes without permission. She gave him $1. Benson spoke to him in Masai language, but while Janet and Benson did video, the guy came over to me and introduced himself in perfectly good English as "Tom". Tom told me that he once had to stab a leopard that had killed one of the cows when the leopard threatened to attack. He used the steel spear he carried. He said the leopard ran away and he did not know if it lived. He implied that he killed it, but the whole story might have been made up. We had to head back to camp as Janet had an appointment in the spa. As we walked back we saw "dung beetles" rolling little balls of cow dung around. There was a film about them a few years ago "microcosm". They are about 1/4" long, but they looked huge in the film.
We went out in the afternoon with Will and Cheryl from Florida and they said the balloon trip was great, so we had to decide if we wanted to do it the next day. (We finally decided not to do it as it was quite expensive and there might be either 6 or 14 other people- depending on the balloon.) We went looking for leopards and rhino. We did see one male rhino who was 2.5 years old, then later we saw his mother with her new calf, but they were far from the road. The rangers watch out for the rhino very carefully and they stayed around to make sure no one bothered the rhino.
Near the end of the day we drove along a road where Will and Cheryl saw lions kill a buffalo the day before. We saw 4 females and 4 cubs. They were mostly sleeping and protecting their food from scavengers. One cub- who was a little older saw a group of Giraffe across the road and decided to practice hunting, so we watched as he (or she) crossed the road and slowly made his way toward the Giraffe. We saw that the adults were watching- probably to make sure that the cub did not get into trouble. It was amusing because it was clear that the giraffe knew exactly where the cub was and when the cub got close enough they galloped away. We returned to the camp and had another good meal. Here they told us that it was safe to walk around the camp, but they recommended getting one of the watchmen if you needed to go out.
We decided to rest the next morning and not go out. Boni would take Will and Cheryl to their plane while we rested. We turned down an option to visit a Masai village here. In the afternoon we went out with Boni on a game drive. We looked for the rhino and leopards, but Boni said it had been quiet all day with no interesting sightings. We went past the site of the lions from the previous afternoon and found one female checking the carcass and then leisurely walking down the road looking for other family members. It was great to see this when there was no one else around. She looked up in one area and we saw another female stick her head up and then move over close to the road. They were probably working their way toward rejoining the pride, but since they had feasted on buffalo for 2 days they were probably not hungry. Boni said that the pride that covered this area had 11 members- 2 males (which we did not see) 5 females and 4 cubs.
The Masai Mara is a sort of extension of the Serengeti into Kenya. This is where all the zebra and wildebeast were migrating to from Tanzania. We saw plenty of them in Kenya, but not the hoards we some how expected. We could see WHY they were coming- the grass was greener here and the rivers were flowing!
We made another pass through an area where leopards are seen, but saw none, but as we rounded a bend in the road Boni saw an "eagle-owl" sitting on a low branch of a tree near the road. He said they are not rare, but they are rarely seen. We got fairly close and watched as it looked around. It was a small find, but very interesting anyway.
We went back to the camp and packed up some for our departure the next day- the 27th. We had a nice breakfast and then Boni took us to our plane. There were 2 planes, so we had to see which one we were on and he made sure we got on the right plane. We flew to Wilson airport in Nairobi where we were met by two people from our tour company.
We went to "Carnivore Restaurant" for lunch, but we wanted to see their gift shop so we ate quickly. The only exotic meat on the menu this day was "ostriche meatballs" which were good. It is a huge restaurant and very popular with tourists. The gift shop was very nice- much better quality than most we had seen, but we just bought a few small things to bring back.
We headed off to Jomo Kenyata Airport which is the large international airport. We checked in and bought some coffee to bring back as gifts and finally flew out on Emirates Air about 5PM after they announced a delay due to VIPs arriving or departing.
On the flight to Dubai, they had double booked Janet's seat so they gave her an upgrade to first class. We later saw that first class was practically empty, so we were disappointed that they did not upgrade both of us since they had adjacent seats. Emirates air seems very good, but this seemed like an unnecessary slight. We arrived in Dubai and had about a 4 hour layover until our flight left for Bangalore about 3:30 AM. Meanwhile, the airport was bustling all night. It is like one gigantic shopping mall where we saw a number of products that we do not find in Bangalore- or at least find only rarely. We bought a few odds and ends and then took our flight home.
We slept some on the plane, but were tired when we arrived in Bangalore. No one asked to see our yellow fever vaccination records and no one asked to see our residency permits either- we were told that they will sometimes ask to see those, even though no one would know that they are supposed to carry them when returning to the country. We got our bags quickly and Janet had here little mobile phone so we called our driver who met us at the entrance of the airport. We rested the remainder of the day- as much as we could anyway. Zoe and Ziggy seemed good and happy to see us. We mentioned before that Zoe was sick while we were gone, but was better by the time we returned. Did we mention that one road was really bad in Kenya?
It was a remarkable trip- lots of relaxation with lot of exciting animal sightings! We will add a couple stories that Ernest told us soon.