Friday, Feb 24th, Nairobi Serena Hotel

Greetings!

Other than a very educational trip to the Karen Blixen Museum, outside of Nairobi, the day was spent driving from the Massai Mara Reserve to the Nairobi Serena Hotel. For those of you who did not read her book "Out of Africa" (or see the movie), Karen was a Denmark aristocrat who married her cousin, and came to Kenya to start a coffee plantation in the early 1900's. Abandoned by her playboy husband, she ran a 6,000 acre property until a fire in her factory led to her financial ruin. Along the way, she fell in love with a hunting guide/pilot who died in an air crash about the time of her bankruptcy. Selling the ranch, she returned to Denmark where he took up writing, publishing 17 books and stories under several pseudonyms. After her death in 1962, the Denmark government purchased her home in Kenya, bought back its furniture from her patrons, and gifted it all to Kenya in celebration of its independence.

We had lunch in a restaurant nearby, and bought several local craft items that will fit nicely into our collection of bowls, gourds, and baskets. Returning to Nairobi, we checked into the hotel and uploaded the last three days posts to this blog. Dinner was at the Tammerind in downtown Nairobi.

Tomorrow, we lose our friends Ian and Carol Fischer, and gain eight more travelers for the tour of Tanzania. There will be a series of one-night stays in game parks, and so we may not have wifi for a while. Our guides seem convinced we'll see a cheetah in Tanzania.

No additional photos were taken today.

Gregory

Thursday, Feb 23rd, Massai Mara Sopa Lodge

Greetings!

Yesterday was such a great safari day, and I can't believe we'll ever see lions in the same way again. We've been counting up the different big five and other animals, but never seeing lions until now. Two of our friends were leaving on Saturday, and the whole crew was hoping we would see a lion by then.

And then, just like you imagined lions to act, they brought their regality to the scene. Okay, we did see five lazing around together last night. But that really wasn't like seeing them hunt, or watching a baby lion sleep peacefully on top of its parents. You want prides hanging out together, we'll give you piles of them under a tree. You want hunting parties sneaking around a bunch of water buffalos. It's been great.

Though we didn't see a cheetah, we've been fortunate enough to get up close a personal with almost 80% of the animals and 70% of the featured birds in two good books we'd recommend. I'm hoping they can be purchased on Amazon, because they've made good spotting tools. The titles are "Jonathan Scott's Safari Guide to East African Animals", and "Jonathan Scott's Safari Guide to East African Birds", both revised and updated by Angela Scott.

The Massai Mara Sopa Lodge stay was perfect, perched against a mountain in the heart of the National Reserve. The Reserve goes on forever, and is only second to the Serengeti in size on the continent. Those members of the group who chose to lift off at 5am today aboard a hot air balloon were given a great birds eye view of its many tribal compounds, and of its huge expanse. The rest of us slept in, and joined them near an airstrip before lunch. And all of its come away from the wildlife safari adventure with a day we will all remember forever.

One apology. Yes, there are probably too many photos of the animals we saw today. But it is so hard to choose which ones to delete, and it seemed important to us that you get the movement of them. So you'll just have to endure the flood of them today.

Gregory

To see the photos taken today, click on: Thursday, Feb 23rd, Massai Mara Sopa Lodge

Wednesday, Feb 22nd, Massai Mara Sopa Lodge

Greetings!

We jokingly refer to it as the Massai Massage. The trip over the first 200 miles to the Massai Mara Lodge is over road that requires auto acrobatics. Our driver, Joe, is a master at driving our van on the crown of pot-holed asphalt flanked by gravel. The trick is to drive with one tire on the gravel, and one on the untouched asphalt in the middle of the paved section of the road, with the van at an angle of about 20 degrees. And remember, they drive on the left side of the road here.

The second shorter section wasn’t bad, as some of it was actually completely asphalt. But while the country has decided to concentrate its paving funds on the main east west road (trucks carrying goods from inland to the country’s port), smaller roads are being systematically de-paved. That will eliminate the need for the trick described above. The road to Massai Mara was experiencing a de-paving at the end of the middle section as we drove it, and we were glad to meet the de-paver as we crossed to the end of the middle section.

But the last 60 miles was never even prepared for paving. It was dirt and rocks just chaotic enough to create a teeth-grinding experience, especially if driven at the speed necessary to get us there for lunch. By the end, we had all recalled the worst road stories ever, and some were planning on adding this one to the short list. This evening, I heard at least one couple planning to take a local flight back to Nairobi at the end of this tour.

But as bad as the drive in was, the stay here has been great. This reserve is 1,600 square miles of protected wild animals and gorgeous African savannah. Our game van’s roof raises up, and Joe takes it everywhere in search of anything. The only rules are that we can’t get out of the van, and we have to head back to the Lodge at 6pm. We’re fine with both, as I’m sure are the animals.

Gregory


To see the photos taken today, click on: Wednesday, Feb 22nd, Massai Mara Sopa Lodge

Tuesday, Feb 21st, Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge

Greetings!

Our driver/guides are top-notch, in their skills negotiating the roads, answering our many questions, and spotting animals for us to see and photograph. We usually get on the road after breakfast by 7:30am, and arrive at our next destination by 1pm. That's followed by a terrific lunch, and a game drive for most of the afternoon. Each van has the driver and five travelers, all eager to help each other spot and photograph as many living creatures as possible. Of course, it is a little like the movie "The Big Year". It's much more exciting when we see something we haven't seen before. But how can you not love each one you see? Around every corner, up every tree, behind each bush, there's something wild.

And they are all mixed in together. I think I was assuming before I got here that they stayed separate. That they respected each other's territory. They do when it comes to lions and leopards. But just about everything else just gets along. It's very cool, and results in our having no idea what we're going to see next.

One thing that amazed me was the Corriolus effect at the equator. It's so precise. You'll see some photos of a demonstration we saw which tested how a matchstick circled in a basin of water at three locations - north, south and on the equator. I couldn't believe that it changed that radically within 60 feet of the equator!

Though the last 25 photos (among the best) can seem to make it up to the web tonight, I'll keep trying. I think I may have run out of bandwidth, and will have to post them at the next stop. We'll see. To see those that did make it up, click on: Tuesday, Feb 21st, Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge



Gregory

Monday, Feb 20th, Serena Mountain Home

Greetings!

7,500 feet up a mountain in central Kenya is a mountain lodge built around a waterhole starting in the 1970's. It's our home for the night, and the animals which showed up to drink were quite a sight from our posh bedrooms in the four story structure.

Earlier in the day, we drove out of the Samburu Nature Preserve, and got our last look at some exciting wildlife once again. On the long drive to our next destination, we visited a Samburu village, where we were greeting in song and dance, and taught some of their culture and practices.

To see the photos taken to day, click on: Monday, Feb 20th, Serena Mountain Home

Gregory

Sunday, Feb 19th, Samburu Sopa Lodge

Greetings!

“Do you have a special name for these herds of elephants, like we call killer whales ‘pods’?”, my friend Ian asked our guide Joseph. “Herds” he replied, to our delight. That didn’t stop our group from assigning a number to each group, “1,2,3…”, as we encountered them. They are so quiet, and walk so powerfully.

Today’s morning safari before breakfast was mostly a reprise of last night, except for the giraffes, more birds, and a couple of new monkeys. When we get more time, we’ll label each photo in the album so you can learn as we do.

We came back reluctantly from the morning safari to a great breakfast, and are now hanging out by the pool. Pat is devouring a bird book she bought, and I’m typing this post. There will be another safari at 3:30pm.

The 3:30pm safari was even better then this morning. We saw as many animals, a few new ones, and a leopard!!

I'm sitting in the bar at 9:30pm, and trying to nurse a really bad wifi connection to upload 250 of the best wildlife photos I've taken - to this weekend's posts. Since these are really the first I've taken, I can have the liberty of saying they're my best. Like to know if you agree. But there's a good chance they won't go up until next week. Don't worry, they're worth the wait.

Here they are: Sunday, Feb 19th, Samburu Sopa Lodge


Gregory

Saturday, Feb 18th, Samburu Sopa Lodge

Greetings!

After breakfast at the hotel in Nairobi, we boarded three small vans and drove north across the equator to the Samburu Game Preserve.

For lunch, we stopped at a trout tree restaurant, and were treated to the arrival of Calabas and Sykes monkeys, and a tree hyrax. We suspected this won’t be the last time the animals come to visit us.

The Samburu are a peaceful tribe, who live in low huts, carefully crafted with interwoven sticks, and plastered with mud and cattle dung. Unlike their Massai relatives, they are not war-like, and are nomad pastoralists.

Once in the Preserve, we spotted baboons, squirrels, elephants, dikdik, antelope, gazelle, impala, eagles, and ostrich. Time kept us from pursuing more, and we pushed the four-wheel drive, all-weather, and all-terrain safari vehicle into the heart of the Preserve. We checked into the Lodge, met for dinner and an orientation to tomorrow’s wildlife searches, and retired to our rooms. Under a mosquito net drapped around our bed, I’m typing this as Pat drifts off the sleep. I heard her say this evening at dinner that this was the most exciting wildlife day ever, and e look forward to many more.

For a look at all of the photos we took today, click on: Sat, Feb 18th

Gregory