Maasai Mara, Kenya, Eagle View Base Camp - Part 2

Days 8 & 9

Day 8

Our wake up today was 5:25 am.  I woke up a little early to the continued sounds of snorting, huffing and whooping.  We called for our Maasai escort to come get us at 5:50 since it was still dark, and our suspicions about hippos in the area were confirmed by the huge piles of poop in the main walking path that had not been there last night.  

The sunrises and sunsets NEVER disappoint

We had a quick cup of coffee and a little snack before heading out for our morning safari.  This time, I was prepared – t-shirt, fleece shirt, heated fleece vest, raincoat, buff, baseball hat and a spare rain poncho to block wind on my legs.  Either I was prepared, or it wasn’t as cold as last night, regardless, we were off and I was warm.

Being cold is a choice!

We said that our primary goal for the day was to see the pride of lions that had baby cubs – Franco & Clara had seen them yesterday before we arrived and were fully on board to go find them again.  Luck was in our favor.  Fairly quickly, we found a female and a male lion sleeping in the grass.  

Mom and dad

We heard some squeaking noises and saw bushes rustling in the distance.  After a few minutes of waiting, six baby lions popped out of the brush one at a time.  

Babies

Eventually, two more males and two more females joined the party for a total of 12 lions.  But the cubs were the stars.  

One mom feeding 

while one mom gets annoyed

Time to bug dad

Mission accomplished

Just because

Baby lions are da bomb

What are you doing back there

Just chillin in a tree

They played with each other, they jumped on mom(s) and dad(s), they got yelled at, they fed, they climbed trees, they rolled around, they ran around, they slept.  It was amazing.  And the best part, we were the only cruiser there and we had about 30 minutes with them alone.  Eventually, word got out and slowly other cruisers started to approach.  David finally said that others were waiting, so we grudgingly left.

Our next big find was a group of six giraffe in a field of tall grass.  We got as close to them as possible, but they spook easily and did not stick around.  Despite still being in lion territory, we were given the thumbs up to “mark the territory” aka “check the tire pressure”.  Best view ever!

View whilst checking the tire pressure

Cool giraffe

Another cool giraffe

Next up – our breakfast stop.  David found a safe spot for us and unloaded a table, chairs and a full breakfast feast including eggs, crepes, granola, fruit, bacon, sausage, cheese toast, juice, coffee & tell.  Not too shabby!  

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spot

We probably hung out for about an hour while David shared stories about his life.  He is 28, married, one baby.  He is Maasai and the first in his family to have only one wife.  His father has 5 wives and David has 10 brothers and sisters ranging from 30’s to 8 years old.  He was telling us how  matches are made by parents, but sometimes kids who go to school may meet someone they like and ask their parents to approve the marriage.  There is still a dowry and he explained “the negotiation” process. 

The parents may ask for cash ~ $1,000-$2,000 USD plus some cows (10).  Then the negotiation begins – with the bride to be present.  Once a deal is struck, the mother comes in to express her sadness at losing a daughter who carries water for the family.  What will they do?  So now please add in a 5,000 gallon water container so we can capture rain water and not die of thirst.  I’m shortening the story, but that is the gist.  David’s wife cost $1,000 and 10 cows.  Unclear on the water.  He also told us about how he came to be educated.  His father was against education – only criminals are in schools.  The government said he had to send a kid to school, so he chose David.

David could only go every other quarter because of the cost and his father.  He would copy his friend’s notes when he couldn’t go to keep up.  For high school, he benefitted from a British scholarship that he won – 50 applicants, 15 approved.  After high school, he couldn’t afford University, but his friend told him about a guide program.  He applied to that and made it.  After 2 years of training, 2 years as a tracker, and 2 years as an apprentice, he was able to start guiding on his own and loves it. 

We packed up breakfast and headed to a pond filled with hippos – it was actually a river that had multiple smelly stagnant ponds, each one filled with hippos and crocodiles.  We were watching one pod when something spooked them, and they got up and ran away.  Watching hippos run is fun, but knowing they can run and are considered THE most dangerous animal in Africa and knowing they are outside our tent at night… well, should make for another fun night.

Smelled absolutely awful

Four hours of driving and we were all ready to head back, but not before making a quick detour to find the cheetah again resting in some brush.  

Our lodge has a huge grazing area in front, so on the drive back in, the are was filled with all of the grazers – zebra, all types of antelope, giraffes, and always little warthogs running around.

View from Eagle View

View from front porch of Eagle View Lodge (that is Franco & Clara)

We had reserved the porch table for lunch and enjoyed a view of the grazing area with Franco & Clara. They are 28 & 27 and very nice people.  At lunch, we learned that Franco started a logistics company and has gone from craft beer to consumer goods, and now in a weird fluke, he learned about pickleball from his friend in Portland, and he is now, with his business partner, bringing pickleball to Argentina.  He is THE pickleball federation of Argentina.  We saw pictures of the warehouse of paddles they created and they are working with both federal and local governments to build pickleball courts and bring pickleball to Argentina.  They said no one has ever heard of it there.  Lookout Argentina. 

We had one hour left in our relaxing afternoon and walked back to our tent.  I spent the time writing while Damon napped.  At 4:30, we walked back to the main lodge and met up with Franco & Clara for our afternoon/evening drive.  Our goal – find the elephants.  We drove around for quite some time but other than the usual zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, warthog sightings, nothing unusual.  During our search for elephants, we came across a large group of grazing cattle with two Maasai out with them while they grazed.  Side note – the Maasai tribe own all of the land in the Maasai Mara Reserve. They lease the land to the various lodges in the area in order to make extra money and ensure that the animals are protected – the Maasai are known for protection animals.  One consideration is that they can graze their cows on the land.

There was some back and forth between David and the Maasai and then we left in search of a possible group of lion feeding.  We drove for a few minutes and eventually happened upon about six young male lions feasting on a wildebeest.  They were neck deep in the wildebeest and we could see ribs and other parts as they ate.  

Lions feeding on wildebeest

There was some fighting going on as different males asserted dominance.  On the other side of the road, there were three additional lions somewhat hidden in the grass and bushes – presumably the older lions who had already eaten.  We were all facing the feeding lions and I kept thinking – maybe we should pay attention to the ones behind us!  For a reason we don’t know, all at once, all of the lions sat up and were on high alert – they all were sniffing and looking in the same direction and looked like they were ready for something.  It was interesting how all 9 reacted in the same way even though they weren’t all together.  Eventually, most wandered away from the kill.  We have no idea what spooked them – they are the undisputed kings!

After that, we investigated a small gathering of cruisers – took a while to figure out why they were all waiting, but ultimately determined there was a cheetah out hunting impala in a huge grassy area.  It took a while for us to find the cheetah, who was slowly stalking/walking.  Unfortunately, having six land cruisers following along side scared away most of the prey, so after watching for a few minutes, we gave up and headed back to the lodge as cheetah are typically day hunters and the sun was going down. 

Cheetah hunting near dusk

We made it back to the lodge and enjoyed another nice dinner with Franco & Clara, picked up our Maasai escort and walked back to our room in time to pack for our early departure.  As a group, we had decided for another 4-hour breakfast game drive and then everyone would drop us at the airstrip for our 11am flight.

Night time was quieter – a few hyenas, but not as crazy as last night.

Day 9

Woke up at 5am to the sound of hippos munching on grass and rubbing up on the tent where our headboard was – just on the other side of our tent wall where there was a clear and popular hippo path. 

Me standing in a hippo path behind our tent

They had no idea we were there!  Packed everything, called our escort, had a quick cup of tea, and our group was off to find elephants – the only animals we hadn’t yet seen in Kenya.  Side note – judging by the amount of huge poops on the walking path, there was a heavy hippo population in the area – as we suspected.

Weather was cool and cloudy with light rain sprinkling – apparently a combination that no animals like as evidenced by the fact that we drove for two hours and couldn’t find anything interesting – no elephants, no baby lions, just the grazers and a bunch of giraffes.  We did come across a different cheetah and hung out watching her for a few minutes, so the day was not a total “big game” loss.  

Hunting

Chillin

We stopped for our big breakfast and talked for a while, goofed around for a few, and then decided to take one final crack at finding the elephants before our flight.

Goofing around at breakfast (the only time we are allowed out of the cruiser)

We drove for a few minutes and started yelling “elephants!”.  We found two males – one was enormous – who had just toppled an acacia tree and were enjoying the fruits of their labor.  

Downed Acacia trees - elephants love them!

Ele-selfie

The big one didn’t seem to like us around an kept walking toward us – we were happy to have finally seen elephants and eventually drove away.  

Aggressive?  Not sticking around to find out

Not five minutes later – BONANZA – we found the elephant heard – I counted twenty elephants of all ages and sizes munching on some short bushes.  There were two (probably young males) having a trunk “fight” (playing), and others just milling around.  

Trunk "fight"

At this point, it was 10:20 and a supposed 30-minute drive to the airstrip.  So, we left.  No we didn’t, we stayed a few more minutes and watched, then found another elephant and watched, and then we headed breakneck speed to the air strip.

Yay - Elephants!

We got to the airstrip at 10:50 and as we parked, our plane was landing.  Gotta love flying like this!  

Kenya Krew

Us with David

Whole crew saying goodbye!

We said our goodbyes, hopped on our plane, an 40 minutes later, we landed in Nairobi, where we had a 9-hour layover before flying to Johannesburg for the second leg of our journey – South Africa.  Another fun fact – as we were taking off from the Mara, there was a motorcycle driving back and forth across the runway – first I thought – what is this jerk doing?  But then realized that he was scaring away the many antelope and a hyena who were grazing nearby.

Thankfully, our travel agent planned for our layover and had booked a day room for us at a nearby hotel, with transfers.  We checked into our hotel room had a quick shower, ate lunch, and then had a much needed rest for a few hours.  At 5pm, we met our transfer team and left for the airport again.  Interesting notes about security in Nairobi – to get into our hotel, we had to go through a security gate with two guards armed with assault rifles, plus we went through a metal detector to get into the hotel; the elevator required a key, and our block of rooms required a key for entry.  This would have been just a little unusual but then we got to the airport.

To enter airport grounds, we had to exit the car leaving everything behind, walk through a metal detector and supposedly go through full facial recognition.  We got back into our car and then had to put everything (all checked and carry-on bags) through another scanner, and we walked through another metal detector.  We checked in at the desk, then checked in at passport control and were fingerprint checked. We then went through another set of gates that opened with our tickets.  We then went through “normal” security, arrived at our gate, and had to go through another passport/ticket check.  There were more metal detectors, but they were not checking again.

We are now ready to board our 9pm flight – 4 hours to Johannesburg, so I’ll consider today’s post over.  Goodbye Kenya – we had a wonderful time!

Goodbye Kenya :(

Tomorrow we head to South Africa where we will spend a full week in ONE PLACE!