Our flight to Kenya is at 9:15am today – we have a lot to do
in a short period of time. Another
5:30am wake-up, 6am escort to breakfast, quick breakfast trying to get Ted the
talker to get moving, and off we go by 6:30.
Another amazing African sunrise.
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| Sunrise! |
Given the short period of time available for viewings, we opted to head
straight to the river to try to catch another crossing. On the way, we spotted a few elephants, so of
course I insisted we stop for a brief hello,
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| Never pass up elephants! |
then on to the river by 7:15 where we immediately spotted a group of wildebeest gathering, which is a good sign! Since our plan was to be at the airport by
8:30, we collectively willed them to get moving. No such luck.
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| Gathering herd, no crossing |
We watched and waited while also noticing a MASSIVE herd of
thousands of wildebeest on the other side of the river very far in the
distance. They were walking in a
never-ending line that went as far as you could see. They were heading in the direction of the
river, but very far away. When our
gathered herd started moving away from the river, Bennett quickly took off in the other
direction and said “they (the big herd) are heading for the river!” So, once again, we were off! This huge massive herd could be
seen running toward the river and gathering just at the bluff next to the river, so of
course we were racing at breakneck speed to get to the viewing area. The rain from last night left the roads wet and thick
with mud, and we are swerving and fishtailing, sometimes ending up totally
sideways. And, once again, Damon and I
were in the back seat and were repeatedly launched from our seats as we sped
along the bumpy road hanging on for dear life.
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| Cruiser convention |
We found a place with a decent view and waited. The thousands of wildebeest were all coming
together in a big group at the top of a bluff just above the river, but no one
would go down the bluff to the river.
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| Gathering wildebeest |
Video of gathering wildebeest:
We waited and waited,
and then noticed the approaching line of wildebeest start to turn and walk parallel to the river and not toward the gathering herd Not a good sign. We waited.
Then they all turned and started walking away. At this point, we were pushing our luck
getting to the airport on time as it was a 40-minute drive. We gave up, said goodbye to the river, and started
driving to the airport.
Five minutes later, we see another massive herd being joined
by the first massive herd, and they were already at the water with a group of
zebra – very good sign! We waited. Now I am freaking out because we are going to
miss our flight. We are about to leave
when Damon yells, “THEY ARE CROSSING!”
And in an instant, thousands of wildebeest and zebra start running
across the river. Once the first few get the herd
going, they all stop what they are doing and join – it is an awesome
sight. We didn’t see zebra in our other
two crossings, and in this one, the crossing was coming toward us, not away
from us, so it was truly spectacular. We
did notice crocs waiting up river – I did not want to see another predation.
Then, for no reason we can tell, the crossing just stopped –
maybe they saw the crocs? Maybe they knew we had to leave? In any case,
we were super late for the airport, felt we had an incredibly lucky break, and finished
our muddy, slippery drive to the airport, getting there 25 minutes before our
scheduled 9:15 departure time. By this
point, it had started raining, but while this was a small airport, it did have
a few options for shelter. Which we
needed because, of course, our plane did not land until after 10am. Oh well – at least we had the crossing!
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| Back to Kogatende! |
All we knew from our itinerary was that our flight to Kenya
was supposed to be two legs. What it turned out to
be: Flight #1 was from Kogatende to Tarime
private airfield on the Tanzania side of the border. Then the 12 or so of us were all bussed about
15 minutes to an Immigration office at the actual border where we all went through customs,
immigration, bag scanning, health checks, etc.
Then we all got back on the bus and headed to another (different)
airstrip on the Kenya side of the border. We all boarded Flight #2 for a
12-minute flight at which time some of us got off and others stayed on. The group that got off all split up and Damon
& I ended up on Flight #3 which was another 12 minutes to a private
airstrip in the Mara (another couple stayed on for a 4th 5-minute
flight).
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| One of our many planes |
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| Another of our many planes |
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| Tarime Air Strip |
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| What a tented camp looks like from the air |
Our new guide, David, and our
cruiser, were thankfully waiting since other than a small hut, there was
nothing else at the airstrip. I will
never understand how they figure out who is going where, but they do – and our
bags made it no problem! Side note: On the first flight, Damon got to see a 4th
river crossing from the air!
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| David and our cruiser waiting |
Kenya! What a
difference in landscape. Our new lodge is
in a private conservancy area (meaning fewer cruisers) just outside the
Mara. On the drive, we noticed the
dramatic change in terrain – it is totally barren, monochromatic “beige”, and very few trees or other vegetation.
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| Kenya Tundra |
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| Kenya Tundra |
My
first thought – this sucks – what they heck are we going to see here? Although if anything moved within a 5-mile
radius, we would probably see it. I
asked David what could possibly live out here with nothing to eat, and he told
us, “this is cheetah country”. Then, not two minutes later, we pull up to a lone tree with a Cheetah resting underneath. Nice start to Kenya! We also spotted our first and second jackal
(jackals?).
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| Cheetah Country! |
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| Jackal |
We continued the drive and saw some of the usual suspects –
wildebeest, zebra, warthogs and giraffe, although in smaller numbers. Our new accommodations, Eagle View Lodge, did
not disappoint. While still a tented
camp, it seems to be permanent, whereas Nyikani is a migration camp that
moves. Eagle View is a step up on the
luxury scale. A full staff in uniform, a
walled structure for the lounge area and dining area, a viewing platform that
looks out onto a river and a large grazing area for animal viewing. Our first stop was lunch and we enjoyed a
wonderful plated meal. Nyikani, while
delicious, was always served buffet style.
We were told to report back at 4:30 for our
afternoon/evening game drive. That
meant, we had one hour and forty minutes free.
The first block of time we have had to ourselves in the last week. We were escorted to our tent, which is
amazing. Front porch with chairs for
viewing, king bed, full electricity, both an indoor and an outdoor shower,
flushing toilet, double sink. Truly
luxury glamping. With about an hour left
to kill, we immediately laid down and fell asleep for one glorious hour, before
walking back to the main area to start our evening game drive.
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| Indoor shower & outdoor shower (to right) |
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| Bedroom - red curtains! |
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| View out to the park |
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| Fancy double sink |
Our cruiser-mates are a couple from Buenos Aires, Argentina
– Franco & Clara. We lucked out because we are all on the same page with
how much and what we want to see (we all have to agree). Our first request was to look for a leopard. The Mara area is known for
being “cat country”, so the expectation is that we look primarily for the big
cats. The drive was chilly - temperature fluctuations during the day can be dramatic – I was
not prepared for the drive, although I did have plenty of clothes back at our
tent. Oh well. Suck it up.
And try not to notice the massive black clouds rolling in and the
thunder rumbling in the distance.
We were cruising through leopard territory and saw the
telltale signs of something interesting – a cluster of about 8-10 cruisers. Because we are on a private conservancy,
there are significantly fewer cruisers and there is supposed to be a limit of five per sighting. Three cruisers were up on a hill looking at the leopard and the rest of
us hung below. David told us not to
worry because eventually, the leopard would come down to us. Sure enough, the leopard started moving, came
down the hill, through the cruisers, and then disappeared into the brush. Everything happened very quickly and the cars
were all moving to get a better view, and this is when the sky decided to open
up and start pouring – so there were cruisers on the move, rain, leopard
movement, everyone jockeying for position inside our cruiser, and it was over
in a few seconds. We waited a minute,
but that was it.
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| Our only leopard sighing, courtesy of Damon's zoom |
The rain was coming down hard and our cruiser roof was open. We had closed the roof seconds
before the rain and were trying to get the plastic windows down. Now cold and starting to get wet, I was ready
to go back, but couldn’t say anything because we act as one. We drove around and the rain finally stopped
and we spotted two female lions sleeping.
We then went hunting for the male that was usually nearby, but did not
have any luck. We had agreed to stay out
for the night drive because that is when the predators come out to play. We hung out next to the two lady lions for
30-40 minutes waiting for the sun to go down.
Probably not the best time to tell everyone I had to go to the
bathroom.
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| Lazy lions |
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| Lazy lions |
Once the sun went down, we spent an hour or so looking for
predators. It is pitch black outside and
David was using a red light to locate animals – I recall from our last trip to
Africa that red light will not impact animal vision. We found some little critters – foxes and
such, but no lions. Eventually gave up
and got back to camp about 8:30.
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| Another gorgeous sunset |
Damon and I had a quick dinner and were about to head back
to our tent when one of the staff asked us to stay an extra minute – I had made
an offhand comment to one of them that today is Damon’s birthday. The entire staff of the lodge then came out
in a single line singing/chanting a traditional song, eventually made it to our
table with a whole birthday cake and candles, sang happy birthday to Damon, and
left us to have a second dessert! It was
so above and beyond!
Once again, we had been warned about the open nature of the
lodge grounds, and we were told that the grass in the area is very popular for
all (big) animals who come out at night.
So, no matter what we hear, DO NOT LEAVE THE TENT. The enormous fresh poops all over the path
were also a good indicator that we have visitors at night. We were escorted back to our tent by a native
Maasai Warrior armed with a flashlight AND a Maasai spear. These guys mean business. Our escort waited until we were in our tent
with the zipper closed and then he left.
Not one minute later, Damon and I both freak because we hear
loud heavy footsteps that sounded like they were on wood (our deck) and loud
huffing. All our canvas shades are closed except for
the one we just entered, which is just mesh with a red curtain over it (red
supposedly deters animals). I run to the
door to peak out and Damon pulls me back and closes the curtain, looking a bit
nervous. He yells at me, “DON’T OPEN THE
CURTAINS, do you really want to know what is out there???” Of course, I do. With one hand we both hold the curtains
closed while peaking through a little gap, and we see a flashlight – we think our escort came back because he heard whatever it was, too. After he was gone, we used our flashlight to
see if we could see anything, fully protected by a mosquito screen. We saw nothing.
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| Hippo porch |
With hot water bottles (not really needed) and another
successful day behind us, we gently dozed off to sleep with the sounds of
hyenas, hippos, and lions in the (hopefully far-off, but probably closer than
we think) distance. And yes, we could
hear all of it. Hyenas have a whooping
sound, hippos snort and munch – we think they were close, and lions have a
distinct huff. Not exactly a lullaby, but we slept hard nonetheless.
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| Random Hyena picture cuz it was cool |
Tomorrow - full day on the hut for the big cats!
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