African Safari Day 6 Amboseli

Today is 24th July 2014.
Please click on the pictures to see them in full.  Photos were clicked by my better half and that is why they are so good.
We are in Ark and since it rained we were not able to see many animals.  Hubby says he could not hear any animal roaring (which we had heard in our earlier staying places) but only my snoring!!

We had to get up early as the BF is at 6 a.m.  We have bf  and leave for Abardere Lodge.

We reach there around 7.30a.m.  and John is waiting for us with  Safari Trail vehicle. It is really nice to see Mr. John.

It is a very very long journey to the place where we are going .  It is called 'Amboseli'  It is around     8+ hours journey We buy some Bananas  on the way.  nice ones.  We take the road of Mumbasa (the port city  of Kenya ) and   bypass Nairobi. {Nairobi is (in)famous for its traffic woes}. We drive and drive and drive.......

In this trip we have to do  lot of driving around and all  the game drives are very bumpy and dusty . The travel is quite strenuous.

 So  these rides are referred as African Powder Massage.

We manage to reach Amboseli around 2.30 p.m. and Lunch is waiting there.

Again a lovely place of stay.
All the staying places chosen are big places, with lovely cottages spread out with hut like appearance, very native in decor with all modern facilities.  This is a big room with 3 beds and a mosquito net in each bed. Electricity is run by generator in almost all Resorts.  Here it is available only after 6 p.m. till 11 p.m.and 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.  We get ready and go for a game ride.

First we visit a Masai  (tribal )village each one has to pay 25 $ per person to go into the village.  Masai man have  many wives and live in groups  and have many cattle mainly cow.  They eat only meat and drink cows blood and do not eat wild animals and hence  they are allowed to live in and around the National Parks.

This village is very pathetic.  Every where cow dung and lots of flies and dusty children.  They perform Masai dance of jumping up and down.  I feel very sorry for the kids.
They have a very low roof dark huts which don't have windows as they don't want mosquitoes to enter their huts.  Women do all the chores including building the huts.  They don't want to change their ways .  Kids are not even aware of the world outside their tiny villages and the wild and have no chance to get to know the world.  There are some elementary schools nearby to which the kids are sent.  They show some wares (necklace etc with beads)  and try to sell it to us,  but I understand that it is not made by them but they have got it from Tanzania.  We don't buy anything and we proceed to game drive.

The Masai Village

The Women folk

                                                    The Masai Jumping Dance.

                                                                   The Kids.

                                                                       The Huts.

                                                        The Ear Decoration

The Market that sprang up suddenly.

We see Elephants. Amboseli is a place inhabited by lots of Elephants.  It was already late and we had to get out before 6.30p.m. so we did not stop to look at the Elephants.  But Mr. John promises to  have one more game drive as bonus  next day morning on our way to Tanzanian border.

                                                 The Walking Secretary Bird

                                                    The Huge Elephants of Amboseli

We come back and sleep.  This is  our last night in Kenya as tomorrow we will be in Tanzania.. 

African Safari Day 5 Aberdare

Please click on the photos to see them in full.

Today is 23rd July Wednesday .  We are in the Sweet Waters Tented Camp. We over slept  as there is no wake up call.
We hurriedly get ready and proceed to have Break Fast.

The other group people who had joined us in Nairobi are  leaving for India today.  The Tour Manager who came with them is also leaving.   We say our good byes to our friends from the other group.  Few people and the tour Manager come with us in our Vehicle.  They drop us at a place called Aberdare.
Then they all proceed to Nairobi to  take the flight back.

The Aberdare Club Building.

 It is a kind of a club house and also a Lodge.  The Lunch for us is arranged here. We are to stay in a place called Ark Lodge .   Arrangements have been made for us to be transported to this place called Ark  Lodge which is   in the middle of a Mountainous Wild.

 Our guide John will be coming back  the next day morning to pick us up as he is going to Nairobi with the other guests to drop them in the Airport. We will be dropped back here from the Ark Lodge the next day early morning.

The Club House is a lovely place in a hill station.  We are here now at 9.30 a.m. and have nothing to do till Lunch.
 We both have coffee but have to pay for it as we are entitled only for Lunch here.

When we make enquiries about the activities there, we understand  we can take a Nature walk with a guide/Ranger.  Again we have to pay extra in $$.  We both decide to take that Nature Walk.

The Weather is little cold but pleasant. We get into the  Game Reserve by walk  and see some Water Bucks and Warthog.

 A little further we see group of Giraffes and that too reticulated ones. Oh My My! there are 14 of them including two babies, few adults and few youngsters.  We walk very near them.  They are all looking at us exactly as they looked at the Lion yesterday all turning  towards us watching intently.    I can not believe myself that I am looking at so many Wild Giraffes.   They are  very  good looking.

The group of huge Giraffes.

The Reticulated Giraffe.

Light coloured Male Giraffe.

The young one is also looking at us.

Posing for the Camera

The Water bucks and Zebras

                                          The Two Zebras look as if they  share the head!!

Along with us Giraffes are also looking at the Camera.

Giraffes again.

We go further and we see some Zebras which run away on seeing us.

We return the same way looking at the Giraffe.  I say bye bye to them and feel like shaking hands ?! with them.

The Adult and the little ones.

Bye Bye Giraffe.

Watching us move away?

We walk back .  It is uphill climb now.  I am huffing and puffing.
What an Experience!   Walking in the Wild.
We reach the Lodge.  Wifi is available.  So we sit and browse.

We have lunch a very good one.  Every where the food (vegetarian for us) is very good with nice  soups, Rice,  vegetables, salads, desserts, fruits.

Now we are ready to proceed to Ark.
We all take a Bus.  It is 45 minutes drive.  But it is very cloudy and we are told since it is raining we may not see many animals.

                     This huge Warthog we saw on our way to Ark lodge.  It has such a big tusks.

Ark is a lodge where they have  viewing decks. Animals come here to drink water in the artificial  water hole.  The Salt which we saw yesterday on the Road for sale has also been put abundantly near the water hole,  so that the animals will come to eat ( literally lick it) . There are focus light to see the animals.
All these lights are (even in night Safari) is kind of infra red lights which does not hinder the animals but lets us view the animals nicely.
So here instead of we going in search of animals ,  we can view the animals which come to this place.

  Very very nice place to stay in the middle of thick Jungle,   a place which is really in  the middle of nowhere. Many tourists are here around  more than 100 people.

We have to climb down lots of  wooden steps to reach the lodge and to reach rooms also we have to climb up and down to  the dining hall, to  the rooms, viewing decks  which are all in  different levels.

 We have coffee (most welcome) and we hear the Bell ringing once.  They have a system where the bell sound  is the sign that an animal is sighted   near the water hole and we can watch them coming out to the deck.  One is for Elephant, and similarly 3 is for Leopard.
We all rush out to the Balcony /viewing deck to see Elephant drinking water.
At 5 p.m. itself it is very dark and we go out to the bridge to  see birds coming to feed in the birds feed they have kept.  We see yellow weaver bird.  Two guides are standing there  to tell us about the birds. We see a small deer called Dik-dik  They say it is very difficult to see a Dik-dik  as they are very shy and never come out.

The Ark Lodge where we stayed

                                 The walking bridge through which we reached  the Lodge.

The Elephant with its reflection in water.

Cape Buffalo

                          Due to the  bad weather only few birds came to feed. One of them.

                                                         The Yellow Weaver Bird.

                                                                        Dik-dik

                                                               Weaver Bird
Suddenly we hear some noise of breaking of branches in the Dark.  Guide tells us that it is an Elephant .  We can see it coming stealthily ( we feel that way because it is partly hidden)  .  It is a Male Elephant with huge tusks.

The Elephant coming from the Jungle.

                                                               Near the waters.

                       
                                                              Communication

                                                 More Elephant family.

We go to the deck and the Elephant has reached there, we see baby  elephants and also some Buffaloes.

Since it rained the not many animals come out as they had rightly predicted.
I am disappointed that  we could not see the Leopard.
We eat dinner and go to bed without hearing any more bells.

African Safari Day 4 Part 2 Sweet Waters National Park.

Click on the pictures to see the pictures in full.

We go into the Sweet Waters  National park.

Crowned Crane.  This is the National Bird of Uganda.

The Baboon is  carrying its baby on its back.

It is very different the way it is carrying it.

The Baby seems to be sleeping on the back of its mother.

Yellow throated Sand grouse

                                                       Helmeted Guinea Fowl

 We see lot of Impalas, Big group of gazelles and Zebras.  We sight a  Lion again but fail to see any Cheetah or Leopard.

                                             Group of Thompson's Gazelles.

                                                                A Very Healthy Lion

 In our drive we are taken to a Chimpanzee Shelter.

This is a shelter for abused Chimps which were rescued by the famous researcher on Chimps,  Jane Goodall.  She had done many years of research in these parts of Africa and had seen the Chimpanzees using tools.  She has also written that Chimps are  intelligent animals.   They are the nearest relatives of mankind sharing almost 98 % of Genes with humans.

The chimps here were  captured as babies and once it grew big  people understood they are not good  pets  and were  abused , kept in chains and were not fed properly.  Those were rescued and have been kept in this shelter and more than 40 Chimps are here.
Here  they live as they live in Wild  and  they follow their natural  lifestyle of Alpha Male leading the group.
We were looking at them.  They  were sitting on the other side of  the fence which had a water body separating them from us.   We could see the chimps using the plastic bottles there to take water from the water hole and drink it instead of drinking directly from the water body.

The Chimpanzees

Look at the way they are sitting.

Chimp getting down into water.

Picking up the plastic bottle

Filling its bottle with water.

Filled the Water!

                                   Now can sit and relax and drink it in leisure.


 The white Rhinos are an endangered species.
 Human beings are the worst species to occupy this universe.  Each kind of animals are killed indiscriminately for some imaginary uses and also for fancy .  With modern day weapons each animal becomes just a sitting duck and the  poor animals are hunted  down.
  But on the other side such Game Reserves are also trying to conserve these animals as best as they can.

White Rhinos are actually not white in Colour but they are Wide mouthed Rhinos as they graze the grass down like cattle and have wide mouths unlike the other variety of Rhino which is called the Black Rhino. In this Reserve they are protecting this 'White Rhinos' and we could see them in enclosure.  They had a blind Rhino which had lost its eyesight in some fight and it can smell the food (some kind of grass) and comes to eat from the hands of the tourists.  So many people had the pleasure of touching the Rhino with the Rangers helping them.  It is named as Barak. I some how felt  sorry for this blind Rhino and didn't feel like touching it.

                                            The White Rhinos inside the enclosure.

                                                     The Blind Rhino

Feeding the Rhino.

We return to the lodge and our  guide tells us that there is a Night Safari here in  this Game Park and they take the vehicle inside the grass   to see the animals closer.

We are excited , so come back and enquire and we had to pay in $$ for the  night Safari. We both decide to take it and our friends Agarwals also  have decided to take the trip. The Night Safari starts at 7 p.m. and  again it is only the five of us in the Vehicle.

It is very cold but luckily there is a big blanket kept in the vehicle for each seat.  We get into the Wild

  One driver and one other person  with a search light to search for animals come with us.

 We all stand up in the open jeep and no animal is seen.   But the feeling of being inside the jungle and jungle noise of crickets and the open cloud with stars is too good a feeling.  It is heavenly and I was one with Nature . My eyes are filled with tears.

We see some Jackals, Rabbits which we can not see in the day time.  We  are taken inside the grass still no animals.

                                                     Ready for  Night Safari

Suddenly we sight a Male Lion very healthy  .  We go very near it.  In the other side one more Male Lion is sitting.  Just little farther away one female Lion is sitting.  It looked as if they were trying to hunt together.  (Lions hunt together many a time).  They all move as if on cue  and our vehicle follows them.  But our guide says they can not hunt as they need more female lions to hunt (hahha. ) More over he spots a wild buffalo which is dangerous and can change direction any time and so we back up.

There is one more vehicle going around and the communication between the drivers is very good and so he says we can see many Lions together in another place.  He asks us to hold on to our seats tightly and we proceed there very fast.

A group of Impalas their eyes are reflecting the Camera light.

                                                  The First of the three Lions which we saw.

                                                  The Second Majestic Male Lion

                                                           Third Female Lion

                                          The Lion is  also Sleepy , it is yawning.

Oh My God.
  We see inside a bush some Lionesses and Cubs may be more than ten in number eating a kill which they had killed earlier.  It is a Zebra I am told  as the leg of the Zebra can be seen.( I can not see the kill and I don't like to see) . All I can see is some rib bones and the Lions enjoying their dinner as if it is a community dinner.
Our Vehicle  go quite  close ( we are all very quiet and without disturbing the lions)  We can see the lovely , shining healthy back of the Lions and so many of them in one place.  Few feet away in another side of the bush we see some 4, 5 Lions resting after eating a sumptuous dinner.  The guide says totally there are 'Eighteen' Lions.  I could not count them.
We just keep on looking at the lovely creatures.  The ranger reminds us that it is our time for dinner and we would miss out on it and we reluctantly return to the Lodge. Too good an experience , unforgettable.  .

                  The Rib of the animal they are eating.  there are  many Lions near each other

Very Busy eating their dinner

Their skin is so healthy.

                                           Oh Eaten too much so  slept already.

                                                               Sharing with each other.

                                                  The dinner is nice.



  We return  around 9.30 p.m.  The tour Manager who came with the South Africa Group is waiting for us (Very nice of him)  .  Very good dinner (for us also  just like for the Lions).  The soups are very good and we walk back to our tents.