African Safari Day 1. Masai Mara.

note: Click on the pictures to see the full picture.

At last our tour started albeit delayed by a day.

The first day was a tour of the city of Nairobi (which we missed) and  the so called second day we were to move to Masai Mara  National Game Reserve immediately after break fast.
This became our Day 1 now and by the time we started it was already 9.30 a.m or so and we had a 6 plus hours journey by road.

Our Guide Mr. John was waiting for us in the Airport.  There was  a family of three, from Delhi  with us,   Mrs and Mr. Agarwal and their daughter Shreya who had come in the same flight from Mumbai who  had the same tour program as ours.

We took a short eating break in between ( we were taken directly from the Airport by  the Safari Vehicle which was to be our vehicle for few days in Kenya) as we had not had any breakfast at all.  We bought  some muffins and coffee.   Our Lunch was waiting at the lodge in the Masai Mara.

John who was driving the vehicle did a wonderful job .  The roads were good partially and we had to go through mud roads for most part of our travel. We passed through a lovely valley called the  Great Rift Valley.  The ride was real rough at times reminding us of the Dubai Desert Safari.

                                                           The Great Rift Valley

We reached the Keekorok Lodge at around 3.30 p.m. and were rushed to the dining room as the buffet lunch time was extended only for us.  We just had little time to freshen up and start for the Game Drive.  Another group which had missed us in Nairobi was  waiting for us.  Their tour had started in South Africa and we were to be together for 3 to  5 days depending on their tour itinerary.

The rooms in the lodge was very nice and aesthetically done and the food served was North Indian .

The wild which we entered now was so unlike any Forest(s) I have seen.  We went in our Vehicle driven by Mr. John.   The vehicle roofs  were opened and we could stand up and watch and if need be when the vehicle stopped we stood up on the seats (of course without shoes).

I could not believe myself I am in a place which I had  seen in movies like "Beautiful People", "Born Free", etc.       I decided to be in the 'present' ( thanks to the Isha Meditation which I do) and savour every moment of the ride in the Wild.

                                      Group of Zebras and Wildebeest hanging together.

                                Group of Zebras their stripes merging with one another and the back ground.
                                                     

                           
                                                             Group of Wildebeests.

                                                                    The Shiny Cute Zebra.

The Wildebeest.  The guide was saying this was the creature God created last as its body parts looks as if  borrowed  from lots of animals.

There are no trees and just bushes and dry grass.  We saw  herds of  Wildebeest and Zebra going together.  It is amazing to see so many of them in one place.

When we are on the road the Zebras are crossing the roads in front of us .  I just wanted  to touch the smooth back of the Zebra which looks so polished and healthy.   I know if it just gives one kick from its hind legs I am finished.    But since it is seen so much in plenty you feel, as if  it is as common as our domestic cows.

                                   The Cows of Masai Tribe Vying for the Grazing land.

There are herds of cows owned by the local Masai Tribes which are also brought here for pasture.  We see the Rangers of the forest fining those people and driving them away from the game  sanctuary.

              Even the female elephants have the ivory unlike Asian Elephants.  Unfortunately that makes   it  a target  of poaching.     sad.
                 

   
          African Elephants skin is more rough and hang out like an old person's skin.  I felt Indian Elephants have comparatively smoother rounded figure.


We see a Mother Elephant and its baby crossing in front of our SUV.  The vehicle just stops and we quietly watch the animals.

                                             A herd of African Wild Buffaloes.

                                                    The Cape  Buffalo .

We see lots of wild Buffaloes  which are also called African Cape Buffalo which are considered very dangerous  as they will charge any time in any direction.  So the people around there are wary of these Buffaloes than they are of Lions!

     We could not go near the Lion and  I was thankful that I had taken my Binoculars and hubby dear very happy with his Zoom lens.

We see the majestic Lion but from quite a distance.
John is continuously talking to other drivers of vehicles to check where the animals are to be spotted.
He kept reminding us that this is not a zoo and is actually a Real Wild and one should be lucky to spot animals especially Lions and Cheetahs.

                                          The Cheetah which is so perfectly camouflaged

          The Vehicles surrounding the Cheetah eventually driving it away, which should never be done.

We spot a Cheetah and lots of vehicles are surrounding it.  I was surprised at the number of vehicles.  This being the season more than 100 vehicles are moving around the wild and any special  animal is spotted , immediately there was a crowd of vehicles gathered there.

In this case the Cheetah got disturbed as some vehicles went  very near it.  The rule is that the vehicles should keep to the mud roads and should not trespass into the grass,  No body should get out of the  vehicles and no body is allowed to be inside the game reserve after 6 p.m.


  These are some of the other animals we saw.

                                                                     Thomson Gazelle

                                                   Topi a kind of Antelope seen in Africa

                                   A Herd of Elephants which we saw while returning to the lodge.
                                              Wow how majestic the group looks.

Some were disappointed that we could not go near the Cheetah but with a promise of seeing more animals the next day we return to the lodge.
After a very tiring two days and the bumpy rides we had dinner and went  to deep sleep.

African Safari.

We started from KL  for our long awaited African Safari on 16th July. 2014.   We  had to take the flight  to Nairobi, Kenya  from Mumbai.  My  friend Viji met us  at the  Mumbai Airport with her family.  We stayed in Mumbai for a day  as our flight was on 18th July early morning 3 a.m.

Mumbai International Airport is very good like many other International Airports.

We were not aware of the drama which was awaiting us and we happily checked in once the counter opened.  I was not aware that Nairobi was such a popular destination from India.  I had imagined a small flight with lots of tourist crowd.    But it was full of people working there , business people and not many tourists.

We all went to the Vestibule leading to the Aircraft  and were about to board the flight and lo and behold we were asked not to board and were sent back from inside the Vestibule .  Initially we were told there was some technical snag and later we came to know it was Engine problem.  There were more than 200 passengers.  The flight was full.  The chaos started and there were few airline staff not able to tell us anything.

 Our tour was to start the same day in Kenya but we were still standing in Mumbai Airport wondering if we would be accommodated in the next day's flight as all the day's flights had left Mumbai by the time we knew the Aircraft would not take off.

They bought us breakfast and after lot of haggling,  at around lunch time hotel accommodation was provided for us and we were sent in batches to a  hotel which was not very near the airport.  It  ws a good 4/5 star hotel.  We had lunch and slept off as we had not slept the whole of previous night.

The wait started.  Like exam results, list was coming to the hotel reception and the people in the list were  to be taken by  Bus  to the Airport after dinner.  Earlier we managed to call  the contacts from Tour operators to inform  the guide waiting at Nairobi , that we were not travelling that day.  Our Guide was  a local guide from Kenya and so we had nobody to help us around in Mumbai.

By the time they dropped us to the airport  it was night/morning 12.30 after waiting inside the Bus for more than half an hour.   The half an hour wait in  Bus was due to some passenger whose name was in the list but was happily sleeping in the room.   We had to keep asking them what is happening, and  finally , they found out the said person's room number and woke him up!! ( so typical a situation where no body knows what is happening and  many, standing around but not a single one responsible for the situation )
 Luckily we had seats in this flight and boarding pass was waiting for us and the checked in luggage shifted to this aircraft.   New luggage tags were given to us.  We heaved a sigh of relief.    But the ordeal continued till 5 a.m as people were getting into the flight till then .(the flight was to start at 3 a.m.)  They were trying to accommodate as many passengers from the previous flight as possible and like I said earlier , this sector being busy this  day's flight was also almost full.

  We reached at around 8.30 a.m. local time in Nairobi after about 6 plus hours of flying.

 At last the Safari started with lots of  drama  and 24 hours plus delay.