Kenya: Part IV (Masai Mara game drive)
Apr. 5th, 2011 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riontelFirst animals showed up before we even got to the park gates.
Past the gates it was all "Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!" Except for the tigers and bears, of course.
But we did see zebras
And a group of bachelor lions lounging in a shade of a tree, escaping the afternoon heat. They took no notice of us whatsoever but did a very convincing impression of cats.
Drivers of the safari cars watch each other and when they see few cars converging on the same point they follow, usually means something interesting is happening. They also stop and ask each other if a particular animal has been spotted and where (usually one of the rarer or more elusive ones, big cats and rhinos). Rangers might help, but they can also fine you if they catch you driving off road or stalking an animal. We almost got fined once but talked our way out of it.
Most commonly during the day you would see all sorts of herbivorous because they are more populous and more active.
There are lots of giraffes (these ones are of Masai variety)
Thomson's Gazelles
And Impalas (no resemblance to the crappy Chevy car)
Elephants. This was a female matriarch with a bunch of kids, from the littlest one who was perhaps a couple of months old to the few-year-old teenagers.
Since everybody always likes elephants, here are some more
A teenager
And mother with a baby
This is a male Waterbuck, a large antelope
And a male Topi, another type of antelope
Masai river, same one we could see from our tent, is not suitable for swimming. At least not more than once. Those boulders you see in it are in fact hippos.
But if you don't know what's hiding in its depths the river looks quite picturesque and idyllic
At one point we caught a couple of male impalas fighting over a female. While they were fighting the female wondered off.
On the way out of the park we caught another lion bachelor, on his own this time.
Park closes to visitors at 6:30, unless you are staying in a lodge inside the park. We had to get out but planned to come back again early next morning.
Back in the camp we had dinner. Chef had to prepare something special for me in a hurry, we forgot to warn them ahead of time that I don't eat red meat and they have a set menu. That evening menu called for lamb for meateaters and eggplant for vegetarians. I don't eat either. Chef was very accommodating, however, and my chicken was quite good. And then we set by the fire listening to the local guy singing "Jumbo mbwana" and "Lala Salama", two song I came to dislike because they were sung everywhere we went, repeatedly. Eventually N.'s dad took the guitar away from the performer and sang for us himself instead.
Past the gates it was all "Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!" Except for the tigers and bears, of course.
But we did see zebras
And a group of bachelor lions lounging in a shade of a tree, escaping the afternoon heat. They took no notice of us whatsoever but did a very convincing impression of cats.
Drivers of the safari cars watch each other and when they see few cars converging on the same point they follow, usually means something interesting is happening. They also stop and ask each other if a particular animal has been spotted and where (usually one of the rarer or more elusive ones, big cats and rhinos). Rangers might help, but they can also fine you if they catch you driving off road or stalking an animal. We almost got fined once but talked our way out of it.
Most commonly during the day you would see all sorts of herbivorous because they are more populous and more active.
There are lots of giraffes (these ones are of Masai variety)
Thomson's Gazelles
And Impalas (no resemblance to the crappy Chevy car)
Elephants. This was a female matriarch with a bunch of kids, from the littlest one who was perhaps a couple of months old to the few-year-old teenagers.
Since everybody always likes elephants, here are some more
A teenager
And mother with a baby
This is a male Waterbuck, a large antelope
And a male Topi, another type of antelope
Masai river, same one we could see from our tent, is not suitable for swimming. At least not more than once. Those boulders you see in it are in fact hippos.
But if you don't know what's hiding in its depths the river looks quite picturesque and idyllic
At one point we caught a couple of male impalas fighting over a female. While they were fighting the female wondered off.
On the way out of the park we caught another lion bachelor, on his own this time.
Park closes to visitors at 6:30, unless you are staying in a lodge inside the park. We had to get out but planned to come back again early next morning.
Back in the camp we had dinner. Chef had to prepare something special for me in a hurry, we forgot to warn them ahead of time that I don't eat red meat and they have a set menu. That evening menu called for lamb for meateaters and eggplant for vegetarians. I don't eat either. Chef was very accommodating, however, and my chicken was quite good. And then we set by the fire listening to the local guy singing "Jumbo mbwana" and "Lala Salama", two song I came to dislike because they were sung everywhere we went, repeatedly. Eventually N.'s dad took the guitar away from the performer and sang for us himself instead.
