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Kenya: Part 5 (Masai Mara)
Part 1: Amboseli
Part 2: Lake Nakuru
Part 3: The Ark
Part 4: Sweetwaters
Nobody warned me beforehand but the flight from Sweetwaters to Masai Mara makes multiple stops, like a bus, and ours, of course, was to be the final stop. Thirteen years of shuttling around prepared me well for air travel, hardly anything disturbs me anymore, but three landings within minutes of each other were a bit much, my sensitive vestibular system was most distressed by the time we disembarked to be greeted by our new driver - Benedict. Landing strip we settled on was just that: a landing strip in an empty field. There isn't even a rudimentary airport but the driver set up a small snack table to greet us, with the most delicious oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted. I still regret not asking for the recipe. Thus having fortified us, Benedict drove us to Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp, our home for the next three days. Masai Mara is not fenced in and animals freely move around the area so on our way to the camp we already got to see some of the local wild life.
The ever-vigilant and ubiquitous Topi antelope whose dominant males have a habit of climbing a handy termite mound to better monitor the area for possible challengers and predators. I think other herbivores use Topis as a warning system, Tommies and impalas tend to stick close by.
Another new antelope: Eland. It's the second largest antelope, with the largest being the Giant Eland.
The pretty little bird perched on the buffalo's nose is aptly named Oxpecker, Yellow-billed Oxpecker to be precise. A bunch of these usually hang around buffaloes, picking ticks and other parasites off of them.
Banded mongoose.
We got excited about seeing the one mongoose, then discovered that our camp was home to a whole pack of them.
Presence of mongooses made N. extremely happy. He suffers from a mild case of herpetophobia courtesy of his grandmother, it extends to all reptiles and amphibians. To make matters worse, our particular tent, once we checked in, turned out to already have two residents: tiny tailless moulting lizard kept hanging around the main living area while an even tinier frog, about the size of a quarter, claimed the bathroom. Luckily I have no such phobias, I didn't grow up with a backyard populated with an occasional poisonous snake, so N. would have me chase out the frog if it was interfering with his shower.
Other common inhabitants of the camp were warthogs, who were absolutely everywhere. They thrive safe inside the electric fence surrounding the camp, though I am not at all sure how active that fence was, we saw warthogs go through it without a twitch.
They also treated the pool as their own personal watering hole, not minding the swimmers in the slightest.
The most amazing thing however was the view that would open up as one sat by the pool gazing into the distance: antelopes, zebras, giraffes, elephants, grazing, browsing, just getting on with their own business, while we would watch transfixed for hours.
To be continued...
Part 2: Lake Nakuru
Part 3: The Ark
Part 4: Sweetwaters
Nobody warned me beforehand but the flight from Sweetwaters to Masai Mara makes multiple stops, like a bus, and ours, of course, was to be the final stop. Thirteen years of shuttling around prepared me well for air travel, hardly anything disturbs me anymore, but three landings within minutes of each other were a bit much, my sensitive vestibular system was most distressed by the time we disembarked to be greeted by our new driver - Benedict. Landing strip we settled on was just that: a landing strip in an empty field. There isn't even a rudimentary airport but the driver set up a small snack table to greet us, with the most delicious oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted. I still regret not asking for the recipe. Thus having fortified us, Benedict drove us to Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp, our home for the next three days. Masai Mara is not fenced in and animals freely move around the area so on our way to the camp we already got to see some of the local wild life.
The ever-vigilant and ubiquitous Topi antelope whose dominant males have a habit of climbing a handy termite mound to better monitor the area for possible challengers and predators. I think other herbivores use Topis as a warning system, Tommies and impalas tend to stick close by.
Another new antelope: Eland. It's the second largest antelope, with the largest being the Giant Eland.
The pretty little bird perched on the buffalo's nose is aptly named Oxpecker, Yellow-billed Oxpecker to be precise. A bunch of these usually hang around buffaloes, picking ticks and other parasites off of them.
Banded mongoose.
We got excited about seeing the one mongoose, then discovered that our camp was home to a whole pack of them.
Presence of mongooses made N. extremely happy. He suffers from a mild case of herpetophobia courtesy of his grandmother, it extends to all reptiles and amphibians. To make matters worse, our particular tent, once we checked in, turned out to already have two residents: tiny tailless moulting lizard kept hanging around the main living area while an even tinier frog, about the size of a quarter, claimed the bathroom. Luckily I have no such phobias, I didn't grow up with a backyard populated with an occasional poisonous snake, so N. would have me chase out the frog if it was interfering with his shower.
Other common inhabitants of the camp were warthogs, who were absolutely everywhere. They thrive safe inside the electric fence surrounding the camp, though I am not at all sure how active that fence was, we saw warthogs go through it without a twitch.
They also treated the pool as their own personal watering hole, not minding the swimmers in the slightest.
The most amazing thing however was the view that would open up as one sat by the pool gazing into the distance: antelopes, zebras, giraffes, elephants, grazing, browsing, just getting on with their own business, while we would watch transfixed for hours.
To be continued...