Nairobi area to the Masai Mara and back...!
Trip Start
Aug 19, 2006
1
19
24
Trip End
Nov 20, 2006
Nairobi,
Kenya
Thursday, October 26, 2006
S 01°12'54.6"
E 036°48'37.0"
Temperature: 24.5°C
Humidity: 57.4 %
Pressure: 83.3 kPa
Altitude: 1614 m
(Getting closer to the Equator, I can feel it!)
Finally, and with some relief, I left Zanzibar to fly to Nairobi where I would stay at a friends place for a few days. Special Hello and Thanks
A Big Snake?!
! to Rocky and Mary for their great hospitality.Spent a few days doing some relaxing activities (i.e. swimming, golfing) and touring around Nairobi. Saw the poor Kibera slums (similar to Soweto, South Africa), the 1st Kenyan President's memorial and tomb, the Kenyan parliament, and the reknowned Nairobi conference centre. We then drove slightly outside the downtown core to go see the Kenyan Independance monument (1963) and 25 years commemorative monument.
Finished the sightseeing day with an "AMAZING!" visit to Mamba (Crocodile in Swahili) Village where we saw crocodiles of various sizes, some very BIG! Here is where it gets interesting... While playing around with the biggest male crocodile of the place, appropriately named Big Daddy! (20 foot), the guide asked jokingly if any of us wanted to come in the croc pen and play around with a few crocs and Big Daddy! WELL...!!! Since I already risked life and limbs quite a few times during this adventure already and don't have dependants back home, SOOO..., I decided to jump IN! The guide was a little suprised by my answer (probably because a lot of sane people decline the offer!) but he followed-up on his offer. I had a chance to hold a 12 foot female crocodile's tail and pet her head with a 10 foot bamboo stick, all in the relative non-safety of the inside's of the croc pen
A Cheetah Family
! Similarly it was easy to make her snap her mouth at the stick just to see if she would break it in two. Then I played around with Big Daddy! the 20 foot crocodile for awhile (See pics...) OH! OH?? Wait a minute... 20 foot croc with a 10 foot pole...???!!! what's wrong with this picture...?! Here in Nairobi the trees and the flowers are very nice and colourful. The birds are also very beautiful and VOCAL! In all my travels in Africa, this place is by far the most populated by various birds and the LOUDEST!
I then booked a short one night fly-in safari into the Masai Mara (alternative is a 6 hour drive) just because I had previously done many safari's (as you well know by now!) and I was getting a little short on time. Met a very nice Canadian couple from Vancouver on the way there (Hello! to Judy and John). Arrived at Mara Kichwa Tembo (another middle of nowhere airstrip)... to stay at Mara Siria Bush Camp (www.mara-siria-camp.com). This is where I met LESHAO, the "real" Masai guard / facilitator / guide. During the afternoon game drive I saw a very similar landscape that I saw in the Serengeti. Weather conditions were however different with heavy rainfall and thunder / lightning in the distance. The highlight of this drive was to see a BIG lion and his look-a-like brother from very close (about 6 metres) (See pics!) By the way, the Masai Mara is the second place only where the driver / guides can take the vehicle off-road and track the animals to get a better look at them
A Croc named Big Daddy!
. It might not be very natural and nice to the animals but makes for great game viewing! As an aside, even if I am roughly 6 million kilometres from home I still had the opportunity to meet a nice family from Gatineau / Hull (Home) at the same camp; "Le monde est petit...!". The next day morning drive highlights were: the many wilderbeest and zebras that are likely part of the big migration, the lioness and her wilderbeest kill + vultures, and the mother cheetah with her three adolescent cubs (See pics).After the morning drive I had the chance to go visit a real traditional Masai village. I had the desire to experience this since I started organizing my trip 2 years ago so this was a real dream come true. I was escorted by LESHAO and another Masai warrior KITIHAPAS down the escarpment to the ILKINYE manyatta (Masai village) where we where greeted by the chief's son named "Andrew??" (probably just too hard to pronounce his real name!). He invited me in and showed me around. These Masai are part of the Siria sub-tribe and the village is named so because of the trees growing around it. At the start the women of the village sang a welcoming song for me. That was very cool and I was trully honored. The construction of the houses are similar than rural houses everywhere else in Africa, wood branches for the structure and mud / dung / straw for the walls and roof. Andrew even invited me to stay overnight in the village..
A Graceful Lioness
. That would have been VERY COOL! but I couldn't because I had to leave that afternoon, SHOOT! Probably, a big fire with dancing and singing in perspective, not to mention the favorite Masai drink of milk, honey, and cow blood! Just as long as they didn't plan on getting the big cauldron of boiling water out...! HA! HA! Just kidding! By the way, the Masai suprisingly do not cultivate anything. Just meat and goat / cow derived products + a few picked fuits and roots / herbs / leaves. I then learned to make a fire Masai style and succeeded after a bit of practice and help. ME MAN! ME MAKE FIRE!!! HOU! HOU!!! Ricky B (read previous entries if you don't know the story!) also enjoyed his visit and took a picture with his new friends. The visit concluded when I left the village with my Masai escort. Got back to Nairobi that afternoon.I recently booked (VERY EXPENSIVE$$$!! but hey! while I'm here...) my next (probably last!) safari to go see / track the Mountain Gorilla's in Uganda. I leave on the 5th Nov. for Entebbe / Kampala and returning / continuing to Aswan, Egypt on the 10th Nov.
Since I have a little bit of time between now and my depature to Uganda, I decided to finally ship some extra stuff and souvenirs back home. It is very expensive, so I took the cheapest reasonable option which is by post
Brother of the Lion King
. What a nightmare! Due to paperwork and weird rules it took me 4 hours to ship three parcels. It's going to take a week or two they said... let's just hope it arrives in one piece! (Well in three pieces in this case...). At this point I really needed to change my mind...I went to the Nairobi National Park animal orphanage where all kinds of rescued animals are taken and raised in captivity for educational purposes (and sometimes to be put back into the wild). Here I go again playing "Steve Irwin" and / or just risking it all! A few convincing "words$$" was able to give me access to the enclosed cheetah pen and pet / play around with the three female cheetah's. Not to mention taking a few COOL pics! (See pics) I had heard that this was possible... This was an AMAZING experience! The cheetah's are used to humans by now and they are very playful and nonchalant, just like any other cat! There are various other animals (lions, hyena, monkeys,antelopes, birds, etc...) in the orphanage. I then asked if I could go play with the big male lions but my request was denied. I don't understand why...?? (Just in jest HA! HA!). The animal handlers also pulled me aside and offered me the chance to go see / handle a young leopard cub just for fun. He was soooo cute! but his bite is already very powerful (he drew blood!) (See pics).
Close-up Cheetah Face
That's it for now and I'm finally all caught up in my travelogue and each of you up-to-date with my adventures.
Next Chapter: The Mountain Gorilla's of Uganda
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, the date of my iminant return is fast approaching... and the end to these mesmerizing adventures...
Kwaheri (Goodbye in Swahili)
Martin "of the Jungle" Canuel
Comments
W O W
Inquietant avec les crocodiles
Impressionnant avec les cheetahs
Fascinant avec les Massai