Friday at the Maasai Mara
Well, after a very good night's sleep, wash and breakfast, we headed off to the game reserve to see if we could locate any animals we hadn't spotted on the first evening.
Given we had already found numerous giraffe, impala, gazelle, zebra and elephants, we passed them by without even stopping. We a little perseverance, we came across water buck, ostriches, franklin and vultures.
After a little more driving, we came to the Kenya/Tanzania border without a border post in sight. Just a marker showing where the border was. Alas, we didn't venture in the Serengeti as we were told we'd need visas to enter Tanzania.
We moved on and our guide took us to where hippopotami and crocodiles could be found. On arrival at the river, a soldier with an assault rifle escorted us to the waterside. I'm guessing it was in case any animals posed a danger to us. There were quite a few hippo keeping cool in the water, with the tops of their heads just showing above the water. Whilst taking photos, Nige got a little carried away and had to be told to stay back from the shore by the soldier. Nige didn't argue with the man with the big gun. :) We then walked a little further along the bank with the soldier and came across crocodile - mostly basking in the sun and seeming harmless, although I decided my zoom lens would be best employed in this circumstance!
Back in the bus, our guide had heard of the location of some cheetah and the hunt was on! After a rather swift drive across rather uneven dirt tracks, with the odd buffalo, hyena, warthog and stork along the way, our endurance was rewarded with a group of cheetah who apparently we looking for lunch. Just watching a cheetah in full flight was an amazing sight!
It came to our turn for lunch and we headed back to base camp and our trusty steed clapped out in the middle of the Maasai Mara. Just the place you'd want to be stranded in the middle of the afternoon. We might not have lunch any time soon, but something else might! The vehicle was eventually repaired and we made it intact back to base camp.
Anyway, due to the slight hiatus, we didn't get a chance to recharge our cameras, but little worry. Our foray into the park in the evening turned into a rather disappointing search for leopard and rhino. After driving around for a couple of hours, we called it a night and headed back to base camp.
After a hearty buffalo stew and a few games of rummy, we settled down for the night to prepare ourselves for the hunt in the morning and the journey to Nyahururu.
Given we had already found numerous giraffe, impala, gazelle, zebra and elephants, we passed them by without even stopping. We a little perseverance, we came across water buck, ostriches, franklin and vultures.
After a little more driving, we came to the Kenya/Tanzania border without a border post in sight. Just a marker showing where the border was. Alas, we didn't venture in the Serengeti as we were told we'd need visas to enter Tanzania.
We moved on and our guide took us to where hippopotami and crocodiles could be found. On arrival at the river, a soldier with an assault rifle escorted us to the waterside. I'm guessing it was in case any animals posed a danger to us. There were quite a few hippo keeping cool in the water, with the tops of their heads just showing above the water. Whilst taking photos, Nige got a little carried away and had to be told to stay back from the shore by the soldier. Nige didn't argue with the man with the big gun. :) We then walked a little further along the bank with the soldier and came across crocodile - mostly basking in the sun and seeming harmless, although I decided my zoom lens would be best employed in this circumstance!
Back in the bus, our guide had heard of the location of some cheetah and the hunt was on! After a rather swift drive across rather uneven dirt tracks, with the odd buffalo, hyena, warthog and stork along the way, our endurance was rewarded with a group of cheetah who apparently we looking for lunch. Just watching a cheetah in full flight was an amazing sight!
It came to our turn for lunch and we headed back to base camp and our trusty steed clapped out in the middle of the Maasai Mara. Just the place you'd want to be stranded in the middle of the afternoon. We might not have lunch any time soon, but something else might! The vehicle was eventually repaired and we made it intact back to base camp.
Anyway, due to the slight hiatus, we didn't get a chance to recharge our cameras, but little worry. Our foray into the park in the evening turned into a rather disappointing search for leopard and rhino. After driving around for a couple of hours, we called it a night and headed back to base camp.
After a hearty buffalo stew and a few games of rummy, we settled down for the night to prepare ourselves for the hunt in the morning and the journey to Nyahururu.
posted by Gerald | 10:10 pm
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