Africa Safari Journal – Kenya, Masai Mara, January 2008
My trip to Kenya was amazing. Was it life changing? Probably not, but it was awfully close. Living without a television, cell phone, or Internet access was an absolute treat. I didn’t miss any of it (and this is coming from a guy who loves technology). I must admit I was worried that being the only non die-hard animal lover of the group, I would be bored at looking at animals all day for two weeks. What was I thinking?
Turns out I really enjoy spotting which is the act of going out into the wild and trying to “spot” as many animals as you can find. It’s quite a bit similar to fishing in that it requires skill, preparation, patience, and occasional luck.
That said, here’s my journal from the trip, enjoy!
Day 1 – Sunday January 13th: I flew out of Chicago O’Hare Airport to Amsterdam where I will meet up with the rest of the group. This trip was almost cancelled due to political unrest in Kenya. Traditionally, Kenya has had the most stable government in East Africa since achieving independence from England in 1963. That changed last week when the election for president was obviously rigged. It appears that the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, won the election; however, the current president, Mwai Kibaki, pulled a fast one by announcing he won and coerced officials to swear himself in as president. Once news hit riots began and at this point over 486 people have been killed, though no American tourists have been injured.
Day 2 – Monday January 14th: I met our crew of ten at the Amsterdam airport which include Brian & Bridget, Anissa, Julie, Pat, Anne, Teri, and Katherine & Shane. The Amsterdam airport is by far the best airport I’ve ever seen. It’s like a mall within security so you don’t have to go through security to get back in. Plus they have lots of lounges of reclining seats to catch up on any sleep you may need between flights.
We then all flew together to Nairobi and stayed the night at a very nice hotel in town. I had meat lasagna for dinner and went to bed on the world’s hardest mattress and slept under the world’s most dangerous ceiling fan. This fan was the size of the room and looked like it was rocking itself out of socket and could fly down and decapitate me at any moment. Luckily, I was too tired to care.
Day 3 – Tuesday January 15th: We took a 12 seat plane from Wilson Airport in Nairobi and flew into the Masai Mara. We got picked up in two jeeps and saw an unbelievable amount of animals on the way to the camp. It was like being in animal heaven. For everyone in my jeep this was their first time in Africa and we were all extremely excited taking about a billion pictures.
Day 4 – Wednesday January 16th: We saw lions and cheetahs during the day and at night we witnessed two cheetahs killing a baby topi antelope. They didn’t get far into eating their kill before a hyena ran in, kicked their asses, and stole their dinner. Cheetahs are pussies. Even though the baby topi was chewed in half, it was still alive and we got to hear it screaming until it died a minute or two later. Welcome jungle baby (insert Guns & Roses music now)! On the way back we briefly spotted a serval cat.
Day 5 – Thursday January 17th: Today was animal porn day as we found a couple of lions getting nasty in the wild. Male lions have sex with a female for about one minute, but before you make fun of the king of the jungle for being a two pump chump, remember, they have intercourse around 80 times a day. We timed our little stud and noted he got busy every twelve minutes.
Day 6 – Friday January 18th: Today was our 4th day at camp. Every morning we get up around 5:30 AM, eat breakfast, and are out in the darkness by 6. This morning we saw some hyenas eating a carcass of their kill. During the day we had breakfast in the bush and spotted some lions on the way back. I got terribly sunburned and that night had hideously realistic nightmares. My roommate, Anissa, said I was shouting in my sleep. How embarrassing.
Day 7 – Saturday January 19th: This morning we found four lions hunting. Another jeep from a different camp got too close and disrupted them. Our camp director and professional guide Sean was very displeased and later reported that driver. The lions went to sleep. We went home and ate breakfast and on the way back out we saw that they had killed a zebra. We were all disappointed that we missed the kill. But who knows, if we stayed they might not have made the kill either. It’s hard to be upset at the would’ve could’ve situations. Later in the day we visited a Masai Village. I got to dance with the natives. The higher you jump the more wives and cattle you can achieve. Looks like I can handle a lot of wives and cows. It was quite revealing seeing the village and how the Masai live. At night the moon was quite bright and we couldn’t find any predators. We did find the largest male elephant ever. He was in musk and in the middle of the road – he wasn’t moving for us. We wisely went well around him. That big boy could’ve flipped our jeeps over easily. Today was Anne’s birthday and the cooks made a cake for her and sang to her.
Day 8 – Sunday January 20th: The trip is halfway over with one more week to go, but it’s a full week of safari. In the morning we found of couple of male elephants who were excited, very excited as they wrestled with each other. The jeep almost got stuck as the big elephants tussled towards us. It was comical. All the ladies’ jaws dropped at the sight of the size of the male elephant’s member. Teri repeatedly claimed that she never noticed, yeah right, and the Pope's not Catholic, one legged ducks don't swim in circles, and bears really don't crap in the woods.
The weather is beautiful here with temperatures in the eighties during the day and sixties at night perfect for sleeping. Outside of nightmares here and there, I’ve been sleeping great and I’m not woken by any of the animal noises at night (thought I think I’m the only one). There is an annoying bird who randomly and loudly chirps until sunrise, but I can usually sleep through it.
Because of the political turmoil, there are only 25 to 45 tourists in the whole Mara. It’s great for us but devastating for the economy. More trouble occurred today as a Masai minister’s daughter was clubbed by someone from the Kikuyu tribe and now some young Masai punks are going around the Mara looking to fight some Kikuyu. Security is up around camp and Sean is carrying his rifle with him. That afternoon/night we found two lions and waited and waited and waited for them to get up and hunt, but no luck. However, I did get two great video interviews today with Sean and the professional guide from our jeep, Ping’ua. I’m almost out of tapes with 5 more days to go.
And by the 6th day of camp people are starting to get irritated with each other. Seems like certain people are getting sick of Teri, who likes to talk a lot and is rather loud which can be very problematic when being quiet is a fundamental for spotting animals – the quieter you are the more animals you will see. I feel a bit bad for her as people roll their eyes when she interrupts them to talk about her vegan lifestyle choices while she wolfs down egg omelets for breakfast. Though, conflict is to be expected on these trips. Hopefully everyone will remain civil.
Oh yeah, I took a dump out in the bush today. Luckily the ladies had toilet paper with them. By this point, everyone in our jeep at one time or another has enjoyed the scenic view of the outdoor bathroom. It's quite amusing as Ping has to check out the area before we can exit the jeep to do our business. Getting attacked by a lion or buffalo while going to the bathroom could be quite embarrassing, and painful.
Day 9 – Monday January 21st: Today was an all day safari into the Mara. We got up at 5:00 AM, ate breakfast, and were gone by 6. The Mara really is animal heaven, no wonder so many movies and shows film here like Big Cat Diaries and Out of Africa. We saw a serval cat, elephants bathing in mud, zebras and wildebeest crossing the famous migration site, a wild cat (briefly), water bucks, crocodiles, and lions – lions – and more lions! We saw over 20 different lions. We were actually sick of seeing lions by the end of the day. Isn’t that funny?
Earlier in the day I got loudly snorted at by an angry hippo. They can bite a human in half. In fact, hippos kill more people than any other animal in Africa. As we left the Mara, Ping got me very close to lioness and the two of us had a stare-down. I looked right in the eyes of a wild lion – it was really intense.
Day 10 – Tuesday January 22nd: Because of the all day trip to the Mara the previous day, today was a sleep in morning with a nice walk at 10 AM. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep in the next morning. Oh well, it was a lazy day and we went out at night. A storm was coming. Ping turned off the lights in the jeep. It was so quiet and beautiful (the calm before the storm), except Teri had a panic attack because she’s afraid of the dark. She had to cover her eyes, stomp her feet, and count her fingers to make the fear go away. It was bizarre and uncomfortable. The thunder storm hit just as we returned to camp. Dinner was fun as the rain poured outside.
Day 11 – Wednesday January 23rd: We got up at 5 and went out right away. We got lucky and saw an aardvark, which is really rare. Ping was very excited as it was the first aardvark he had seen up close. For the rest of the day we didn’t see much except a small fruit bat. On the way back to camp a snake was crossing the road. Ping stopped abruptly to avoid running over the snake, which turned out to be a black spitting cobra. I could tell because it had hooded up right next to the front tire. As I leaned out of the jeep to take a picture, Ping took off in reverse! He was yelling that it was about to spit venom. I guess they can spit venom over ten feet and it is very toxic. After a little urging, we convinced Ping to follow the cobra. It was very fast and quickly went down its hole. I wish I had been fast enough to take its picture when it was hooded up.
That afternoon we saw mating elephants and two males fighting for dominance. They were hitting each other with suck force, dust exploded from the wrinkles in their skin.
Day 12 – Thursday January 24th: This morning we saw nothing. On the afternoon drive we saw hippos and a baby elephant. At night we were deluged in a hail storm. It was intense – the thunder was so loud it shook the rain flaps in the jeep and the hail stones were larger than peas. Ping said he’s never seen it hail this time of the year. The other jeep refused to put down their rain flaps so while we sat calmly drinking tea and waiting out the storm, the other jeep went whizzing by us back to camp like a dog with its tail between its legs.
We investigated a new region of the conservancy and found an area that is a bone graveyard. This must be a massive kill zone. We found an immense elephant skull. It was very cool. The only new animals we saw were mice. Not far away from us the other jeep found a cheetah, a giant pack of hyenas, and lions playing with a couple of porcupines. Just an example of the randomness of what you can find at night.
Day 13 – Friday January 25th: Today was our last day in camp. On the way to the airport we saw a cheetah and some lions. I was very sad to go. In Nairobi we visited the Giraffe Sanctuary where I got to make out with one of the giraffes. No seriously, they call it giraffe kisses. You put a treat in your mouth the giraffe will slip you some full tongue and steal the treat. Then we went to the Matt Bronze gallery which features beautiful bronze wildlife sculptures. They were kind enough to give us a tour of the whole process to make a sculpture. The place was amazing. Anissa got ill on the plane and ended up vomiting twice on the flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam.
Day 14 – Saturday January 26th: After several long delays in Amsterdam I finally made it back home to Chicago. It was an amazing trip where I got see so many animals including lions, cheetahs, serval cats, zebras, giraffes, buffalo, elephants, topi, dik dik, monkeys, baboons, hyenas, hippos, mongoose, gazelles, wildebeests, elands, warthogs, impalas, jackals, ostrich, cokehut beasts, water bucks, spring hares (African kangaroos), and a black spitting cobra. Not bad for a first time, not bad at all.
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