Category: Maasai Mara

Kenya, Maasai Mara, Nairobi

Angry Elephants and Wounded Lions

Joel

My final Naboisho Conservancy safari had us stalking injured lions for a while.  The male lion had a limp and one of the lionesses had a nasty looking open wound on her inner leg. There must have been some fighting with the elephants overnight, we were told.  The elephants had been quite noisy near our camp all night and they woke me up with their trumpeting repeatedly. 

Perhaps the elephants were still a bit spooked or stressed out from the night’s encounters because they seemed quite hostile towards us in our safari vehicle. One wrapped his trunk around one of his tusks (a sign of flaunting his tusk at us, one of our guides said). Another projected his ears straight out, a sign of hostility. We also saw plenty of zebras and the usual herbivores, but still no leopards!

Sometime shortly after the morning game drive, I began to feel quite sick all of the sudden. Was it my malaria pill? No, it must have been a bout with gastro, because I got very sick on way back to airport. My car sickness was probably due to a number of things, but being called half way to the airport to let us know my flight had arrived 45 minutes early prompted my driver guide to start racing down the very poor four wheel drive tracks – which was about as much as my stomach could take.

As the sole passenger on my first flight, we flew straight into the Maasai Mara National Reserve and parked the plane. All of us on board (me and the crew) had to disembark and wait for an equal sized connecting flight from there back to Nairobi where we were treated with yet more horrendous Nairobi traffic chaos on our return. Some entrepreneurs had created roadblocks on freeway entrance ramps so they could demand bribes from drivers to get out of the traffic. Fortunately, they didn’t interfere with us.

Kenya, Maasai Mara

The Naboisho Conservancy

Joel

The camp I stayed in was quite interesting, because it was genuinely in the middle of a completely wild area – full of predators. We were allowed to walk around the immediate camp during the day, but as soon as twilight and nightfall came, we were strictly forbidden from leaving our tents or the main building without a Maasai Warrior escort. If we did need to leave our tents for whatever reason after dark, we were to call the front desk for an escort. Fortunately, our tents included flushing toilets and showers – one indoor and one outdoor. We were not permitted to use the outdoor showers at night.

The Naboisho Conservancy was gorgeous. I went on game drives every chance I could, and even through in another morning walk with some other guests. We saw several jackals and hyenas and a lion on the drive out to our walking spot, but fewer animals once we were out there.

On the evening drive we found another cheetah, this time male with no collar – but he wasn’t nearly as active as the female we saw earlier – just laying around.  Also saw evidence of a fresh kill by our local lioness, and suspected she was tucked away feeding her young in some bushes.  There were a number of jackals nearby waiting for their chance to grab their share (which tipped off our guides that something was up).  We saw lots of giraffes, ostriches (including females running), and came across a pride of lions on our way home.  They were initially relaxing on the sole road back to our camp, blocking our way about 1km away, but then one of them started digging out a warthog hole under a big bush.  Eventually the lion gave up when it encountered what appeared to be too many roots interfering with its quest to widen the hole.

The next morning we went out on a great morning game drive in the hopes of finding some leopards.  We followed a new track along a stream that was full of hippopotamuses swimming and running around feeding on nearby grasses.  Also saw lots of elephants and some giraffes.  Excitingly, we got the land cruiser bogged in a creek and our driver and his assistant took about 1/2 hour of fiddling around with the jack, branches, and rocks to finally get us out.  We also saw lots and lots of baboons.

The evening safari found us plenty of lions, elephants, giraffes, antelopes, zebras, etc…

Kenya, Maasai Mara

Not sure my insurance would have covered this…

Joel

I had the chance to do a walking safari with spear wielding Maasai Warriors in the Mara this morning. They have been living in the area for countless generations, so I put my trust in their ability to protect me from the local predators using their traditional techniques. First we drove to a shorter grassy area for better, safer visibility.  There were two walking in front of me, two walking behind, and one next to me who also served as a guide. We did hear a lion bellow for its pride part way through our walk. They claimed it was probably 2kms away at the time.

Naboisho Conservancy Walking Safari

Sounds exciting, but most animals kept a wide berth. I found that staying in the truck gave far better photo opportunities. That afternoon I headed out with another couple for an evening game drive. I was quite thrilled to come across my first wild cheetah! A very beautiful animal. We stalked it for about 45 minutes and watched its cat-like behavior as it tried to pursue prey.

It was interesting to see how most of the herbivores would stand up to the carnivores with tremendous confidence, and send out the alarm to their fellow herbivores – all to protect their little ones. The cheetah was regularly rebuffed by teamed up prey (using strength in numbers), and eventually chased out of the area by three hyenas. 

It is also interesting how most animals seem total unfazed about a safari vehicle shadowing them just meters away. Elephants would sometimes react, impalas would always move on after we would stop, but most would just ignore us – not realizing there were people inside.

Kenya, Maasai Mara

A hop, skip, and a jump

Joel

Headed off for an exciting week living amongst local predators in the Maasai Mara area in western Kenya – part of the same region known as the Serengeti in neighboring Tanzania. I stayed in the Naboisho Conservancy in a beautiful camp overlooking plenty of wildlife.

I almost didn’t make it to the airport for my flight there due to the horrendous Nairobi traffic, but with minutes to spare I was boarding my tiny plane. A propeller driven plane, it only had 12 seats and 3 passengers. In order to get to my camp, we were required to make four hops to other deserted airstrips along the way. The runways were all dirt with the exception of the first being just grass. 

Nairobi Flight hops to Naboisho Conservancy

I eventually arrived at my final destination only to be greeted by my safari guide. As he drove me to the camp via a very bumpy game drive he pointed out many giraffes, zebras, and other animals.  After settling in for the afternoon, we headed out for an evening game drive that found us a female lioness, which we stalked for about a hour.  She was believed to be nursing offspring nearby.