Kenya

Kenya is the first destination of our trip and the first time in years, that we had put ourselves in the hands of a tour company. So when we arrived at the airport we actually had a pickup to take us to our hotel in the Nairobi city centre.

The tour company didn’t get off to a great start as despite knowing when we were arriving the pickup was an hour late. Anyway, in the meantime we managed to secure the usual essentials easily enough at the airport – a sim card and local currency.

We arrived at our hotel which was a bit unusual as the entrance was through a small shopping mall but the security guard at the entrance was very helpful and pointed us to a lift which went up to the hotel.

We had a day to spare before our tour began so we did a little exploring around our hotel and found a restaurant for lunch but we weren’t up for much as we knew the tour was starting early the next day and would be very full on.

In the morning we were picked up by Wilson, our Masaai guide for the week. The vehicle for the trip was a Toyota Landcruiser with three rows of seats and a raising safari roof.

We visited a few more hotels to pick up other guests for the trip and were surprised that the Landcruiser would be completely full.

Once we had collected everyone we started to drive out of Nairobi and head towards the Masai Mara which is about a four hour drive from the city. We stopped off at a viewpoint to see the Great Rift Valley but visibility wasn’t great – we still managed to get a sense of the size of the valley but it was very hazy.

After this it was back in the car and the last hour of the drive got very bumpy as we headed down an unpaved road towards the Southern gate of the Masai Mara. We travelled at a fair pace and after the biggest bumps a musical “Sorry” would ring out from Wilson in the front although the pace didn’t slow.

Eventually we reached the Masai Camp hotel, which was only a few hundred metres from the edge of the Masai Mara. After being welcomed by the Masai staff in their colourful traditional dress we dumped our bags in our tents (despite being tents they still had an ensuite bathroom) and headed back to the Landcruiser for an evening game drive.

It didn’t take long once we were in the park to start seeing wildlife. The first area we went through had the grass cut back and we had great sightings of eland, buffalo, warthog and of course impala.

This abundance of wildlife was to be a theme of the Masai Mara and we would seldom go long without a new sighting.

The highlight of this evening game drive was a pride of lions atop a big mound of dirt, which was giving them a panoramic view of the surrounding area, including a delicious looking herd of buffalo! When we first arrived at the lion sighting we couldn’t get very close as the road was closed, so we were, along with a few other vehicles, kept at a distance. However when we returned almost an hour later the road block had been lifted and a group of park rangers were monitoring access to the area.

This was the start of witnessing the slightly strange approach to off-roading that exists in the Masai Mara, which is unlike anything we have seen in any other game park. Off-roading is not allowed – unless there is a predator sighting, then no more than five vehicles can go off-road to see the animals before having to return to the road. There are big fines for breaking these rules and we saw lots of Rangers who were doing their best to manage the process but when there is no ranger vehicle in sight it’s a bit of a free for all as the guides attempt to get the best viewings for their guests.

The off-roading rule is not the only way the rules get broken in the Masai Mara. We spent some time with the pride of lions and our guide agreed to let us stay to watch the sunsetting behind them, but we were a fair distance from the exit which meant we wouldn’t make it back before the park gates closed at 6.30pm. No problem though, we eventually left the park by a back road around 7.30pm in almost total darkness. Hakuna Matata, as they like to say in this part of the world.

We went back to the Masai camp for an evening meal and learnt quickly that they were feeders. It was a three course meal and there was loads of food. If you didn’t clear your plate then they would jokingly push you to eat more. The food was great though, very tasty. After leaving the main building at night to go back to our tent we were escorted by rangers as predators have been known to wander into the camp but to our relief, the only wildlife we saw on the way back to our tent was a small herd of zebra grazing.

The next morning we were up early as we had a full day game drive in the Masai Mara on the plan. This was to prove a long day as we started early and didn’t get back to the hotel until gone dark again.

This was by far the best single days game drive that we have ever done. We had multiple lion sightings and even saw our first full grown male lion. We saw a cheetah and a couple of leopards as well as the full gamut of prey animals, not forgetting of course the elephants. The only thing we didn’t see was a rhino which are very elusive in this park.

The day was spent mostly in the Landcruiser but we did have a couple of opportunities to stretch our legs. First was at a rest stop where we learnt that during the busy period (the wildebeest migration) there can be upwards of 100 vehicles here. Fortunately there were only about 10 when we were there as well as a troop of baboons posing for us around the toilet block.

The second stop was a lunch stop where we had a picnic on a bluff overlooking the Mara river with the sounds of hippos to keep us company.

The longest stop of the day was actually when we crossed over into Tanzania (no border post or passport) to go on a short hike with a Serengeti ranger down the Mara river to see crocodiles and hippos. We were at the main crossing spot for wildebeest during the migration that has been made famous by so many wildlife documentaries. Apparently during the migration this area gets incredibly busy, with the bridge over the river being standing room only there are so many tourists.

Our day in the Masai Mara was amazing and we again exited the park well after sunset but it did let us get some pictures of animals with the sun setting behind them.

After another night in the masai camp we were up early again but this time because we were heading to a masai village for a tour. This was actually the village that our guide Wilson grew up in and his father was the chief. However given that his father had 10 wives and 48 children this didn’t make him that special !

The Masai men from the village greeted us with a traditional dance which was accompanied by a droning song. One of them was wearing a hat made from a lions head which one of the elders of the village had killed as a boy. The Masai boys used to be sent out as teenagers to kill a lion as a test of manhood but the government no longer allow this practice as lions are endangered.

The dance ended with us joining in with the Masai jumping competition. They can jump very high and this is used to impress the women as a precursor to a marriage match. Unsurprisingly our jumps were nowhere near as impressive.

In the village itself they gave us a demonstration of how to light a fire the traditional way using a block of wood and a stick and then we went with one of Wilson’s relatives to see his house.

The last bit of the visit was to be serenaded by the women – who were a lot more tuneful than the men, and provided with the opportunity to purchase some of their wares.

After our Masai visit we had a long drive ahead which was to take the rest of the day as we headed towards Lake Naivasha. The first couple of hours was pretty bumpy as we drove through a conservancy next to the Masai Mara. This did mean however that we saw some game although we weren’t allowed to stop. Eventually we reached a paved road but we still had a long drive until we finally reached our hotel near to Lake Naivasha national park. This was a proper hotel that even had a swimming pool.

The next morning we were up before light as we were going to hit the park at first light. The park was misty in the morning light but it wasn’t long before we started to spot wildlife along the lake shore. Lots of waterbucks make their homes here.

However the real reason we were here was to see Rhinos – the only one of the big five we hadn’t yet seen. It wasn’t too long until we came upon a mother and calf rhino right next to the road – which was fortunate because there is no off roading here.

These were white rhino which are less shy than the black rhino and tend to live more socially. We also saw a group of three a bit later who were just lying down together.

The other wildlife that we saw in abundance in Lake Naivasha were birds, including pelicans and flamingos.

We only spent a few hours in the park but really enjoyed it, the scenery was beautiful and the mix of forest and lake was unlike any other park we had visited.

Next stop was at Lake Nakuru which was only about an hour or so drive from Lake Naivashsa. Here we were going on a boat ride across the lake. The boat was a small open boat which meant that we were really close to the water.

The absolute highlight of Lake Nakuru were the Fish Eagles of which there were many. Our guide took some small fish with him and threw these out into the water so that the fish eagles could sweep down and pluck them from the water. This was amazing to watch and they really are magnificent birds.

We also saw several hippos basking on the bank of the lake which was the first time we had seen a group together on land. The lake was full of birdlife and we even saw some waterbuck and impala on an island in the middle of the lake.

It was a fun cruise but before long we were back on the Landcruiser on our way back through Nairobi to the south of the country, where we were spending the next couple of days in the shadow of Kilimanjaro at Amboseli National Park.

Our accommodation in Amboseli was a tented camp again but our tent was huge with three double beds in it and of course an ensuite bathroom out the back. Despite this, it was probably the worst of the accommodation that we had (there wasn’t always water for showering and when there was it generally wasn’t hot and unfortunately the buffet food served here was not good, especially when compared to the Masai camp), however it was fine, we’ve stayed in much worse and we weren’t here for the accommodation!

After an early night I was up very early for a guided hike on the fringes of the park. We didn’t see too much wildlife but the views of Kilimanjaro were spectacular and it was great to be out walking for a change.

After breakfast back at the camp it was time for an all day game drive again. Amboseli is know for its abundance of elephants and we were definitely not disappointed. We saw hundreds of them from big groups of up to 20, down to solitary ones.

The goal of the day was to get a picture of elephants in front of Kilimanjaro. Throughout the day the mountain kept appearing and disappearing as the weather changed and in the early afternoon the weather really came in with some torrential rain.

We narrowly avoided being soaked in the rain as this was during our lunch stop where we walked to a viewpoint on top of a small hill. Fortunately the rain came down as we reached the top and we could huddle in the small shelter at the top to eat our lunch.

The views were great, there were loads of little birds and you could see multiple groups of elephants from the top so it was a good lunch stop. Once the rain stopped we made our way back to the car.

Amboseli did not disappoint and it’s not just about elephants, we saw several lions, giraffe, a couple of cheetah and lots of hyena. Hyena had been quite elusive for us up to this point but they seemed to be everywhere in Amboseli. Everytime we stopped to look at something you would look around and spot a hyena somewhere in the landscape!

As it came closer to sunset and leaving the park the skies seemed to clear and Kilimanjaro came out and we managed to get some pictures of elephants in front of it as well as giraffes!

Overall it was a good day of game viewing but there was more to come in the morning as despite it being our last day of the trip we would game drive through the length of the park before beginning the drive back to Nairobi.

We had a lovely morning game drive with more hyenas, lions and of course elephants. But all good things have to end and we had to drive back to Nairobi.

This was the end of what had been an excellent tour with a fantastic guide and it was great to not have to organise things ourselves for a while. The group of people on our trip were also great and it was really fun to be with other people for a change.

We had a couple of spare days in Nairobi before we were flying back to the UK and as a treat had arranged our last night in a nice hotel for a bit of luxury before the overnight flight home.

We didn’t do much in Nairobi, quite frankly we were pretty tired after a really full on week but we did go to the Giraffe Centre, which is a very famous Nairobi landmark. The giraffe here are Rothschild Giraffe which are endangered but they have a breeding programme which aims to release the young giraffe back into the wild.

There is a feeding platform at giraffe head height where you can hand feed the giraffe, which is a lot of fun. They have very long black tongues which snake out to take the food from your hands. They were very gentle but you do need to be a bit careful as they can headbutt you if they aren’t getting the food quickly enough.

This was a fitting end to our amazing Africa trip. After three months in Africa we definitely felt that there was so much more to see and that we would need to come back. We were very pleased to discover that budget travel and safaris in Africa are possible and that you don’t need to spend a fortune to explore this amazing place.