Kenya Travelogue

8th May
Start to a journey which I had not thought at that time or even earlier when
I decided to take Kenya as a vacation, in my ‘wildest’ of dreams to be half
as exciting, adventurous and thrilling…

On Board Kenya Airways to Nairobi from Bombay at 3 am – flight was delayed
by more than an hour due to runway being closed! Anything new – not quite!
Flight was quite better than expected in terms of service. Got 2 miniatures
of absolut 🙂
Landed nairobi @ 630 am (Kenya is 2.30 hrs behind us) arnd 35 mins late..
Bought Glenn and Grey Goose from duty free- Good times had just begun!!!
Visa formalities took an entire lifetime and so did the morning tea at a
nearby restaurant but was worth it with phafda and jalebis (can you
imagine- Thanks to Gaurang & Sejal), theplas, boondi and all time favourite
khakhras !!
Left frm their only arnd 9am and the destination was Masai Mara Game Reserve
– the largest jungle safari arnd the world – Its in the southern hemisphere
(equator cuts across kenya)… Tanzania is to the south of mara and quite
close – herds of grazing animals migrate to Tanzania startng Apr and come
back to Mara after Jun. On the way the predators chase these grazers and
hunt them
Some interesting facts about mara-
646 sq miles of spread – its a savannah forest – no dense bushes but grasses
whch were arnd a feet tall but would grow to 4 feet In another 3 mths of
monsoons!!

Last year 123 million gazelles, zebras and bush backs had been counted by
the authorities!
Also 40000 lions!!
Even 3-4 mths are not enough for covering the entire reserve and we had 2
days – so you can imagine how lucky we ought to be to spot the Big 5!! And
that too during this time of migration!!
Other animals – elephants, wild buffaloes, hyenas, giraffes, hippos, watucks
(wild pigs), jackals, ostrich, some more beautiful birds

The journey is arnd 300 kms with 86 kms of no road – passing thru small
villages and potholes – no, craters actually…driving on almost 2 wheels on
the side slope of the road and zig zag all the way.. We were travellng in a
8 seater van (2 of them) – we had close to 35 bags among 4 families!!
Was actually cursing at that point – the decision to take kenya on the
itenary.. Not only was the road bad but sunrays were so harsh that at some
points my T-shirt could hv toasted a bread!!
It took us arnd 7+ hrs to reach the Masai Mara and the journey was one of
the toughest! However on reachng the resort, we were very pleasantly
surprised with the size and ambience…

We had stayed in Mara Sarova Games
Resort – it had tents – very luxurious but small. No regrets though..since
we had only 2 days and were hardly going to be in the room
We had a very quick lunch and left immdly for the game drive (US$ 30 per
person per drive) It was already 5 pm and did not hv enough time since the
reserve closed by 630 pm but still we went ahead… We were not lucky enough
that day and could spot feew gazelles, elephants, zebras on the way. Another
van spotted a lioness and were damn excited but since we were on the other
side (the vans’ drivers/guides use walky talkies) we could not go..

Though on the way back to the resort we saw something quite amazing for us – first
true experience of a kenyan safari!! 10-12 giraffes at a distance of arnd
8-10 mtrs…can you imagine?? The best sight is when they gallop away – its
like a slow motion in real life. Hv captured some videos. They have an
amazing sense of protectiveness – infact that’s true for all the animals.
Out of the grp, there were 3 of them who used to wait for each other when
either wandered away and again gallop further!!!!
Their neck bone whch is taller than almost all of us.. They sleep for 10
mins to a max of 2 hrs only. We were a bit disappointed that we did not see
the lions and leopards… But this is a game of patience and we had to have
lots of it..
On returning to the hotel we had good dinner – with options of jain and veg
food…and finally we were all too tired to enjoy the GF and GG!! Hit the
bed straightaway since had an early morning game drive..

10th May
We had to start at 630am and right on dot we
did… Our driver told us its got to be “lions’ day” and it really did turn
out to be one! While we spotted the gazelles, wild boars, again but it was a
group of 12 lions and cubs that made our day (at least we thought so). The
lions were roaming around our van and sometimes the cubs were playing with
their dad!!

We also saw a group of african elephants- 2 elders and 3 calves… The best
part was the way they were running away the flies – they were using their
trunk to pick up the sand and sprinkle on their body. African elephants are
a lot more wild and dangerous as compared to their other counterparts!
We came back at arnd 930am and were excited to have spotted the lions!! Then
we had a regular round of breakfast and lunch..
Our next game drive was at 4 pm and we headed straight to a water body whch
was pretty far in the reserve to spot hippos. Enroute, we could see a hyena

sitting right near the road – we were told it is the most dangerous canibal
– it can break human bones with its strong jaw!
On reaching that place we saw arnd 8 odd hippos ranging frm 700 kgs to 1.5

tonnes!! Huge creatures – but herbivorous and stays inside the water whole
day since its skin is allergic to sun rays. With that weight, they can still
float!!
We returned back to a place where the other vans had almost seen a ‘kill..’
We missed it though.. We were told it was a great (that might sound
mean)site when the group of lions and cubs encircled 3 buffaloes and luckily
they managed to escape frm the deadly situation!!
Still, what we saaw was nothing we cd imagine – we saw arnd 15 lions
circling our vans for close to 20 mins.. One of the lion was sitting like a
king and there was a lioness nearby.. Other bunch of them had cubs around
them playing with the elderlies!!! We hung around here for more than 20 odd
mins.

Finally returned to the resort and it was the end of a great day… Spotted
the big 4 – rhino was still left!! People told us that we were damn lucky to
spot the leopard!!!
Next day we were to leave for Lake Nakuru at 7 in the mrng.