My African Safari
Part III
Masai Mara National Reserve and Nairobi
by Howard Norfolk
Original to Aquarticles
All photos copyright Howard Norfolk
From Lake Nakuru we drove to the south-east corner of Kenya, and the
Masai Mara National Reserve.
The photos tell the story. To see an
enlargement of a photo, click on it, then go "back." I don't expect you to look
at them all!
The "Mara" is the most popular wildlife park in Kenya. It
adjoins the famous Serengeti Plains of Tanzania.
  
We saw many different animals, including this magnificent
elephant...and giraffes...
 
...and topis, gazelles, warthogs...
  
...and zebras, waterbucks, ostriches...
...and crowned cranes.
Every night there was a beautiful sunset as we raced back to our
camp. Vehicles are not allowed to drive in the Park at night. (One evening our driver was
fined for being out too late, so we all chipped in to help him pay). On the skyline here
is a herd of gazelles.
Masai Mara is well known for its lions, and we saw many of them.
A pride of lions was resting in some bushes right by the road, and
we had to take a detour so as not to disturb them.
 
We drove close to other lions, which ignored us.
 
Jackals were waiting patiently for this lioness to finish her snack.
As soon as she left they ran to eat.
 
Lions don't eat giraffes in zoos very often, but at Masai Mara they
do! Here, hyenas were waiting for their share of the remains.
The next morning this was what was left of the giraffe.
One evening we noticed this gnu with a bad injury to its side. We
could do nothing to help it...
 
... and it probably ended up as lion food like this one.
Lions were everywhere. We would stop and search with our binoculars
to look for them. You may just be able to see a lion walking on the grassy slope on the
other side of this river.
 
The drivers have two-way radios. They tell each other when they see
something interesting, and everyone rushes to that place. These vans all came to see this
little cheetah hidden in a bush, and we took it in turns to drive close.
Here is my tour group, on the border between Kenya and the Serengeti
Plains of Tanzania. Five are in Kenya and one is in Tanzania!
Robert, in yellow, is a schoolteacher from Sweden, and his wife Monica is sitting in front
of him. They had been to Kenya several times before. Their sons are a naval officer and an
art student. Also sitting are a salesman from Belgium and his daughter.
 
The remains of a dead elephant - tail and head. Everything has been
eaten.
It was Christmas time, and this was the sunset at our camp on
Christmas Eve.
 
We went to a lodge for Christmas dinner.
This colourful moth was outside my tent on Boxing Day morning.
Maasai people sometimes visited our camp.
 
 
We wanted to go for a walk after spending so much time driving
around looking for animals, so we paid this Maasai, John Ole Dokwin, to guide us around
his home territory on the edge of the park. We walked along the river bank towards his
village. He showed us some plants and herbs that the Maasai use as medicine, and also his
bow and arrow which we tried shooting.
Ballooning is an expensive way to see the animals - a flight costs
about US$400 per person. There are two balloons in this photo.
  
Vultures waited for a hyena to finish eating. He came back and they
had to fly away to wait all over again.
Much of the time vultures sit in trees.
 
There was a crowd of vehicles and people at the "Hippo
Pool," watching the hippopotami in the river.
I liked these girls' braided hair! They were part of Musa Nyakundi's
family, shown here. I spoke with friendly Musa, and he told me he owns the "Juma
Travel Agency" in Kakamega, Kenya, and invites tourists to contact him (tel. 20611).
Goodbye to Masai Mara! - and the end of our safari.
We drove back to Nairobi, and our group tour was over.
The route took us along the edge of the Rift Valley. Yes, THE Rift
Valley, where our Rift Lake African cichlid aquarium fish come from. Lake Victoria, for
example, is just west of Masai Mara.
I had three days to spare, so I looked around Nairobi, including the
National Museum with its ethnic displays.
Finally some fish! - opposite the National Museum is a small
Aquarium with a collection of African cichlids kept according to the lakes they come from.
"Perhaps if I climb up here I can get a better view!"
These tortoises were in a reptile exhibit.
The Railway Museum has a collection of colonial steam engines and a
large shed full of mementos.
Just outside Nairobi, the "Ostrich Park" is a popular
place for family outings. I was inspired by this garden. It is for crocodiles, which can
be seen in the lower pool. I'd like a garden like this, but if it were mine I'd put fish
in it !
  
They sell visitors cabbage to feed the ostriches.
 
Streams in the Ostrich Park gardens contain tilapia.
Another tourist attraction is Karen Blixen's house. Karen Blixen was
a Danish authoress who wrote "Out of Africa." Her garden is nice and tropical.
East Africa is of course considered "the cradle of mankind" - it
is believed that humans originated here and spread across the World. I have always been
interested in this, so I was keen to make the day trip to Olorgesailie,
where Louis and Mary Leakey made some important archaeological discoveries of ancient
human remains in the 1940s. I was impressed by how hot, dusty and remote the site was. The
Leakeys must have gone through lots of discomfort for the sake of their science!
 
Olorgesailie is now set up as a tourist attraction, with displays,
notice boards and walkways.
The tin roof in the walkway photo above protects these fossilised
animal bones which have been left where they were found. There are also many prehistoric
stone tools, laying around in piles in the open air below the walkway. Since there were no
other visitors that day, the guide let me through the barriers for a close-up look at the
exhibits.
On the left is my driver, John, together with a guide from
Olorgesailie. I hired John and his taxi for the three days I was in Nairobi and he took me
everywhere I wanted to go. He is a Kikuyu who has a wife and family living in a small town
north of Nairobi. When in Nairobi he sleeps in his car. He tries to visit his family as
often as possible.
In the reception building at Olorgesailie there is a small but
interesting museum with information about the history and archaeology of the area. This
display shows the evolution of human skulls.
I brought home some nice souvenirs from Kenya, including
woodcarvings of people and animals.
I was sorry to have to leave Africa and hope to go there again. From
Nairobi I flew to Mumbai (Bombay) India, and then to Chennai (Madras), where I met up with
my Indian friends and we toured
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) for three weeks. But that's another story!
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