As they collided on the road to Maasai Mara, they heard a helicopter flying low. This was Di and Leonie’s first day of safari and a Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) helicopter was herding an elephant back to the park. What an exciting way to start your week in Kenya! This post talks about his June safari through Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, and Amboseli.
Upon arrival, they spent the first night at Wildebeest Eco Camp, located in the quiet, green suburb of Karen, in the southwest of Nairobi. Rested and refreshed, they headed to the Maasai Mara the next day. It was on this trip to Kenya’s main game reserve that they saw the KWS helicopter herding a stray elephant back to the park boundaries. Human-wildlife conflict is a constant challenge for conservationists in Kenya, and elephants can be particularly destructive in a farm field, which can result in retaliation from the community whose crops have been destroyed. This is why it is imperative to keep the elephants in the safety of the park to avoid such a conflict.
They entered the park and enjoyed a safari as they headed to camp in Aruba, where they would spend the next two nights. During their time in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, they saw a leopard with its dinner, a Thomson’s gazelle, that it had dragged up the tree. They also saw a leopard tortoise, a marshall eagle, herds of buffalo, a lilac-breasted Roller (Kenya’s national bird), giraffes, elephants, topis, hyena, lions, ostriches and a viper. On their full-day safari, they enjoyed a picnic lunch in the middle of the savannah. Before leaving the Maasai Mara, they visited a Maasai village, which was a longer walk than anticipated, showing that the Maasai definition of “not far away” might be slightly different from the Australian definition.
Lake Nakuru National Park
The next stop was Lake Nakuru National Park. They stayed two nights a few kilometers from the park at a camp called Punda Milias (“Zebra” in KiSwahili). More buffalo here and rhinos too! The Makalia Falls at the southern end of the park were gushing down as June ends the rainy season.
A short trip took them to Lake Naivasha, where they spent a night at Camp Carnelleys. The excitement here was a break! The monkeys got into their room while they were out.
Finally, they went to Camp Kibo, for two nights in the Amboseli National Park. Flamingos were abundant in Lake Amboseli, which doesn’t look much like a lake in the dry season, so seeing flamingos here is quite special.
Being the administrative girl, I don’t usually meet our guests often, even though I usually spend many months emailing each other to plan their safari. So if there is an excuse to do an airport pickup or drop-off or something similar, I don’t care. This time it was a camera case and a battery left in the vehicle. Di and Leonie had gone to Tanzania and were flying back to Nairobi and then home. So, during its transit, I went to the airport to try to deliver the items. It was a bit of a mission and it was good that they had several hours to kill. I went from pillar to pillar until an immigration officer told me that Di and Leonie would have to kindly speak to the immigration officers who were inside to allow them to come out to greet me. I almost lost hope, but then Leonie found me wandering outside the terminal! Surprisingly it had worked. With the battery delivered, we made our way home … a significantly different journey from the other, no doubt reflecting the significant differences in the adventure each had just had.
