Kenyan Adventure – Day 6 and 7

We will spend the entirety of this, our sixth day in Kenya, exploring the confines of the Lewa Conservancy. Yesterday we got to see both the white and black rhino and we hope to see more today. However, there is much more to see in Lewa than rhinos.

As luck would have it though, almost the first thing we see is a group of white rhinos mingling with a small herd of Greve’s zebras. Both the zebras and rhinos seemed content to graze on the tall grass. There were no repeats of yesterday’s charging incident. There were several small rhinos with their mothers.

White Rhino

Mother and "baby"

We came across herds of Cape Buffalo on multiple occasions during the day. Though rumored to be among the nastiest tempered animals in Africa, they seemed to be little more that cattle. However, they do sport very impressive headgear.

Cape Buffalo

In addition to the Greve’s zebras we also saw herds of the Common zebra. Greve’s zebras have large rounded ears and white bellies while the ears of the Common zebra look like those of a horse and their stripes go down and cover their bellies. We watched as a couple of male Greve’s put on a brief fighting display for us.

Common Zebra

Greve's Zebras Fighting

We stopped on a hilltop for breakfast. There was a large herd of elephants in the distance getting a drink from the local watering hole. Cathy, who almost never puts down her camera, was photographing the elephants when we heard a tremendous roar. As we looked out in the distance we could see two bull elephants fighting. And this was no simple sparring match, they were going at it! Cathy was the only one present with a telephoto lens on her camera to catch the action. And it was impressive to watch. The noise these elephants made was awesome.

In the afternoon we were able to photograph some oryx but mostly we saw birds. We saw another Kori bustard, some Sacred ibis, grey heron, lots of cattle egrets and the occasional ostrich thrown in for good measure. Overall it was a fantastic day.

Oryx

Kori Bustard

Sacred Ibis

Ostrich

Day seven would see us flying to our final destination of the trip, the Masai Mara. The Mara is a typical African savanna and the site of massive wildebeest migrations at other times of the year. Once again we would fly to our destination in a bit more than an hour. Our guides, who left Lewa after last night’s dinner, would have to drive all the way to the Mara.

The Masai Mara is named for the Maasai people that live in that area. (Whenever used as a reference to the people, Maasai is spelled with two “a’s”. When used as a adjective Masai is spelled with a single “a”.) The Maasai are farmers and raise herds of cattle and goats. Many still live in their traditional villages. Mara is the word for “spotted land”. The Mara is a vast open savanna “spotted” with the occasional acacia or desert date tree.

We arrived at the small airstrip at Masai Mara and were met by the staff of the Mara Intrepids. Once again we were provided with a luxury tent. We had lunch and then a bit of time to settle in prior to going out on our first game drive on the Mara.

The weather during our entire trip was beautiful. While the mid-day sun could be intense the temperature was typically in the range of 50-60 degrees at night and 85-95 degrees during the day. The game drives were always first thing in the morning and then in the late afternoon. During the middle of the day the light is too harsh for good photography and many of the animals hide in the bushes for shade.

We almost immediately were introduced to a new animal, the Topi. The Topi is sometimes called “blue jeans” due to the dark coloring on its hindquarters. Topi were everywhere we went on the Mara.

Topi

We also saw lots of warthogs. These funny looking critters always seem to be on the run. As if they are in a hurry to get someplace. And their tail is always straight up in the air when they run.

Warthog

Thomson's Gazelle

There were also vast herds of Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles on the Mara. The Thomson’s gazelle is small with beautiful striping while the Grant’s gazelle is slightly larger and a bit more plain.

Thomson's Gazelle

Grant's Gazelle

During our initial drive to Samburu we caught a brief glimpse of the bat-eared fox. It was so cute. Cathy asked our guide if he could find any here on the Mara. And find them he did. As a matter of fact we saw many bat-eared foxes during our 4 days on the Mara. And they are cute!

Bat-eared Fox

While in Samburu we saw a couple of lions. Here in the Mara, however, there were plenty of lions. No day went by without one or more lion sightings. This afternoon, as we were driving down one of the tracks, we came upon a pride of lions resting, and looking regal, in the late afternoon sun.

Pride of Lions

Our final sighting for the afternoon was one of the “small five” – a leopard tortoise. I don’t know how our guide spotted it. We were driving along at a pretty good speed when he came to an abrupt halt and backed up so that we could see the tortoise.

Leopard tortoise

That ended our first day on the Mara. Tomorrow would be a full day of exploration.