Jambo again! This
was a time of great observations. Until recently we were just
spotting animals, but then we really started spending time watching
their behavior and we were fascinated about how nature works.
We were in Nairobi
when we wrote the last report. Before we left, we visited Reto’s old
school and house there. At the school we could have a short tour,
and saw how much it grew in twenty years. The house unfortunately
was covered by a wall and metal gate, so we could not see much of
it. We tried to leave that day but got stuck in a traffic jam… and
being too late we decided to have our last culinary experience in
town and headed to the Carnivore, which can be easily counted as one
of Reto’s favorite restaurants in the world.
The next morning we
hit the road towards Mombasa, on the coast, visiting Tsavo West
National Park on the way, where we spent one night. Tsavo is huge
and very bushy. We saw mainly hippos, many even out of the water
during the day, which is not that common. But also the usual
different antelopes, kudus, jackals, elephants, giraffes and hyenas.
We were a bit disappointed because we did not see lions close enough
(we saw a pride of 16, far away though), but a few days later we had
that surprise on the road…
We went then
straight to Tiwi Beach, south of Mombasa, where we hoped to meet
Graham and Claire, a British couple traveling in a Land Rover. We
had a great time camping at Twiga Lodge, which is literally on the
beach,
doing as little as possible. It was just time for fish and
shrimps, nice tropical fruit and cashew nuts (we did not loose
weight in Kenya…). We also wrote an article, worked a bit on the
web-site, went swimming and walking on the beach. We enjoyed a lot
the fact that we did not need even to move for shopping, everything
was available on the spot. Every day sales people would come
offering fish, shrimp, fruits and veggies. We could even order for
the next day, but if we did not want any of their products they
would simply walk away saying “maybe tomorrow then”. The last day,
after working in the computers for many hours our car's batteries
were so empty, that Markus and Belinda, a Dutch couple, who came the
day before, had to pull us up the hill so we could start our engine
while rolling down…
Our next stop was
Watamu, quite a bit north of Mombasa, where we visited the Marine
Park for some snorkeling. Many boat drivers who take tourists to the
reef would throw bread in the water so the fish come up. That’s how
we discovered that fish bite… especially the zebra looking ones have
little teeth that could scratch our skin. The nicest we’ve seen
underwater were two rock-eels (spotted like a leopard) fighting.
Tipped by
some expats about a very nice beach and restaurant north of Malindi,
there we went to have a look. Che Shale is a very rustic Robinson
Crusoe stile lodge and restaurant on a wide sandy beach. They have a
kite-surf school there as well. We spent the afternoon working on
our pictures and then having a four course dinner there. The next
morning chatting with the owner, Reto discovered that the place was
built by the same person, who started a similar looking lodge in
Kiwayu, in the north of Kenya's coast, where he spent holidays more
than twenty years ago. The way back we drove partially on a deserted beach
and had breakfast on the way.
It was a long day
driving. We wanted to reach Amboseli National Park, but stopped in
Malindi for internet and shopping and then again in Voi to wash the
car. We decided to continue as far as possible and traversed the
road from Voi leading to the Tanzanian border. The road, actually a
piste, traverses through Tsavo West National Park
and it’s mainly
used by trucks. It was that time of the afternoon when the light
starts fading quickly and visibility can be tricky. At a point we
saw something on the road far away. It looked like a tree trunk or a
tire-piece. Joking as he usually does, Reto said “it’s a lion”. He
had no chance to see what it was… no kidding, it was not a lion but
two!… A couple. Finally we had the chance to see one of those famous
Tsavo male lions, which because of the thorn bushes of their habitat
have very short manes. We stopped about 20 meters from them, but
they were unimpressed, although looking at us as if wandering what
the hell we wanted, the female did not even stand up. We were making
pictures frantically, and because of the little light we had to try
different tricks… after a while a truck came, so the lions moved
just a meter away into the bush…
There is a story
about the fierce Tsavo lions, a real story. It happened during the
construction of the rail line, during the colonial times in the 19th
century. In one single year two lions killed 140 railway workers.
The chief engineer, Colonel Patterson, built traps but the lions
systematically evaded them. He finally baited them and shot them
dead. Patterson then wrote the best seller “The man-eaters of Tsavo”,
which can be bought in many Kenyan bookshops even today. Research
showed that the two lions had damaged teeth, which might have turned
them into man eaters.
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That night we made
it until Taveta, a border town, were we slept at the police
station’s nice back garden. Early the next morning we drove on
pistes along the Tanzanian border to Amboseli. The park has a
strange geography. On the one hand, it has big dry surfaces where
almost no grass grows. And on the other one, it has several
connected swamps from underground rivers coming from Kilimanjaro. It
was interesting to see hippos as well as elephants grazing in the
swamps. For me, it was hyena park. We saw so many, even babies in
their den. We also saw lots of wildebeest and other antelopes.
Unfortunately, Kilimanjaro would only appear from the clouds shortly
in the evenings. We did manage a couple of pictures with a heard of
elephants though.
The last day was
the best. We started at 6.30 and already close to the camp saw some
giraffes, with very small babies. Later, we could observe two female
lions who had hunted a zebra. They had eaten the inner parts
(stomach, intestines, etc.) and were guarding their dead prey in
order to eat the rest later. We easily spent two
hours watching them
and even had breakfast in the meantime - inside the car of course.
The funny part was that they were surrounded by hyenas. There must
have been about ten of them. They were just waiting for the lions to
be fed up, about twenty meters from the dead zebra. The lions showed
little interest in them. They acted so relaxed; they even went away
twenty meters in the other direction to drink or just lye in the
sun, sometimes on their backs. When the hyenas started to approach
the zebra, one of the lions would simply stand up, and that was
enough to keep them away. At one point one of the hyenas seemed to
loose her patience and started calling others with this very
peculiar hyena sound, that I would always recognize if I hear it
again. The lion girl was still unimpressed, although one time she
did run after them for a few meters, causing the hyenas to flee. It
is really remarkable the respect lions impose on all other animals.
They behave like kings, totally invulnerable.
Back in Jungle
Junction in Nairobi, we again met with old traveling friends, Klaas
showed up and then also Markus and Belinda. We took the opportunity
to wash some clothes and Reto rested as he had back problems. We
were happy to hear good news on the phone from our friends in
Switzerland Frank and Lioba (as a physiotherapist Frank also
counseled Reto on exercises for his back, although I don’t think age
is curable…)
The next day we
went to the internet to find out about the visa for Mozambique. At
the end we called the embassy, but even there we got wrong
information. We ended up driving to the embassy but it was too late,
it was closed. Meanwhile Reto got an email from Georges & Christine,
old friends of his parents, who live partly in Nairobi. We enjoyed
having dinner with them, getting lots of information about the areas
we still want to visit and staying at their place that night.
After getting our
express visa for Mozambique, we drove west towards Masai Mara. We
were a bit unlucky with a flat tire. As it was getting late we
stayed in a camp some 60 km away from the Mara. We heard the
migration might have started so we were eager to confirm this. The
next day we were told by the rangers the wildebeest were coming from
Tanzania and gathering on the south of the Sand River. There we went
and saw endless lines of them waking along the river with their
typical gnu sound. They were not up to crossing the river yet
, so we
went towards the Mara triangle. Our second day there was the most
prolific in sightings in any national park before. We started before
sunrise and headed towards a hill where the evening before we had
spotted Cheetahs far away. On our way there, we saw a few balloons
taking off and a tractor driver (probably one delivering a balloon)
told us the cheetahs were nearby. Off we went and there they were: a
mother and her five youngsters. It was too early to make good
pictures but cheetahs are sooooo photogenic, they seem to pose for
the camera all the time. Especially, because they like sitting up on
termite mounds, where they are visible from far. We left them to
have breakfast along the Mara River, although we did come back for a
picture with better light and to our surprise they were still in the
same place.
Later we saw
another group of cheetahs, this time they were four. We took another
path and about an hour later came back to them. They had hunted a
young impala and were eating it very quickly. Although they were not
troubled by the cars, they seemed uneasy, always checking that there
were no hyenas around. The cheetahs are weak animals, if the hyenas
want to steel their prey they have no chance in defending their
position, so they walk
away. In a few minutes the impala was only
bones. Then a ranger told us, he heard on the radio that zebras were
seen crossing the Mara river. So there we drove to find quite a
dramatic scene. Effectively there were zebras gathering on the other
side and some were crossing at a rocky place, where the river had
some rapids. We arrived just to see one zebra drifting away and some
blood around her. She was clearly alive and confused. At that point
we did not see what was happening to her. But then it came. She was
stuck on some rocks always looking back to her back upper leg and
then we saw it. A huge crocodile had her by the thigh and was
pushing her with his massive body over the rocks to a deeper part of
the river. What followed was one of the crudest expressions of
nature I’ve seen. The zebra tried to bite him and at all times tried
to keep her head above the water, which she managed for quite a
while. At the end only the nose was visible. I hated him. The fact
that it is quite a long and painful death as the killing method is
by drowning the prey, struck me. What was interesting was that a bit
later another two full sized crocodiles went to dispute him his
meal…
Later that day, we
were able to see the crocs’ strategy in more detail. We stopped
along the river at a lonely spot
where the zebras went drinking.
There were a few big crocs. One of them was clearly in hunting mood.
If the zebras saw him, they would not approach the water, so then he
would turn around swimming on the surface to the other shore, waited
for a while till the thirsty zebras started drinking, still waited,
so more and more zebras came. Then very slowly it would go in the
water and swim across, this time submerged, merely a shadow in the
water, until he was close enough to launch an attack. Full mouth
open, his whole upper part out of the water. Luckily he missed this
time, probably hit a zebra but could not grab it. Not that he was
undernourished anyway.
It was time to
leave and we regretted not having seen any lions. So we told the
ranger at the exit gate, who then called in his radio and found out
where lions were… It took us about 15 minutes to get to them. It was
already late and it started drizzling. Still it was fascinating.
They were four: two females, an adult male with a full mane and a
young male with an incipient mane. They were moving and we were
standing just on their way. We could not be quick enough to grab the
cameras and make all possible light set ups, it was too much. The
big male even stopped at the back of our car and smelled it for a
while… It was a nice desert to our Kenyan safaris.
We camped at Mara
West, a new lodge on the Esoit Oloololo escarpment, among grazing
zebras and the next day we headed to the Tanzanian border. It all
went very easy, got a visa for Tanzania on the spot and drove
towards Lake Victoria, the second biggest lake in the world. There we are
right now, still without a clear idea of what to visit in this
country. In any case, this will have to be part of a story yet to
come…
Till then, have a
good time and Kuaheri!
Victoria & Reto
Link to Travel Report
8 Tanzania & Mozambique
On
Safari in Kenya