East African Safari; August /September 2012

EAST AFRICAN SAFARI; MAASAI MARA AND SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

             A video trailer...shot by Dennis Ho can be seen here 

Additional images can be seen on my website on this page

This trip was to be my 5^th to the Dark continent (6^th if you count a day trip to Tangier) and this time I decided to go without medication for Malaria. I diced with more mosquitos in Penang Airport than I saw for the rest of the trip. Penang’s Airport is being refurbished and it was a total mess….I first felt like the rabbit in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and then –The Prisoner of Zenda’ while waiting for my flight to Singapore. When at Changi airport I had a few hours to wait but soon caught up with Nick and Dennis who would join me on the Emirates flight to Dubai. It was not a good flight, stuffed full, over-warm and isles the dimensions of a coin. Like many others you are sleep-deprived and off-loaded in the steamy hub for too many hours. The next leg to Nairobi was more laid-back and pleasant. We filled in Visa forms and after meeting our driver we encountered our first Nairobi traffic jam…….getting out of the airport carpark. We eventually made it to the Safari Club, which is a downtown, all-suite hotel that is comfortable although getting weary with age and low maintenance. It is always good to get a horizontal sleep after modern airline, hub-centered transport.

The next morning after a good breakfast we were on our way to the Maasai Mara. We had met up with two other members of our team, Pok Zin and Vincent who had come via Qatar Airlines which hubs in Doha. We stopped briefly on a lookout over the Great Rift Valley and a punctured wheel on one of the vehicles was exchanged. Pok Zin was clearly feeling repressed in modern, arms-free Singapore when he nearly perforated a local while flexing his arm with a souvenir Maasai spear. More was to come. The journey for about 5/8 of the way is on relatively good tarmac roads but as soon as the vehicles turn off towards the Mara and a good 3 hours yet to run the roads turn ugly. I have said before they look like an airstrip that has been subject to the full force of carpet-bombing raids. Bomber Harris would be proud if his aviators had inflicted such damage.

The lounge in my Safari Club room

The edge of the Great Rift Valley

A flat tyre after a few hours on the road

Relief seeing the sign for our first camp

It was with great relief that we reached the Ashil Bush Camp on the banks of the Mara River. The Ashnil camp is permanent and surrounded by an electric fence.  It is well located and we saw a crossing of Wildebeest adjacent to the camp later the first afternoon. The tents were solid and the food in the large dining room was good. There was wireless internet connection available at a cost and altogether we were comfortable.

For the next four days we explored the area along the Mara River and were surrounded by hordes of Wildebeest. We had very good encounters with a female cheetah and her four cubs and a lioness with two impish cubs. We also located a pair of Bat-eared foxes and were able to get good shots of them. The mornings had clear skies and sweet light and we were happy.

Part of the great Wildebeest migration

Late light, an approaching storm and a grazing Elephant

Bat-eared Fox pair

Female Cheetah with two of her four cubs

We then moved some distance away to the Mara Bush Camp, that was on the banks of a somewhat stagnant Olare Orok River, that hosted a number of hippos that roamed through the camp at night. We were now in basic tents with no electricity. The tents however had been tastefully furnished and there were a number of nice decorative touches employing the work of local artists. My attentive houseboy was called Major. There was no running hot water but 20 litres of hot water was added to a canvas bag that was piped into a shower-head in the tent each evening. A thermos of hot water was provided for face-washing or shaving. In the dark hours if you wanted to travel outside your tent you had to summon a Maasai warrior by ringing a cow-bell adjacent to the tent entrance. Electricity was available for laptops and battery recharging at a photographers tent. This was very nicely set up and a good idea because you could swap stories with photographers form other vehicles and learn where the action was. The food was excellent in the Mara Bush camp, which was exceedingly well run. This was mainly down to the manager, Sabine a German lady who was friendly and passionate about Africa and eco-tourism. The world needs more Sabines. We did have lots of hippo noises and a nearby kill one night by a pride of lions that seemed to get closer to the camp each night we were there.

Inside the tent at the Mara Bush Camp

The bathroom

Breakfast on the banks of the Mara River

The Mara River, the hub of most of the action

Inside the photographers tent.

Breakfast above the Hippos

From the delightful Mara Bush camp we caught a small plane to travel eventually to Tanzania and the Serengeti.  Our departure was delayed for an hour and this gave Pok Zin a chance to actually throw a Maasai spear. He used the wrong end initially and that had a mature, Maasai rolling around the long grass in uncontained mirth. Possibly a number of furtively observing lions were in the same state. It took three hops to get to the desired airport in Tanzania. First we had to fly to Wilson Airport in Nairobi to clear the Kenyan Immigration. I have flown into Nairobi on several occasions on a small plane and you fly over some large mansions and then the huge squatter slum……..two world close but far apart. From Nairobi we flew to Kilimanjaro airport and had glimpses of the famed mountain peaking through clouds.   Two more travellers/photographers joined us; Lip Kee, an obstetrician and gynecologist from Singapore and his anesthetist wife, Rachael. They were to go on to explore the Ngorongoro crater when we departed.

Our group was now split into three vehicles driven by Nickson, Paul and Frank who were employed my Maasai Wanderings. They were excellent, professional drivers and guides and the vehicles were in excellent condition.

          We were ferried to our first camp in the famed Serengeti National Park, which was located at the base of a hill and was similar to the Mara Bush camp but more primitive. The camp was well run and the food was of a good quality, especially considering the conditions. We were located in the central part of the Serengeti and there were no Wildebeest present in the area. There was good birdlife and we located a young female leopard resting on a Kopje on our second day. There were interesting noises just outside the tent during the nights. Hyena and Buffalo were ever close and lion were calling in the vicinity.  There was ample game near the hills and in green areas that had benefitted from regrowth following selective burning. Kopjes also provided an interesting ecosystem for a number of mammals including Klipspringers and the Yellow-spotted Hyrax….which look like fat guinea pigs but had amazing tree-climbing ability. We also had some good encounters with Banded and Dwarf Mongoose tribes.

On the way to Tanzania

The first camp on the Serengeti

Inside the 'bedroom'

The bathroom

20 litres of hot water for the shower

A typical Kopje

Fischer's Lovebirds

Miss Serengeti; a young female Leopard

Our final camp was to be a similar one (owned by the same company) in the Northern reaches of the Serengeti. The journey between the two camps was breath-taking. Expansive plains, rolling hills, lush pastures and poetic trees and large numbers of animals. Herds of elephants, large groups of Zebra, massive Cape Buffalo herds and many types of antelope and gazelles.

            Steve was the hard-working manager of the camp and his team worked well to make our time enjoyable. A devlish wind rattled our tents the first night and we wondered if we would end the night in the same location.

The weather was not ideal for photography in the next four days but we travelled in some beautiful countryside. One vehicle did a full day trip to the Mara River and saw a large contingent of Wildebeest poised to cross. True to form however there was collective procrastination and no wet bodies…..at least for that day.

The second Serengeti camp....and an intrepid explorer

A Klipspringer in it's natural environment

Fording a small stream

Happy in the trenches, with Pok Zin

Dennis and Vincent in shooting mode

Nick Baker, my shooting companion throughout

Typical Serengeti

Back to Nairobi

When we were done with the Serengeti and the safari we caught and plane back to Kilamanjaro airport and thence to Wilson before spending another night in the Safari Club.

There was a shorter wait at Dubai followed for me by a longer period at Changi Airport before I arrived in Penang around midnight on a Thursday night.