Kenya, Part Two

As part of our trip, we did a three day safari in Tsavo National Park which is between Nairobi and Mumbasa. We spent the first 24 hours in Tsavo East and the second 24 hours in Tsavo West, which theoretically has views of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Sadly, ole' Kili was behind clouds the entire time we were there.

a-safari-ing we go

We got picked up our first morning in a giant tank of a Land Rover. After three excruciatingly slow hours of driving north from Mumbasa, we finally reached the park. And immediately saw a cheetah, just chilling on a rock. NBD. 

By the end of the day, we'd run into elephants, including a group bathing a brand-new baby, giraffes, another cheetah resting with its four-day-old baby in front of a freshly killed gazelle, impalas, water bucks, hartebeests, water buffalo, zebras, and gazelles.

the patriarch

and his clan...check out the tiny baby! 

a cheetah, it's baby, and it's lunch 

these guys were such creepy starers... 

We had also learned to watch for groups of safari jeeps, a sure sign that something cool was waiting for us. All the drivers had radios and kept up a constant dialogue about what animals were where in the park. Our driver was also called upon several times when everyone needed to pass a menacing elephant as he apparently had nerves of steel. His strategy was pretty simple - revvvv the engine up, speed past the angry elephant, honking the whole way, and hope the elephant would get spooked and run off.

lurking

On our second day, we were up before sunrise for a morning drive. Our driver sped up when we hit flat ground and we started to speculate - was he taking us to see lions? The kids were particularly excited because they'd been offered 500 shillings (about $7) if they spotted a lion first. We arrived at a site with about 15 other vans waiting only to find...a giraffe. Seriously? I mean cool but we'd seen like 20 giraffes the day before. 

Suddenly the giraffe froze and stayed frozen for almost five minutes. Then, people started pointing and out of the bushes came two adorable lion cubs. No sooner had we spotted the cubs when, on the ridge behind them, two hartebeests turned tail and ran as fast as their little legs could carry them through the bushes and up and over the hill. And then the giraffe finally relaxed and ambled away.

he was seriously scared for his life

look *really* closely at the log for a baby lion

Using our amazing powers of deduction, we decided the parents of the lion cubs, after arguing over giraffe or hartebeest, had gone on a jaunt to bring back some breakfast, allowing the giraffe to quit peeing its pants and breathe again...safe for another day. 

Before lunch, we drove from Tsavo East to Tsavo West passing Jack's favorite sight of the safari, a dead hyena on the highway which looked exactly like the hyenas from the Lion King (do dead animals count in safari bingo?). 

Tsavo West was a lot more mountainous and covered in bushes, which made spotting wildlife difficult. We did get to get out of the car and do a walking tour of the Mzima River and Spring, accompanied by an entrepid Kenya Wildlife Services officer and his AK-47, to prevent the hippos and crocodiles we spotted from eating us. We saw ostriches with their babies, dikdiks, and many more elephants, zebras, giraffes, etc. 

sunrise over the watering hole by our lodge

pretty sure he's showing his progeny the ropes

luckiest man in the world - look at all those ladies...

ADORBS! I negotiated for them to take Willy in, if Susan and I die in a freak accident.

I never dreamed baby ostriches were so cute

pretty sure these guys were selling cigs to passing cars

why? WHY warn me but then put a hole and make me compelled to stick my hand through?

We spent the afternoon in the Rhino Preserve, driving around for two hours, staring at bushes - we spotted lots of rhinos...all of which turned out to actually be rocks, tree stumps and shadows. 

That evening, we stayed at Nguilia Lodge and experienced "baiting". Essentially, as the tourists trickled in from the afternoon drive, the staff instructed them to relax on the veranda and order a drink. Just before sunset, when everyone had gathered, two men took a giant steak out to a wooden structure and tied it to the top. 

And, approximately 90 seconds later, a leopard jumped onto the wooden structure and began ferociously biting at the steak. It was quite amazing how quickly he ripped a big chunk off and disappeared. He came back a few minutes later for the second piece. And then 10 minutes later reappeared and licked the whole log, looking for more. We debated whether we could count the leopard, given he was semi-domesticated...we decided he was wild for 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day so fair game. I saw a leopard on safari!!

king of all he surveys

The next morning, we drove through the park on our way back to Mumbasa. It was a bit bittersweet leaving - I don't know if I'll ever get to do anything like this again. But I also really wanted to take a long, hot, shower and get out of the Land Rover. We passed the hyena again on our way home - he'd started to reek, which put the cherry on top for Jack...

Lastly, I don't even know...but I'm so glad I caught it on film...a giraffe...dancing? sneezing? whipping his hair back and forth?