Sorry again for the delay. Had a few bits and pieces to sort out most notably that I have now changed organisations and am now working at ANPPCAN doing some marcomms for the work that they do in the area of child rights and child protection. Good people doing good work, which I hope I can help them with over the next three months.
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| Secretary Bird |
Anyway back to the stories. After another long day travelling I still somehow ended being the last one awake in the camp and went to bed knowing it would be a fairly early start. Not quite a dawn game drive, but close enough to make the most of our one full day in the park.
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| Dik Dik |
Unfortunately Ali and I had an even earlier alarm call than
most, woken at about 2am by someone clearly fumbling around the lock and door
handle. I’d locked the door and left the keys in the lock, so whoever was
trying to break in couldn’t get their spare keys in the lock. After Ali and I
realised that it was neither of us playing silly buggers, a quick shout
revealed our would-be attacker to be our tour guide Timmy. He’d had a bit too
much of a good time at the nearby Masai settlement and was trying to get into
the wrong room. Crisis averted it was back to sleep for a few more hours before
breakfast at the camp.
Breakfast, like dinner the previous evening was a buffet
affair, but was a fair bit quieter as I didn’t have to wait at all in the
queue. I went for a couple of beef sausages, a couple of fried eggs and a chapatti,
so ended up having a home-made breakfast burrito with tomato ketchup (sadly
Heinz wasn’t available here). It was pretty good, but I can’t get used to the
horrible sasuages. At least Shoprite has imported South African Boerewors, the
only decent sausages I’ve found so far in Kampala. Anyway a fairly solid if
uninspiring 2 out of 5.
After making sure that Timmy was still OK and everyone was
sufficiently fed it was back in the bus to head to the park entrance a little
after 7am. Since I’m now writing this a couple of months after the events I’m
glad that I have the pictures to keep my memory of events in shape. First off
was a massive secretary bird walking around followed by a solitary wildebeest
and a lone tiny dik dik. Then there were some giraffes, loads of zebras and
impalas, a warthog, some elephants and finally a pretty large pride of lions.
We could see two or three lionesses below the road with a
group of small cubs which I’m not ashamed to admit were incredibly cute. Whilst
we were snapping away trying to get photos of the lions, it became clear that
the older lionesses were a bit agitated by something and keep looking not quite
at us but behind us. Intrigued I looked around up the hill to the other side of
the road to have a look in the tall grass if I could see what they were looking
at. Lo and behold we’d driven in to the middle of the pride as they were
crossing the road and I could immediately see one of the large males looking
magnificent. Eventually a few more members of the pride worryingly emerged on
to the road and crossed over right by our vehicles.
Show over we moved on, and I saw a hartebeest, the first of many
large herds of zebra, and solitary ostrich. Shortly after passing one of the
many airstrips in the park we went for a loo break at one of the amazingly plush
safari resorts inside the park. It was about $250 per night and it showed.
Swimming pool, tennis courts, and quite possibly the nicest toilets I’ve been
to in Africa. Comfort break over with we explored a bit more of this hotel's
grounds and encountered some very cheeky monkeys (I think they were vervet’s)
followed by a walk on raised platforms to one of the many bars in the resort.
This one was special as it overlooked the hippo pool so we got to look at some
hippo backs and not much else of them. I also managed to spot a vulture and a
monitor lizard nearby as well.
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| The 'Hippo' Bar |
After getting a glimpse of the high-life it was time to move
on (not before using the toilets again of course). We got out just in
time, as a loud group of young Scandies got out of a couple of combis. They were
pretty irritating, but the guy with a Roman centurion’s helmet was good to
laugh at. Back on the road we had to drive through a massive herd of
Wildebeest. So as not to keep repeating this I saw tens if not a hundred
thousand wildebeest and zebra, they were everywhere and in huge herds. Sadly I
didn’t get to see any crossing the Mara river, but the sheer volume of these
creatures was staggering and well worth the visit at the time of the migration.
Next up was a controlled fire to burn some of the bush to
help the animals move or something and there was a massive crane or stork (I’m
no Bill Oddie, sorry) walking through the burnt section looking for easy
pickings. We were on our way to the Mara river bridge but before we got there
we had a brief stop at the Tanzanian border to take pics and illegally cross back
and forth over it. So technically I’ve been to Tanzania as well now, but I can’t
really count it on my scratch map. We were back in our van and on our way again just as the
Scandie’s van disgorged the very pale and rapidly reddening group for their
border photo ops.
At the bridge we saw a pod (not sure if that’s the correct
term) of hippos, some in the river, some sunbathing on the beach. We were going
to go on a game walk with one of the rangers, but first it was time for our
packed lunch in a nice shaded area of trees. Sadly the area didn’t stay nice
for long as a mischief (I’m just going to make them up from now on) of monkeys
arrived. This was obviously a well-worn tactic for them, harassing tourists and
bullying them out of their food.
Since I, like Joey, don’t share, there was no way they were
getting any of my luxurious packed lunch of ham sarnie (bad), roast chicken
breast (just like Waitrose rotisserie chicken), fresh fruit (can’t go wrong
with it really), bag of crisps (no Walkers) and a juice box. All pretty
standard fare, but the chicken was pretty tasty and even cropped up in the
lunches of those who’d asked for the veggie option. Chicken is now a vegetable,
who knew. Solid 2 out of 5. It would have been half a point higher if it wasn’t
for one little bugger who had stolen someone’s chicken, proceeded to eat it in
a branch above me dropping the bones on my head, it soon stopped when I threw the
bones back at it.
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| Thanks to Jill for this pic of lunch with the monkeys |
The walk was very short. Just as well probably as it was
pretty hot and I don’t think the rangers rifle would have done much good
against othe nearby hippos or crocodiles. I managed to get even closer to a
big monitor lizard on the way back to the van. As horrible as it sounds the
rest of the afternoon was more of the same, herd upon massive herd of
wildebeest and zebra.
Eventually our driver got a good tip and we went to an area
where there were a couple of converted Landcruisers where we found a pair of
cheetahs. Apparently they are a mother and son, and we managed to get really
close to them to take some fabulous pictures. Apparently these cheetahs and the
pride of lions that we kept seeing have been featured on Big Cat Diary or
something. Anyway the cheetahs were clearly on the lookout for real prey and were largely unfazed
by our presence.
After a while, the son I think, decided that he wasn’t
getting a very good view of the surrounding countryside and decided that he’d
get a much better one from the top of one of the Landcruisers. Apparently this
is a trick that they’ve learned in the past 20 years or so, and since our van
didn’t have the handy spare wheels at the back they couldn’t get on to the top
of our van. Mom soon joined her son on the top of the Toyota. Naturally this
turn of events was a shock to all who could see, although it was better having
our view of events, rather than the front row experience that the Landcruiser
passengers had. Of particular note was the young lad who continued to snap away
at the gap in the roof. I think everyone else just held their breath, especially when one
of the cheetahs got a bit curious as to what was inside the tin can.
Thankfully nothing bad happened and I managed to get some
once in a lifetime pictures of the two cheetahs sat on top of the car.
Apparently a similar photo was a runner up in this year’s National Geo photo of the year. I may submit something. After the events with the cheetahs we had a
close encounter with a small herd of elephants including a couple of
youngsters, saw a few Buffalo and memorably got out to watch a van being towed
out of some mud and a pool. It’s not Africa if you don’t spend some time
standing around watching someone else doing some work.
Back to the camp after that fantastic day and it was time
for dinner. It was pretty much the same as the previous night and I had beef
stew, split peas and chapatti. It did the trick, but was unexceptional. Another
2 out of 5, but a solid 5 out of 5 for the whole day’s experiences. If you get
the chance to see the great migration in the Masai Mara, do it. I’ve never seen
so many animals in one day. Recommendation over with it was off to bed after a
couple of warm Tuskers as it was a pre-dawn start for a dawn game drive the
next day.
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