[drive.click]

#2019 - I start with this hashtag to give a caution that its a travelogue from the last year, I hope posting a bit of old travel story is not a sin, especially during these times of lockdown. Anyway, the max that one can do is to take a walk down the memory lane.

Prologue:

Africa has always been on our minds ever since we first visited Kanha National Park in 2015. I remember our discussion on the last day of our memorable Kanha trip, all of us said we should now visit Africa once. However, since then we kept travelling more in India, as I wanted to cover more of Indian national parks before I go to Africa. Somehow that trip never happened, but during all these days we fell more and more in love with the wildlife and jungles. So much so that every year we did at least one or even two trips to jungle.


Now in 2019- my father in law (who is retired by now) suddenly says lets do one trip to Africa, its one on bucket list for long. While I was not too keen at this time, since I was just back to my home in Pune after one year and also had just joined a new organization so consuming all the leaves at one go was not my idea. Also I had not done a single road trip since April-2018 till Jul 2019 so I was looking to drive down somewhere. But my wife and father-in-law persisted and honestly I didn't had very valid argument against it. While the plans were getting finalized, we added my brother, sister and mom to the plan. So in total we were 6 adults and two children (my son and my niece ) in the final travel party.

Travel Booking - Me and my wife are not the kinds who would use a travel agent, never ever we did that, we believe in always doing our research and booking on our own. Prior to this even for our Europe travel we did the same. However, this time I was quiet busy and somehow Africa didn't inspire too much confidence in me to plan everything on your own. Add to this the fact that we were a big family traveling which included elders and children too! So we scouted for some tour operators and finalized one from Pune. After 3 rounds of discussion the itinerary got frozen. Then come the discussion about which vehicle would accompany us , mind you this is very serious matter, since the time you land to the time you fly back this is the same vehicle that remains with you. The vehicle you choose must be accordingly to your size of group, comfort and more importantly provide everyone the visibility to outside word where the wild animals are. Things are finalized and flight tickets are also booked.

Another important and tedious task is to get Polio and Yellow Fever vaccination done for traveling to Kenya. The challenge is this has to be done only at designated government hospitals. Getting an appointment to standing in line to get this is tough. Additional challenge is finding the nominated hospital that will provide the polio dose. It was a very small hospital in old city of Pune. All of this was done for everyone in one single day, in next couple of days reports were collected. All tickets, medical certifications, vouchers, passports were put in a folder. This folder was kept in my camera bag, considering that is the safest since I would not forget it

Plan


Day 1 - Early morning flight from Mumbai to Nairobi - Land at around 10.30 AM. Get picked by your vehicle and travel to Ol Pajeta Conservancy

Day 2 - Early morning game drive or safari in Ol Pajeta Conservancy and then travel to Lake Naivasha

Day 3 - From Lake Naivasha travel to Masai Mara National Reserve and if not tired do an evening game drive

Day 4 and Day 5 - Game drive in Masai Mara

Day 6- Early morning a small game drive (depends on how early can you start) and proceed to Nairobi Airport

Day 7 - Land in Mumbai and back to Pune

Map of how we will travel in Kenya


Day 0 and Day 1

Day 0 was exciting but was also hectic, pack everything ensure that its packed. Check, recheck and then wife finally last moment will ask have you taken a particular thing and then you again check to confirm its there !! I guess its for all long especially abroad travels it would be the case, especially when you are traveling with kids.

We hired two taxis to reach Mumbai airport, we started a bit early but that was a problem since once we reached airport at around 11 PM or 12 AM, we had nothing to do till 5.30 AM. We spent sleepless night and finally board the plane. I could not really sleep in the flight as well, I like looking at maps where we are flying etc how will we go, which direction. But we landed safely, and got some dollars exchanged with Kenyan Shilling at the airport. Meanwhile, our driver has arrived he is very polite and pleasant to talk to. I am also happy with our vehicle its a big long vehicle.

Rest of the drive to Ol Pajeta was nothing special. But what awaited us was pleasant, our tour operator had insisted we visit this place. He said you will definitely see Rhino here, but he could not really explain why he wants us to go here. When we reached there, I got down and just picked up camera and started walking in front of our tents (by the time we reached it was nicely evening light across)

First time you see a Zebra






There are many Zebras, you just cant click enough. And I must tell you this is just when you are 5 feet away from your tent.





Now I started scanning the landscape a bit more carefully and then first time in life I saw a Rhino (in the backdrop you see some portion of the resort)


At a distance I could see an elephant walking with nice evening backdrop







He then turned back and started waking away from us.

To give you an idea of how the scene was, you can see the tents / resort -


These two enjoyed the most along with me (not the trench that is dug up which prevents animals coming this side)


Post this, finally I went inside to change and then we all sat there to have some chit chat. The dinner was very nice and through the glass doors of the report you could see elephants and other animals around. It was an amazing experience. I would definitely recommend to visit this place, when travelling to Africa.

We slept immediately post dinner, since most of us didn't had enough sleep in flight or night before that. Also we knew we had to get up early (For all wildlife adventures that's the rule). End of Day 1.

Day 2

After having sumptuous breakfast we proceeded to our vehicle and loaded the luggage as well. The plan was to have a game drive in this Ol Pajeta Conservancy and we move out of this conservancy while finishing the drive itself, no need to come back to resort and pick your luggage etc, this saves a lot of time.

Our first sighting of this morning. This Rhino suddenly decided to cross the road


After this there were many Rhinos that we spotted. Many many.

A cute baby Rhino


I'm not alone






The next photo requires a special mention. These two females are the world's last two Northern White Rhinos. One is daughter and other is grand-daughter of Sudan the last male Northern White Rhino.
Najin and Fatu


One of them, looking away from us


As we move on we spotted some more Rhions. Important thing to note that you can be lucky to spot Rhino in Masai Mara as well, but here its almost certain, in Mara you will have to be a bit lucky.







During our drive in the conservancy we could also visit a research and information center. Finally we had a group photo as well. Yours truly is left most with camera in hand


The children enjoyed Rhino ride




We drove on from here, to have some more sightings, more importantly we could see Giraffes for the first time.




An Ostrich


After these lovely sighting we moved out of the conservancy towards the Lake Naivsha. There was a lot of debate if we should visit Lake Naivasha or Lake Nakuru, but for me it was just a stopover before we could go to Masai Mara.

I will continue in next post.

[drive.click]

Day 2 Continued

The drive to Lake Naivasha was as such uneventful. We cross through the region where major Kenyan farming happens (forgetting the name of the region). We cross the equator on this way. We stopped and had our packed lunch here at very nicely set up Machan kind of set up on a tree. We were a little skeptical to stop here since we were not buying anything from the restaurant owner who had set this up, but our driver confirmed that we can use it and later just give what we want to. Another thing that's interesting here is its an equator crossing, we clicked some photos and moved on. The distance was quiet bit and everyone except me and driver of course caught on some sleep post lunch.

By late evening we reached our destination of Lake Naivasha. Even before check in to our resort we decided to have a boat ride in the lake, as this was one location where we were to spend just one night and were to move early morning to reach Masai Mara.

It was a nice evening and we enjoyed the boat ride, spotted some nice birds.



Lucky to witness and capture following action



I am bad at naming any bird, rather have never tried even clicking birds. But this guy seemed interesting



As we were moving on in the boat, we reached a place where there were many Hippos, all sleeping or you could just see their heads. These guys were sleeping as what we are doing in lockdown.




We also saw an eagle fishing, but I could not capture that


At this point some very unusual thing happened, we heard some noise from trees. The boatman realized that there are 2 people who have climbed on the nearby trees and were shouting for help as a Hippo was chasing them. Here I understood that a Hippo could be very dangerous and kills many people every year. So we raved our boat and made engine noise for sometime to scare off the Hippo. Finally, he went away and then these guys also went out of the lake from other side. Once we saw them off to safety we moved towards our side of bank.

We experienced lovey sunset -







We finished the day with this sunset and checked into the hotel, had a some good dinner and then went off to bed. This was a huge hotel, where there was a constant fear of a Hippo coming from its backyard, so you always had to call a guard to escort you from your tents to restaurant or vice-a-versa.

Day 3

I was really excited for today, finally we were to reach the mecca of wildlife, The Masai Mara. However, the journey is long and tiring as for about last 60-80 Km is only a gravel rough road. It becomes a tiring journey towards the end. Once you hit this patch you just want it to end.

Once, we reached the gate of National Reserve we lost somewhere around 1 hour due to the mistake made by our tour operator. We were really getting disappointed as one we were losing some precious time of the evening safari and we were also getting late for lunch. The issue was that the voucher we were given were of a different resort and where we were now getting put up was a different resort. At gates everything get checked and they were not allowing us to go in. We also got disappointed with this confusion as last thing you want on a foreign travel is all such changes. This new resort we had not researched or given ok for. Finally, we were allowed to go in post multiple calls that our driver did with local tour operator and some that we did to India.

We checked into this hotel for time being. Post check in we went for lunch. After a while, we moved for our game drive, here again we had to cross the gate and some 20 mins wasted again.

Once we finally started our game drive, we started spotting wildebeest, lots of them along with many Zebras. Its like there is no dearth of these. We could see that the great migration is in full swing. By looking at the length of the grass you can tell which all areas these Wildebeests and Zebras have been.

Spotted some elephants too


And then it was time for spotting Cheetah for the first time. We waited for a long time for him to come out of that bush, he was sleeping for a long time. In fact we went ahead and come back to this place. Finally there was some movement-




Marking territory (actually I am not sure if Cheetahs mark territory the way tigers do)





Post this it was time to go back to resort, it was also turning cloudy. On the we spotted some Giraffes






Also got lucky to witness a double rainbow




We reached back to our resort. Meanwhile we and especially wherever network allowed my wife was trying to coordinate so that we could get the resort that we had promised.

Not that this resort was bad, but it was like a normal resort and kind of near gate of National Park. In Africa you still have a chance to stay deep inside the park (already established resorts, new ones cant be set up inside the park now- just like India). We were looking for such a tented accommodation, and we were thoroughly disappointed. Finally, we understood that we will have to stay at the current resort only at least for a day.

We enjoyed some Masai Mara dance, post our dinner organised by the resort and called it a day to get up early for the next day.

[drive.click]

Day 4

It was going to be our first full day safari experience so again there was an excitement. In India at least in the Central Indian wildlife parks the full day safari is very costly is what I understand so had never done it, but here in Africa its practically up to you and thus we chose the option of being in wild rather than come back for rest etc. We were also going to look for migration by going near Mara River.

We roamed around by trying to check out different areas and vast grass lands of Savanah, needless to say we go to see lots and lots of Zebras and wildebeests. But that was not interesting anymore.

We reached near an airstrip in the middle of the jungle. Go to know that if you spend enough you can directly land here from Nairobi rather than driving. One of the good resorts Keekorok Lodge is near from this place. This Keekrock is the kind of resort right in the middle of jungle. We clicked some photos and took a break.





Post this we wanted to check the chances of The Great Migration and so we moved towards the direction of the river. We all became excited and were hoping that we get to see the wildebeests jumping in the river. Once we reached the river, however all we could see that some of the wildebeests are calmly grazing on the other side of the river bank. There were not at all in hurry to crossover, anyway there were not many of them.

What we go to see were lots of hippos chilling in the river.







This guy was also present there, he was also probably waiting for the migration, since it didn't move at all for a long time


We decided to move around and come back here again. So we moved towards the Kenya Tanzania border, on the way we saw some vehicles gathered around a particular area so of course we also paid a visit. And we saw a very lazy Lion sleeping. Later I did some research and found that these guys can sleep for 18-20 Hours a day and if they had a large killing then can sleep for 24 Hrs !! No wonder all Lions that I could see were always asleep.


We waited for sometime but our driver told us that no point in waiting as this guy will not move. So we started our journey again. Meanwhile, came across a strong legged ostrich running -


We moved towards the border to Kenya and Tanzania, considering the national park and to ensure the free movement between Serengari and Masai Mara, there are just some milestone kind of marking for the border and nothing else -


The full view of the Vehicle


Then we again visited the Mara river to check try our luck. The hippos were still there, but nothing else, now the earlier green bird also flew away.

The famous Mara River-


We spent sometime here to see if something happens, but it was kind of clear since even on the other side there was not critical mass of Wildebeests for a migration to take place. We decided to move on try the next day.

By now it was late afternoon, and we decided to see if we can get to see any Lion prides. Meanwhile, we crossed this duo



After sometime we came across another lion sleeping, there was no chance that this guy will move at least till tomorrow.


Another Giraffe duo


We were now on our way back to resort as we were nearing evening. Suddenly we came across this big group of elephants on the left side of the road. We just went ahead a bit and then from there watching them. Due to some trees only a few of them were initially visible, in sometime they decided to cross the road and it was great view







Towards the end one elder elephant did a mock charge towards us, we later understood that it is because one of the baby elephants was yet to cross and the big elephant thought we may create a problem in it.

On our way back again we encounter Giraffes, these are in abundance here and you can spot them almost anywhere.




With this we called it a day for the safari.

In the background our discussion and fight with local and Indian tour operator was still going on. But so far there was no luck with it. We had to stay where we had been assigned. That was really unfortunate, as the resort was not that great, especially with the facilities etc.

[drive.click]

Day 5

This day began with a good news!! We had a note from our driver that today afternoon we can check in to a different resort that has been arranged for us. Although it was practically now only one day remaining, it was still a moral victory for us. Post breakfast our driver also told us that its a better resort so we decided to move there. So we checkout from the current resort and loaded all the luggage in the car.

In about 20 mins post starting our drive today, we saw a many vehicles lined up about an area. Upon reaching there we had to spend 2-3 mins to see the two Cheetahs that had already made a kill and now savouring it. We must have missed by only sometime, otherwise we could have witnessed the hunt. But I guess that happened before anyone could reach this spot, as we had started early. None the less it was a great sight



The two were eating turn by turn it seemed. I had to sit on the floor of the vehicle to align camera angle to capture a few shots.




For all the tourists in this area today, the kill happened at a very strategic place. It was like semi circular route around this area so a lot of place for everyone to get a view without disturbing or putting pressure on others. So everyone was happy including the Cheetahs.




In the all pics in the background the black spots you see are all the Wildebeests the abundance of prey. After sometime, both of them got up indicating that they will move on. Meanwhile a lot of vultures had already gathered to eat the remains. Once the Cheetahs got up, they were looking to clinch the remains. The following picture just shows that -


These brothers moved together in a direction, while licking each others face to wipe of the blood post eating


Well after this we also moved on in search of some new excitement. We encountered a lot of Zebras, some of them were being playful


Some different perspective of birds on Zebra crossing


Then we got to see a different kind of antelope Topi.


I think today was Cheetah day. While we were on our way towards our new resort which was also near to the areas of river, we got to see a group of 5 cheetahs. First we could see them running, while odd one will stop. Before all of them came at one place -



Famous Five


We also spotted a female ostrich, driver told us that with the gesture that you see in the photo below that she is trying to woo the male, but that was a beautiful sight


After this we moved to our new resort for lunch and check in. We had a quick lunch. The chef and service staff were great here, they made some quick special preparation for us. Its restaurant was near a small rivulet and it offered fantastic view of grass land beyond that. From one side it can be approached by a small bridge, where these two had fun


We finished our lunch and content we moved to try our luck for Leopards, Migration or Lions. There was no such agenda, we tried new side of the river, but could only see a crocodile


After this our driver took us into some very thick bushes see said there are chances to spot a pride of lions. On the way we spotted an elephant and a Giraffe very closely






For almost 20 mins we were going through this maze of bushes, and we were thinking lets not do that. But he kept going confidently, and finally we were at the edge of the river in thik bushes with no place to move ahead but only take a reverse and here we could see at least 7-8 lions sleeping. There could be more but we could not move around. They were so close that if one could get down and take 2-3 step you would be practically touch them -



That's how all of us are sleeping during lockdown


We came back here again in sometime, the position is still the same-


There are two things that I have not been able to sight so far in life - Bear and Leopard. In Africa I was hopeful to sight Leopard, so we tried the area where there are trees and chance of Leopards are high. But I guess somethings will have to wait.

[drive.click]

Day 5 Continued

While we were returning from the spot where we spotted lion pride, very near to that we found two Lion brothers and they were sitting there. So we watched them for some more time.





While moving from this spot, as we had sometime on hand before the sunset, we decided to have another look at the pride of lions to see if they have gotten up. When we moved towards that side again, we saw that one lioness was active and was taking position. We looked around to check what is there, and we could see a group of buffalos were hanging around. We anticipated some action with another hunt, I mean I realized that it was a streched anticipation, as its difficult to hunt buffalos and that too alone is next to impossible. But no harm in expecting.

Lioness taking position




Buffalos that were just going about there business.



As you can figure out by this time it was already nearing sunset and we had to move back and so many others





After this we experienced the beautiful sunset of Mara















After this wonderful sunset and a satisfying day we went back to our new resort to spend our last night of Mara.

For the entire night, we could hear a Hyena howling near to the rivulet of resort. I think these are the kind of true jungle nights.

[drive.click]

Day 6 - Last but not the least

Towards the end of our day 5 we understood that to get out of Mara Reserve for driving towards Nairobi, we still need to cross significant sections of Masai Mara and if we start early morning that gives us one last chance to witness some more wildlife. Only condition that our driver put was we need to be out of reserve by around 10 am, so as to comfortably reach Nairobi. There is mountain stretch on the way where one always encounter traffic jam, as many trucks ply on that road and its a narrow two lane road. So we decided to get up early morning and start at 6 AM sharp so we get at least 3 hours to leisurely cross the jungle.

We were out at sharp 6 AM and we hoped that last 3 hours are exciting with some action. Meanwhile, experienced a lovey sunrise just out of our resort.





As I had mentioned earlier we had heard a lot of Hyena howling through out the night. We probably found the culprit as soon as we started



As you can see in the background of Hyena, balloon rides had stated by this time. I am sure that would be a wonderful experience of watching the wildlife and jungle from above. May be sometime later for us , we will do it.

The Hunt

As we were hoping to see something exciting, not much was happening and we didn't know that we will experience something thrilling. A lot of us think that Hyenas only eat on remains or leftovers or even that these guys just steal from others. But these are all misconceptions that have spread through stories and more so because hyena isn't considered to look very pretty or royal as compared to others such as Leopard, Cheetah or Lion. However, Hyenas a formidable and strong hunters in their own way, we just got to experience that.

We saw a large group of Wildebeests being chased half heartedly by a lone Hyena (till now even I thought these guys always hunt in group).



Initially it didn't look very serious, we all thought that the Hyena would give up in sometime. But he persisted -





After this attempt there was calm for sometime. But the Hyena decided to have another attempt.





This time it looked very serious and Hyena was not giving up. It seemed to have isolated one Wildebeest. But we could not directly go behind these guys since the track was not leading to that direction.

Our driver Paul acted immediately, and moved fast on track that will take us to the area in the direction in which hunt was heading. All of us except the driver had lost the direction in which the hunt was moving, but in 5 minutes we were there.

(Pictures contain some blood and violence)

This is how we found them now -





Well vultures immediately know where to reach. Amazing GPS they have -





By this time there were more vultures had gathered. Hyena continued to eat but the vultures were also trying to have a bite. It was kind of fight to eat peacefully.



Finally, Hyena just left the scene, making it all yours for the vultures.



To witness this action was kind of a dream come true, the excitement, the action everything was just amazing. The last day had been superb for us till now. After coming back to real world after sometime of witnessing this, we realized that we have to move out as well, since we had of course taken a bit of detour from the route that takes you out of jungle.

We again saw some action, there were lionesses that we found chasing some wildebeests and we thought there was one more sequence in the offering.





The effort was not at all coordinated, it seemed these lionesses didn't put a lot of effort and they walked off.



We noticed the male lion of the pride was just chilling very nearby when this action was happening. He was like 'Jo karna hai karo, main kuch nahi kar raha'



So we moved on and we witnessed one last group of Giraffes



After this it was getting a bit late and we had to move out quickly without any more interruptions. So we just stopped for one last photo-



And we moved out quickly without any more stoppages. The drive after this was routine. We all were just discussing the hunt, the attempt and overall experience.

Luckily we didn't get stuck in the infamous traffic jam, our driver was continuously checking from others over phone for the situation. We reached Nairobi by around 2 - 2.30 PM. Finished lunch at a mall enroute also did some souvenirs shopping. Moved to airport, said a good bye to the fantastic driver and guide. He was really good and provided a lot of information to us all throughout the trip. Needless to say we are still in touch with him over social media and a occasional call as well.

The only sad part of the trip was the change of resort in Mara, while we did get a complementary trip to Bandhavgarh in India, I think the experience and the trouble of coordination that you go through in one of your dream tour can not be compensated for. Anyways, we had a lovely, fantastic trip. Hope you guys enjoy going through it.

[aah78]

Note from Support: Thread moved to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

[Amrik Singh]

Only Two words in appreciation of the terrific Travelogue and Photos

Just Beautiful

Rekindled my memory back by a Quarter Century - 1994 to be precise.

[R2D2]

Those are some awesome very sharp photos. Thanks for sharing!!

[Miyata]

Gorgeous. Fantastic. It's on my bucket list. Hopefully one day. A colleague of mine (from an earlier job) was from Kenya. Even 5-yrs after not being a colleague anymore I remain in touch with him and keep badgering him to share photos and videos whenever he is home in Kenya!

Thanks for sharing.

[mpp19]

I can only say that it's amazing. I am sure you enjoyed every bit of the time spent there. It's in my bucket list though and a safari visit in one of the African Countries is a must. During my Gir Safari Ride, I witnessed two lions having a feast from their hunt and I cannot describe in words, the supreme power the lions displayed.

[libranof1987]

Lovely travelogue and pictures - thanks for sharing! This is like a nice crash course of a NatGeo episode. We have in mind to plan a trip to Africa for a while now; waiting for my daughter to get a little older so she can understand/enjoy it.

Can you share the travel operator you went through and other logistical aspects (+ average per person trip cost) so our homework gets a little easier.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Beautiful pics.

Africa is on my bucket list of travels. Hoping I can do a trip soon!

[ChiragM]

Wow. Excellent photos drive.click. Stunning.

I've been on a few Safaris in South Africa and loved every minute spent there. Unfortunately, I have not seen any Cheetahs out in the wild.

Need to explore the remaining parts of Africa and Masai Mara is high on that list. Probably the next time I head to that continent.

Now I started scanning the landscape a bit more carefully and then first time in life I saw a Rhino (in the backdrop you see some portion of the resort)

This seems way too close for comfort.

[Sheel]

Wildlife out in the open and that too in Africa is mega, pictures are amazingly shot as well. Personally, loved the hunt sequence.

Thanks for sharing .