Jambo from the Jungle – A trip to Kenya

[Jayanth Sharma]

“Kenya???” My friends remarked when they learnt about my honeymoon destination. When I explained how different Kenya is from what most of us perceive of Africa, (which is a hot desert, has a lot of poor people, lot of crime, unfriendly to tourists etc) most of them then agreed that it probably may be a good destination. Kenya is cold and pleasant I would say and they would leave shaking their heads telling me… “But..still why Kenya of all places???”. I would give up convincing them and carry on visualizing my trip to Kenya which had become my dream destination ever since I realized my passion for Wildlife.

Yellow Fever Vaccination – was one of the last minute hurdles that I had to cross. Finally we were sitting in Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi and I closed my eyes at three in the morning to land in Nairobi at 6AM, Kenya time. After a very easy immigration procedure we were out of the airport and received by our guide/driver - Jackson. I was happy to know that we would be using the same vehicle to commute between places and also go inside the parks on safaris. The mini-buses had a convertible open top which is raised above the top of the vehicle and tourists can stand inside the vehicle and have a better look.

Masai Mara National Park
A long and exhausting journey to Masai Mara from the Nairobi airport took us nearly six hours and we had to skip lunch and directly start a safari without even checking in the lodge. The Masai tribesmen were at the gates of the national park welcoming us. Jackson explained to us about the different tribes that inhabit Kenya and quite a lot about the Masai who are one of the most popular tribes of the country. The great migration of the Wildebeest, Zebras and the Thomson gazelles had almost come to an end, but a few wildebeest herds were still seen migrating. Within a couple of minutes after entering the park, I started identifying the mammals and birds and I didn’t know quite a lot of them.

Hartebeest, the Topi, the Grants Gazelles, plenty of Zebras, Elephant herds in the distance, sky scraping giraffes and a lot of wild buffaloes were seen within no time. I admired the blue sky of the great savannas and spent the evening browsing thorough the grasslands of Masai Mara, hoping to sight something interesting. It was a short safari after which we checked in the Sarova Mara – Jungle camp. Sarova Mara, was a very posh accommodation and the luxury tent was the best I had seen so far. Jambo! Said the beautiful Kenyan girl who led us to our tent in which we would stay for the next few days. I reset my watch to Kenyan time which was 2:20 hours behind IST and went to bed early.

6:30 AM was the stipulated time for our morning game drive as they call it and I was late by 10 minutes. Quickly realizing the difference between our watches we set out on our first morning safaris. Jackson was not too happy the way we had wasted 15 minutes. But what ever happens, is happens for good – they say. Within five minutes of entering the park, I spotted a lioness walking across the grass and I altered Jackson to stop the vehicle. Stopping for a second, the lioness continued her morning walk crossing the road and vanishing in to the bushes. We surely would have missed the queen of the jungle had we started on time we happily boasted.

I thought I was very lucky! But I soon realized sighting a lion in Masai Mara is quite normal, but quite a lot of tourists miss them at times. Driving far and wide across the savannah, we reached a spot from where we could sight a vehicle stopping in the middle of the grassland. Couldn’t have been anything other than the lions – we thought and reached that spot soon. It was a small pride with two lionesses and a cub which were eyeing the distant topi herds before going away from the tracks. Jackson soon took us to yet another spot with at least ten vehicles parked together and this surely had to be for the lions. At least ten individuals were lazing next to the bushes on the sunny morning. Soon, the morning light started getting harsh and the number of vehicles started increasing. That prompted the lions to get up and change places. All of them followed the elderly lady of the pride in to the bushes. Since they were well fed, we knew we wouldn’t sight them again for at least a day.

That evening was special. Within minutes of entering the safari tracks, we found three cheetahs sitting out in the open at quite a distance. They were quite lazy at the beginning but after a long time they started moving together slowly towards the bushes. We slowly moved towards them and suddenly two of the three brothers got together and started walking towards the impala herd. The other cheetah vanished inside the bushes and came back with an impala within no time. I was amazed by the way it had made a kill that fast. By then the other brothers had short listed their prey. It was an impala fawn and one of them started chasing the weakling vigorously.

As expected, the fawn couldn’t keep up its pace for more than thirty seconds and it lost hope and fell down. Both the cheetah and the fawn were panting standing next to each other when the cheetah held the fawn and started dragging it towards his brother. For the next few minutes both the cheetah brothers and the fawn sat next to each other and I was amazed to see the hunter and the prey sitting beside each other without any actions. The fawn would every now and then try to escape but one of the brothers would punch on its head and bring it back to ground zero. After a while both the brothers disappeared with their prey totally petrified and clueless of what to do.

I loved the evening safaris in Masai Mara as I become a great fan of the golden light in the evening here. Zebras and Wildebeest in the evening light were totally mesmerizing to sight. On one such evening, just before we wrapped up our safari, we spotted a lonely lioness hide in the bushes and eye a distant zebra herd. Soon plenty of vehicles came closer and formed an unnatural hide to the lioness that took advantage of the “cover” and started stalking towards the herd. Unfortunately we were short of time and to avoid being fined for staying back in the jungle after dusk; we rushed back to the hotel. But most naturalists reckoned that the lioness wouldn’t be successful that evening.

Over the next couple of days, we visited the Masai village and had hands on experience of the way they live in small huts and thrive as one unit. It is interesting to note that Masai women are considered to be precious commodities and unlike some of the Indian tribes and cultures, Dowry is given to the Girl’s father before marrying her. Usually it is 10 cows, some sheep and a lot of beer for the old man. They are usually strict about the dowry and most of them were surprised to know I paid no dowry to be married and various others get dowry for marrying in India. They also wished they married Indian women so that, they would get dowry instead of paying for their wives. My wife was rather irritated hearing a young man saying “last year alone, I bought three wives”. “Buying a wife? What the heck?” she remarked and we had fun relating to our culture to theirs.

On one particular safari we spotted the Serval Cat which is hardly seen by people. We were very fortunate to have come across this cat in the grassland and we followed it for a while before losing track of it. On our last day at Masai Mara, we could see the clouds covering the savannah and the short rains which were due anytime. We were lucky to have been there just in time. Before checking out from Masai Mara, we visited the great Mara river where plenty of wildebeest and zebras cross during migration. The river was almost dry except for a small portion which was stuffed with huge hippopotamus. It was thrilling to sit next to the river and watch them beat the heat and play in the water. Just before finishing the innings of Masai Mara, I was bid good bye by a Lilac-breasted Roller which is almost like the Indian roller except for amazing lilac color on its breast. When I opened the photograph on a computer, I realized that I could see my own vehicle in the eyes of the roller.

Lake Nakuru National Park
One of my regrets of this trip has been allocating a very short span of time to this small but very thrilling national park. Lake Nakuru is world famous for its Flamingo population and I hardly realized flamingos were just one of the amazing species that can be found here. Non stop photography happens here and amazing pelicans, stilts, ducks, flamingos, giraffes, zebras, Thomson gazelles, lions, White Rhinos, the shy and aggressive Black Rhino, leopards and baboons have made this place their home and I hardly got time to recover between photographs here. A climb up the Baboon point gave us a bird’s eye perspective of Lake Nakuru which was about to receive rains that evening. The sight was truly mesmerizing with plenty of flamingos, buffaloes and pelicans seen on the lake bed from the top of the hillock.

One evening, we chanced up on two male lions which reminded me of the brothers in “The Ghost and the Darkness” movie. One of them was very eagerly watching an adult white rhino and I didn’t realize what he had on his mind. But soon, a Rhino calf emerged out of the bushes and the lions started moving closer to the mother and calf. The mother seemed rather clueless at first but later even after seeing the lions she didn’t move a bit. Surprised by her stupidity we all hung around to see what would happen next….

After a while, one of the lions started stalking towards the calf and his intentions were pretty clear. At one point the lion and the rhinos were hardly 10 feet away and the lion was about to make the attack. Just then all the vehicles standing and watching the act started honking continuously. I was amazed and amused to see that. Every one of them said “Rhinos were scarce; the lions should kill the buffaloes” and kept on honking to distract the lion and alert the rhino mother.

One of the drivers took initiative and ventured out of the road in to the grass and stood between the rhinos and the lion disrupting the attack. My emotions were running high but I realized it wasn’t India and things were different there. I was wondering – who are we to intrude? But most others there had a totally different opinion and may be they are allowed to intrude in that place I thought and moved on. The Rhino mother led her calf towards the male who was not very far away from the action. I was very hesitant to leave Lake Nakuru, but I had no choice but to head towards Arberdare National Park the next day.

Arberdare National Park – The Arc
Arberdare, resembles the South Indian jungles quite a bit and it was a total terrain difference from the other parks we were visiting. The Arc is a place right inside the Arberdare national park where a few wooden rooms are built right next to the water hole and the salt lick. There is no game drive here but guests laze around this tourist home and the balcony from where animals are sighted right next to the lodge. The water hole is well lit and enables viewing game animals all through out the night. Each room gets alarm calls when animals come near the water hole if guests want to wait inside the warmth of their rooms.

As the sun set in Arberdare, the wild buffaloes and the Elephants flooded the water hole and the salt lick and we were sitting just 20 feet away watching them interact with each other and play amongst themselves. Still photography is quite tough here and we just spent time capturing these on our amateur video camera before going to bed. The next morning we had to checkout and drive to a semi-desert park called the Samburu National Park.


Samburu National Park
I was very optimistic about this park and had allocated myself 5 game drives here. We were accommodated in the luxurious Samburu Serena lodge which was at a picturesque location right next to a muddy river. Sitting outside our rooms we could sight a lot of animals and birds on the banks of the river. Right on our first game drive we came across a mating pair of lions which were resting after the act. A short wait gave us the pleasure of watching the ultimate act of the lions mate. Soon after that we heard a lot of drivers mention about a leopard resting on a tree somewhere nearby. Even though we reached the spot 20 minutes later, the leopard was found sleeping on a tree branch which was almost horizontal.

While on the game drives, I spotted a bird rich in color with a beautiful white eye. Wow, that’s superb I exclaimed. That’s right. It’s the Superb Starling said my guide. It was one of the most common birds sighted in Samburu. Reticulated Giraffe and plenty of elephant herds were the most common sightings of Samburu.

The Gerenuk was also an important species of this zone. Sighting in Samburu was not as happening as Masai Mara or Nakuru. Just before checking out of Samburu, we were surprised to see a Leopard being caught in our resort, hardly 100 feet away from our rooms. There were a lot of reports of sighting this female inside the property when the rangers took this step of capturing it – they said. After seeing a leopard caged and ferocious from 5 feet distance, we had to rush to Mount Kenya for a leisure outing before flying back to India. We were so tired that all we did in Mount Kenya was sit back and relax looking at the snow capped mountain. A five star resort with a lot of luxurious facilities and activities is a perfect end to a honeymoon which helped us gather ourselves back and get back to the urban jungle.

By the way, “Jambo” means “Hello” in Swahili – a language spoken by most East African tribes. I soon hope to visit the Amboseli national park from where one can sight the Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. Lake Nakuru is a place I should probably visit again for its non-stop wildlife action too. Over all it was an amazing trip to this heaven on earth. How can I forget this trip!

Sighting list - Coming soon

Please click here for the photographs of this trip

Meanwhile - please download the musical slideshow of some photographs here: www.wildlifetimes.com/gallery/albums/kenya/kenya.exe
_________________
Cheers,
Jayanth Sharma
jay@wildlifetimes.com

[Madhu]

Hey Jayanth, that's a beautiful report of a great trip, with amazing picture as always. Thanks for the presentation. Just downloaded and finished it..

Rgds,
Madhu

[Jeet]

Hi Jayanth,
This is one of the most wildest Honeymoon I ever heard off. But with the kind of wild life sighted and how you have captured them, Ithink you have returned back a "HAPPY MAN".
Wish you a happy conjugal life.
Regards,
Suvajit

[Kartik]

Congratulations on your wedding Jayanth. Kenya for Honeymoon wow... thats like a dream come true great photos. I will download the presentation and envy you some more

[Kiran Kumar PY]

Great set of pics....

regards,
Kiran

[Guest]

yayyyy Jay, finally u posted it
thanks a lot buddy now i'm gonna get my brekkie and enjoy the show!
-Choco

[Guest]

superrrr! great read and great slideshow presentation. thanks Jay!!
-Choco

[Prasoon Rana]

Nice Report Jayanth..... enjoyed every word of it.... Congrates on marriage and lot of wishes for Married life...

[shiva]

wonderful . nice that you are making use of the time.

best wishes.

[varunk23]

Congrats on your wedding Jayanth!
Great pics and report!
(The exe is getting downloaded)

Looking forward to many more pics

[Guest]

Hi Jayanth,
First and fore most Wish You a very Happy Married Life.
The photos are simply superlative.
Keep it up.

Cheers,Jayaram Jahgirdar

[Satyendra Sharma]

Congrats on your marriage. Great trip report and excellent shots.
_________________
Satyendra Sharma
Noida, India
http://satie.co.in

[Shivakumar]

Hi Jayanth,

One of the best Kenyan safari report and image collection by an Indian. Glad that you had a fabulous time in Kenya with your wife.

Thanks for storybook report and a beautiful flash presentation. Very innovative.
_________________
Cheers,
Shivakumar

[Vikram Nanjappa]

Hello Jayant,
Welcome back and hope to see both of you in Kabini soon. Nice article as always and lovely snaps.
_________________
Vikram Nanjappa,
Kabini

[Guest]

A beautiful Dream come true, I suppose.
You have given us a sober report of African safari.
Many of us are kindled to look forward to such an endevour.

Thanks Jayant.
Mayilvahnan

[kart]

"JAMBO" Jay....

The wait is over.... amazing trip report & fabulous photography....

Kart
www.wildlifee.com

[Guest]

Jay..... damn damn damn neat report & awesome pictures....
the whole collection is simply mind blowing...

[Bharat]

Wish you all the best and looking forward to many more trip reports from Mr & Mrs Jayanth Sharma.

Regards
Bharat

[Guest]

Truly amazing photographs, as always!!!!!!!!!!!!
Varun aka hwsbh
p.s. Congratulations and Goodluck for your married Life!!

[Guest]

Spectacular pics! Very neat report.I loved the pic with the cheetah & the deer standing next to eachother like they are posing for the pic.

[Pramod Viswanath]

I second Shiva regarding the trip to Kenya by any Indian. The report and images are fantastic and way beyond words!

I have a small suggestion - when ever you find time, do come up with a detailed report for each sanctuary you visited separately in terms of habitat and wildlife which will be the icing on the cake!
Way to go!

Regards
Pramod Viswanath

[travinfoindia]

I keep following your travel stories as I am also a travel freak.

Great idea .. of honeymoon in Kenya.. Hey tell us honestly you had photography in your mind first .. dont you ??

But anyways great treat for us.. absolutely amazing pictures. I always watch these animals on discovery and you saw them with naked eyes.. I can imagine the thrill and also a chance to capture them with your lens..

Congrats.. And best wishes for your marriage..
_________________
Check me at:
www.travinfoindia.com

[Dr Puttanarasimhaiah]

Gr8 photos nd congrats

[manu]

Amazing photos man...

[Nandish]

Great work mate . Keep them coming