Thursday, December 31, 2009

Lions and Leopards and Mud, Oh My!

We just returned from a wonderful safari. It was an amazing experience, and the last safari we will be able to go on here in Africa.

We left Monday morning from the airport on a mid-size plane. Our in-flight meal was mints. There were no drinks served. The flight lasted all of 45 minutes, including the two stops before ours.

We were booked into the Mara Siria luxury tented bush camp. The three boys were put into one family tent. By family they mean a king sized bed (two twins pushed together with a king-sized bedspread over them both) and one twin camp bed. They put Sam and I into another tent quite a fair distance from the boys. All the tents were advertised to have king sized beds, and in-tent bathrooms. Our tent contained 2 twin beds--not pushed together--and an outhouse tent beside an "outhouse" shower just outside the back of the tent. The toilet looked real enough, but concealed a hole in the ground. Needless to say, we were extremely disappointed. I told Sam that I just needed a few minutes to complain, and then I'd make the best of it. Gross!! Just as I finished my complaining, they came by and told us that they'd found another tent. This one was right next door to the boys tent, and was just like theirs, without the camp bed. It also had a shower and real flush toilet. Thank goodness.

We set out on our first game drive that afternoon. At the gate we were greeted by a young eland, avoiding the rain. Our driver, Hussein, told us that we could get out and touch it, so naturally we did. Joseph was great with it until it tried to gore him. Or at least that's what it seemed like. Then we piled back into the landcruiser and set off into the park.

Right off the bat we encountered the perfect African savanna scene, with zebras, giraffes, and various antelope together with some amazing scenery.

We drove on and quickly encountered a couple of young male lions just lazing around. After taking about a thousand snaps of them, we moved on. And then we just happened upon a cheetah. Not off in the distance, photoshop and crop so you can tell what it is, but a for real, right there, cheetah. Eating! It had just caught a reedbuck or bushbuck, and was happily munching away.

After the cheetah, we drove on and encountered elephants, more antelope--including Topi, which I'd never seen before, buffalo, warthog, and lots of birds and butterflies. One highlight was when we saw a large group of something that, from a distance, looked like groundhogs. Except that there aren't any groundhogs in Africa. Turns out, it was mongooses. So cool!

Our camp was located out in the bush, and has no fences. So after dark we couldn't be outside without an escort. When dinnertime arrived we went out to find our Masaai escort, who walked us to the dining room. We ate breakfast and lunch outside near the reception tent, and dinner was after dark both nights. I have no idea where the dining room was. We were escorted and, as it was dark, muddy, and rocky, I kept my eyes on the ground in front of my feet at all times. I only know that it was pretty far from our tents, and also pretty far from the reception tent. That's all I know. At dinner on night two we found a slug creeping along on the wall behind my chair. We told the waiter about it, and he basically said, "Wow, gross, there sure is," and went about his business. Clueless. Absolutely clueless.

On day two we took our lunches with us and went out for 8 hours. A l o o n g day. But also great. We found a rhino mother and baby fairly early in the day. It wasn't easy to photograph them, as they were in the bushes, but we managed. We then saw a hyena mother and baby, baboons, more elephants, a jackal, and more zebra, giraffe, and antelope.

And then we got to the river. Hippos, hippos everywhere! But no crocodiles. Apparently they stay underwater unless there's some sun out to warm them. Which there wasn't. We saw two hippos sparring, as well.

We moved further down the river and then the sun came out, and so did the crocs. Big ones! The biggest was probably 15 feet. So cool!

We spent the better part of the afternoon looking for the elusive leopard, the only one of the big five--buffalo, elephant, rhino, lion, and leopard--that we hadn't seen. But no luck.

A note about the weather. Rain, rain, rain! It tended to pour in the late afternoon, with bits of rain here and there through out the day and night. We were in a landcruiser with roll-up canvas sides, and it was a bit chilly. And the roads! Mud, mud, mud! We drove through mud, we drove through muddy water, we even forded a "river". It was incredible to see. I can't imagine what they'll be like when it all dries out.

We set out early on our last morning. Right away we encountered a pride of at least 11 lions. I say 11 because we saw ten of them, but not the alpha male. And every pride has one. These lions weren't just laying around, either. They were on the move. We followed. I'm sure that one reason that we spent so much time watching them is that they were essentially moving along the road--sometimes literally ON it--and Hussein didn't want to chance any encounters, given our measly canvas protection.

Again we spent much of the drive searching for a leopard. So frustrating! Finally, just 30 minutes before our flight departure, we found one! It was also moving, stalking a family of warthogs. We didn't get to follow it too far, though, because it was at precisely this moment that our landcruiser decided to get stuck. We were driving perpendicular to an underwater road, and the rear tires landed in a rut. And we couldn't get out of it. Naturally, nobody wanted to get out an push. We managed to rock our way out of the rut, everybody helping rock. We cheered! and then landed in the next rut. One other vehicle came to try and push us out, but as it could barely move itself, gave up. Serious rocking ensued, and we finally managed to break free. Fun, fun, fun!

The leopard hadn't gone too far, and we were able to find it again, and then follow its stalking progress. Finally it took off after the warthogs, but, alas, lost them. So cool to watch!

We made it to the airstrip in time, but only because the leopard had already charged. Otherwise, I think we may have all coughed up the money for another night and a different flight.

Our return flight was in a small plane that held 20 people, if you count the pilot and co-pilot. The co-pilot was also the flight attendant. He passed back the mints and told us that there was water in the back of the plane. And that was that.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. The one thing I absolutely wanted to see was the one thing that I hadn't seen thus far in Africa--a leopard. I managed, but only just. Talk about leaving things to the last minute!