Out of Africa...more lions, silly hippos, Nairobi and Lufthansa First Class

Our last morning in the Mara was wonderful. We had had a good sleep with all the canvas rolled up, hoping to see some nearby action--perhaps a curious elephant or leopard. No luck with that, but before dawn we heard some roaring--distant at first and then louder and more vocal. Lions, calling to each other. Lots of them! The Offbeat Pride was back!

We knew we wouldn't have time for a game drive to seek them out, so relaxed with coffee and biscuits on our little veranda. The path from our tent to the main camp was nicely mowed...like all Offbeat Camps, Offbeat Mara is unfenced--as is the conservancy, the Maasai Mara National Reserve.  Wildlife is free to roam--though it is most often at night that this happens, and wildlife generally stays clear of the camps.

The main camp has a comfy lounge area for guests to mingle and have tea and cocktails.

Breakfast is usually served in the adjacent tent, but Miia had arranged something special for our last morning. 

The staff walked us down a steep path...


















To a lovely breakfast-for-two table set up by the river.

We said goodbye to Miia and Kimoni and Josh loaded our bags for the trip to the airport.Along the way we planned to stop at the hippo pool near the airport.

Josh did the driving, as usual, and Kimoni the did the spotting. As luck would have it, a male lion popped up out of the grass and Kimoni was right there.

We had time to investigate and as we drew closer, we could see there were two.

When these guys lie down in grass this high, they are just about invisible, even from a few feet away.

Josh pulled our vehicle around in front of them, and they walked right past us...close enough to smell and almost close enough to touch.

Here is a video as they move past us out into the grasslands.  

A little further investigation led us to a female lion feeding on a buffalo kill nearby. Josh said the female had actually brought down the buffalo, but the males eat first.  When they are done, the female eats.  

She gnawed on the bones for a good long while.

Then she lifted her head and paused almost like she was going to take a nap.

But then quite suddenly got up and headed for our vehicle.

I backed further into the vehicle so quickly I couldn't finish focusing...she was looking right at me!

But her belly was full and she took a sharp left by the vehicle door and headed out into the grass after the two males.
Vultures had been circling, and they now moved in, followed by hyenas--real circle of life stuff in the Maasai Mara.

One hyena has braved a fight with the vultures, while another one looks on from the distance.

This fellow runs off with a leg.

Here the hyenas are stacked up in an airport-landing-like pattern. They wait their chance to get a piece of the kill, but also are clearly keeping an eye out for any lions that may be around.

From this viewing we headed straight for hippo pool. It was a smallish pool, jam packed full of water lilies.  We got no dramatic yawns, but I did think this shot was funny.  Hippos are so extremely dangerous, but looked rather whimsical all draped in greenery.

But it was time to catch our SafariLink flight back to Nairobi. It turns out that there are several airstrips in the Maasai Mara, and the scheduled flights hop from one to another picking up and dropping off passengers. Our pilot was a friendly and very professional young man named Ben.

The airstrip used by Offbeat is also used by larger safari companies like Governor's Camp--which has its own planes and doesn't have to rely on scheduled air.

Next up, another Maasai Airstrip.

I got to sit right behind Ben and could watch as he navigated and made log entries.

We began by flying over the Mara, often seeing giraffes and elephants below us...or a safari vehicle like this one, bringing passengers to a camp in the bush.

And just a little over an hour later we were on approach to Nairobi, flying over swanky suburbs with big swimming pools and even bigger houses.

Our arrival in Nairobi went smoothly (except for a moment of angst about our left luggage at the transfer company's offices--but we were reunited with it fairly quickly.) Our driver took us through the city to our hotel The Fairview. The approach was interesting. Security is tight all around, but the hotel is across the street from the Israeli Embassy, so there were extra checkpoints.

I thought this sign was a hoot. Proceed through "friendly " checkpoint! In fact, the guy with machine did have a big smile on his face!

The hotel itself has lovely grounds...it is built around an old estate. The poolside dining is quite nice (the pool was freezing!) and the al fresco terrace was also very inviting.

The rooms are serviceable, though not luxurious in terms of amenities, bedding, toweling and such. Still, it was fine for the 8 hours we needed it.

We wound our back through Cairo to the The Fairmont Towers Heliopolis, again being met by our tour coordinator extraordinaire, Emad. With less than a full day until we caught our next flight (Frankfurt and onward to Boston), we weren't sure what to expect--but the Towers (the newer side of the Fairmont complex, the Heliopolis being the older side) absolutely blew us away.  This is a true 5 star property (complete with fun casino)--almost on a par with the Shangri La Singapore.  We were thrilled.

I can't end without showing the new Lufthansa First class configuration in their long-haul 747's, the plane we had on the Frankfurt-Boston leg.

There are just eight "seats" in the First Class cabin, which is the entire upper deck of the long-haul 747's. But each "seat" actually has two stations, one lounger-type chair with a flat-screen TV in front of it, and then a permanent actual bed, already made up for sleeping.  So no waiting while flight attendants make up your bed--no having to choose between a bed and a sitting arrangement.  Of course the bedding is very high end and comfortable, and you also get pajamas and an amenity kit packed with goodies. 

Not too hard to get comfy here!

Bud being a tourist--the copilot looking back at us from the cockpit.

We hope we'll get to do this again sometime in our lives!

And that's the end of the trip.  I'll be putting up separate pages with my favorite shots from each segment--Egypt and Africa--which will show on tabs at the top of the page here. If you would like to read from the beginning, go to the listing by date on the left-hand menu and start with January 1, 2012.

Till next time!