At last...the Maasai Mara, lions, cheetah and a remote camp.

As amazing as our time had been so far, we had not seen simba (lions) or duma (cheetah) yet.  But the staff at Meru and Sosian kept saying "hakuna matata"--no worries, you are headed to the Maasai Mara. Lion and cheetah country!

Our SafariLink flight stopped in Nanyuki, then headed southwest over some mountains. After about 45 minutes, the terrain flattened out to a vast, vast plain. The Mara, meaning "spotted land". The grasslands stretch forever, and are dotted with the occasional acacia tree...spots. Maasai is of course the predominate tribe that inhabits the Mara.

This time we weren't surprised to see a packed dirt runway with no buildings...just some safari vehicles waiting for pickups/dropoffs and some armed park rangers representing the Maasai National Reserve. Our Maasai guides Kimoni and Josephat (Josh) met us, then had a lengthy discussion with the rangers about our park permits.

Once it was sorted out we headed over the grasslands to Offbeat Mara Camp...but didn't get far before Kimoni spotted a group of lions, males and females. They were trying to cool off in the heat of the day and were battling hordes of flies. We drove right up to within 4 or 5 feet of them!

 Josh said this female lion was looking for some action...but the male seemed to think it was too damn hot.  He was not interested. They ambled away.



These two fellows were right in front of us.  They were annoyed by the flies...a fact of life in the noonday heat of the Mara. There was another female behind them and after a few moments, they got up and decided to look for shade...luckily not under out vehicle. Lions sometimes crawl under vehicles, and when that happens, you just stay put until they decide to move--could be hours.

We had the viewing all to ourselves, but decided it was time to get to camp...and lunch. On the way we saw the first of many vultures--a bird we had not seen at all at Meru or Sosian.

We also saw some "new" antelope...including this topi. The topi seemed to be painted with muted watercolors, purples, ambers and browns.



The Thompson's gazelles have a thick black racing stripe along their bellies.









We got checked in at the camp, definitely the most remote and camp-like of the Offbeat group.

We asked that the canvas sides be kept up all night--normally they are let down.  We didn't want to miss a thing! The table and chairs on the "verandah" is where our coffee and biscuits are delivered at 5:30 am--prep for the morning game drive which starts at 6. You gotta adjust to the animals' schedule--they certainly don't care about letting you sleep in!

Lunch with our camp-mates Jenny and Neil (another UK couple)was yummy and after unpacking we headed out for an evening game drive--of course with sundowners set up by camp manager Miia. Vodka & tonic for me, gin & tonic for Bud...and a lovely fire to keep up warm.

Miia waits for us, sundowners at the ready.

No lions in sight....a good thing!

Sosian--part 2, around the ranch, history, camels, birds, snakes and more.

Going on safari is mostly about game drives and wildlife viewing, but some of the excitement is about the setting--whether it's the tented camps or ranches and/or manor houses from the colonial era.

Sosian Ranch's main house was built in the 1920's when the land was granted to a Major Gerald Edwards after World War One. Long story short: after the Major died in 1977 the property suffered from neglect and overgrazing and was eventually abandonded altogether. Droughts in the late 1990's put the cap on things--barely a blade of grass was left.

But in 2001 a group of shareholders bought the 24000 acre property, restored both the buildings and the ecology and now it is a working cattle ranch as well as a terrific ecotourism/safari spot.

The house had us at hello--high ceilings, wide verandahs, ample comfy furniture. We almost felt like we back in the 1920's ourselves.



We learned that the area cools rapidly as soon as the sun goes down--it was nice to have a fire and cocktails waiting after the evening game drive.

Staff members David and Isaac show Bud to the dining room, where another fire has been laid and a truly gourmet meal was waiting for us.

Tea was often served on the verandah...as well as breakfast. Donna always joined us to make sure our plans for the day were all set.

Accomodations are in stone cottages placed around the property--all outfitted with 4-poster beds with mosquito netting. The honeymoon cottage has a killer bathroom.

I could go on and on, the place was so relaxing and charming. We even met a couple up from Nairobi for a getaway weekend, Richard and Claire--a British couple who settled in Kenya 10 years ago and were wonderful fun to share dinner and cocktails with. They made our time at Sosian even more memorable--and, lucky them, they got to see the wild dogs too.

But back to the animals...I finally talked Bud into a camel "walk" and it was terrific.  Like on our bush walk, Joseph and his spear were right with us, and Peter spotted us from a good distance. You would be surprised how smooth the ride is, once you are on--and how high you are.  It's quite the view.

These are just two of the many camels on the ranch.  They are raised for meat and milk--which is supposed to be very good for diabetics.

My view...you can see a long ways away.

There were also some great-looking light grey burrows. They often were grazing on the lawns or wandering the roads in he evening and I thought they were just for fun...but no.  Their job is to haul firewood, and when their work is done, they're let loose for a snack.

Snakes were not the highest on my "scared of" list, but we did hear stories about the puff adder, a large rattle-snake-looking snake that our guides said was so posionous that if one bites you "that's the end of it." I guess there is no effective serum--the poison is double-acting (heart and blood) and deadly. I figured we'd never see one, but Peter shrieked the Land Cruiser to a halt at the and of our evening drive and, jeez--there was one right on the side of the road.

The concept of danger was kind of "out there" until I saw this guy.  I did learn that the puff adder is slow, and won't go after you...it's mostly a problem when you step on them by mistake in the dark. This all happened on the way to a romantic candle-light dinner out in the bush.

We enjoyed the dinner (the stars are amazing) but decided not to linger.

We also had a treat one day--the Sosian/Offbeat owners, Tristan and Piers stopped by for lunch...in Tristan's single-engine plane. Sosian (like many ranches in the bush) has it's own airstrip--rough though it is.



Seems that one of Tristan's main interest's is horseback riding, and he particularly was interested in Sosian to be able to offer riding safaris--which Sosian is well-known for.  Sadly, Bud and I didn't qualify in terms of expertise.  You have to be very confident galloping in order to do a safari ride in the bush--something about getting away from a charging elephant or lion. Hence the camels for me and Bud.

The Sosian stables have sleek-looking Thoroughbreds and some fascinating black Somalian ponies--extremely hardy, I was told.

Bud and I both loved the sheer variety of life around the ranch, aside from the wildlife--sleek horses, working burros, camels, dogs galore (including a cheerful 3-legged fellow who lost one of his front legs to an unfortunately-placed kick from a horse). Even this pair of crested cranes seemed to belong.



We could have stayed for a lot longer, but our schedule called for a tented camp in the Masai Mara, and a scheduled flight on an airline called SafariLink from what we thought was an airport on a nearby ranch in Loisaba.  This is what the airport looked like.

That's right...a dirt strip.  If you look carefully behind Bud's head you can see a windsock--that's the only "equipment" or facility there. That's our plane.  It turned out to be a great flight--our seat mates were from Sydney, Australia and the fellow also had a Canon 7D (and a lot more experience/expertise).  They had been on an extended tour and had seen the gorillas in Uganda (oops, maybe Ruanda) and he showed me some of his amazing shots and spent the flight setting up my camera for better results, including video.

Serendipity...and just in time for our major lion and cheetah experience in the Mara!

I am writing this from home...we made it in fine fashion and were so glad be greeted by Maggie and Millie.

Tomorrow and Sunday I will write about the Mara and post some pix of lions, cheetah and more--and hope to get video up as well.



Sosian Ranch--Colonial Africa, wild dogs, leopards, bush walks--part 1

A wonderful suprprise before we even got to Sosian Ranch...a Grevy's zebra. They are quite endangered.  In fact I believe the only place (or at least one of the vey few places) thay can be seen in the wild in Africa is in this area. They have a different pattern (black stripes on white body, white underbelly, large ears and are most often seen alone instead of a herd).

Common zebras are white stripes on a black body with no white underbelly and clump together in groups of 5 + for protection. The back structure of both varieties is very weak and they cannot be ridden like a horse or donkey.

The terrain around Sosian Ranch is rocky with rivers and streams and lots of trees, incuding this "yellow fever acacia" that grows near riverbeds--so called because early settlers thought it was the source of yellow fever. The source, of course, was the mosquitos that bred in the rivers--but the name stuck.

Our guides, Joseph and Peter were with us the whole time, and Donna, the neighbor/manager who subs for the managing couple when they are away, saw us off on every game drive and welcomed us home from every drive.  This seems to be an Offbeat Safaris policy, which we really appreciated.

There is a research station fairly nearby that tracks wildlife behavior and some species of particular interest are "collared" with radio transmitters that can help with tracking for game viewing.

Here we are looking for lions...but they eluded us.


The next morning we were rewarded with an incredible sighting of the extremely endangered wild dog pack that lives in the area. There are 13, including 7 puppies.

The puppies scrambling up a large rock outcropping.

Mama (with the collar) and papa.

All out for the morning hunt.

We realized how lucky we were when Peter told us that a fellow from South Africa had been at Sosian for three entire weeks, just looking for a sighting of the puppies. None are found in the wild in South Africa. He had no luck, left the day before we arrived--and there they were on our first morning! If you think having the tracking makes sighting easy...well, not so. The area is vast, the terrain uneven and brush-covered and the dogs move very fast.  You are trying to keep up in a big old Land Cruiser--they only vehicle that is truly suited for this level of bush country.

Jospeh took us on a bush walk, armed with a spear--which he called his gun.  Unlike the camps in South Africa, guides in Kenya (at least in Offbeat camps) carry spears sometimes, but no guns. They say they are trained in animal behavior and are able to avoid most dangerous situations.

We kept to open territory and Peter was spotting us from the vehicle on a nearby hill.

We learned to spot fresh lion tracks...a big guy!

The next morning Donna set up brunch by the river for us...very cool!

And we ran into a family of Grevey's zebra hanging out together...unusual.

At the end of the day we stopped by a grove of trees that leopards (very shy) like to hang out in and bingo--spotted a kill (impala) that had just been stashed in a tree for a later meal.

It took a few tries over a day or so, but we finally hit the jackpot.



Bud spotted him first and we waited and waited.  He was about 12 feet from us in this shot.

I am writing this from the First Class Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt, trying to catch up. Arriving from Cairo was a comedy of errors.  The jet way wouldn't open, so they fussed for about a half hour before giving up and finding external stairs...for a rear exit.  We were in 1 A and 1 C so were the last off the plane.  They then wanted to do extra police checks (something about Cairo, I suspect). Then they misdirected us to the lounge and our gate---ALL US flights now leave from a  special gate area---area "Z".  this is different from last fall when came through on the way home from Sarajevo. We had just finally found the sky train to Z and the police cam and pulled us all of the train, so we had to go round the other way and start over.  Grrr.

We finally got it all sorted out, after going in and out of passport control and security about 4 times and walking a mile.  Turns out they had a limo waiting for our plane to take us over to the lounge via the tarmac--I saw it, but had no clue it was for us! If we ever get to fly this class again, I'll know.

Meru to Sosian Ranch--bad roads, the British Army and local customs

Offbeat Safaris (the in-Africa company we booked through) arranged for us to drive the 6 hours from Offbeat Meru to Sosian Ranch. Our driver, Peter, is one of their regulars and has driven the route many, many times.  When we asked how long he'd been driving, he said "since I was 8".  I guess his mother let him work the gearshift and he took to it--operating the car alone as soon as he was tall enough.  The roads were fairly awful in many places.

This looks like a barely passable dirt track, but was in fact the main road for amost two hours. Peter said when it rains, it is truly impassable.  If you get stuck, you just have to wait until someone can come and get you.

Several of the villages were very poor.  It seems that in the Meru area the locals have become specialists in the supply of khat, a chewable and highly addictive leaf that is used to keep you awake when you are driving.  It comes from the mora (sic) plant and you see locals grading and sorting and carrying it.  Peter says it is not illegal, but is ruining the local culture.

An additional part of the local culture is that women and girls carry water and do laundry for the men.  When they are young, they start working for their brothers.  They carry water in 20 liter plastic jugs, secured to their foreheads with fabric and hanging off their backs and shoulders.  If they have a lot of brothers, they can actually get dents in their foreheads from the constant pressure. If they marry well or live in a family that is more well off, they move to transporting the water by donkey.  As in Egypt, donkey traffic mixes with cars and trucks as a matter of course.

Closer to Nanyuki, a large central city, there are larger farms for wheat and flowers--several owned by the same family.  Mount Kenya sits above it all--very impressive, and a landmark the Kenyans are extremely proud of. Most days the peak is covered in clouds, but we got a nice view...lucky!

Much of the scenery is lovely.

We stopped in Nanyuki at a small mall with a bank and ATM.  It had an iron fence around it and Peter said it was very safe...he took the time to check in with his fiance by cell phone. It turns out he was getting married 3 days later and explained how he had to pay a dowry of 3 cows and 4 goats, plus some cash to her family. Interesting customs...if they get divorced, she (i.e. her family) has to pay it back. This keeps divorce rates low.

It turns out the British Army does a lot of it's training for Afghanistan in the area around Nanyuki. That has pluses and minuses  for the locals.  On the one hand, the British soldiers and officers live in the area and spend money, and the army keeps the roads in somewhat passable shape.  On the other hand, they use live ammo and every time there is a session (every few months, I guess), the wildlife have to contend with bombs and noise and such--and soldiers get killed by friendly fire.  This bothers the locals.

We saw a lot of British heavy road equipment still cleaning up the roads from the November rains.

We've made it to Cairo...very smooth arrival with the help of our pal and wonderful trip coordinator, Emad.  He has been a jewel and made sure that we got into our room at the Fairmont Towers early this morning, and also got an upgrade to a lovely business class room. This place is extremely elegant and even (to our surprise) has a casino, so we will be stopping in after a nap.  We have until just after midnight, when we have to get over to the airport for the Cairo-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Boston legs.







Meru Wildlife--reticulated giraffe, birds galore, antelope & buffalo

The giraffe in the Meru conservancy are a different variety than ones in South Africa...they are called reticulated giraffe, and have a very distinct pattern and very white, clear delineation between patches of red/brown.

I mentioned that we were with some very serious birders from the UK at Meru--they have been everywhere from Borneo and New Guinea to the Amazon looking for various species.  Bud soaked up a lot more than I did, but here are some shots...Noreen probably knows what they are.

We learned that the term antelope is a general term for for many, many plains animals. The eland is the largest (and slowest), the impala the most plentiful (and main food for lions) and the dik-dik the smallest. Here are shots of a water (or maybe bush) buck, two male impalas hanging out in what the Masaii call a "boys club", and a strange looking giraffe-neck antelope. At the end of our stay we were just beginning to learn how to identify all the species.

I also want to get the cape buffalo entered into a regular blog post.  The herds here are quite large, and they look very healthy now--though back before the rains in November (the worst since 1954), the camp staff said they were all skin and bones. This fellow sported scars from a severe lion attack a few weeks ago--staff were amazed and pleased that he survived.

What a face!

We have just checked in at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.  Security in the city is very strict. Our hotel, the Fairview, is right across from the Israeli Embassy, so we ran a gauntlet of armed (but very friendly) checks before getting to the reception area.

Check in at the airport was very smooth and quiet at 2:00 am--we have a 4:30 am flight to Cairo.  But the first class lounge is open, staffed, and outfitted with coffee, juice and and snacks.  There is free WiFi and they even ask what your flight is so they can wake you if you fall asleep--tough to do in a old-fashioned and cramped area...but better than being out on the concourse.

More later...I want to describe the 6 hour drive through the country from Meru to the Sosian Ranch.