Blogger lesson learned…post each night or at a minimum, journal sights, sounds, smells, tastes.
Once we left Nairobi, connectivity was spotty at best so for this trip, it will have to be a retrospective view. Truth be told, we were so busy experiencing that I forgot to write.
Long post, apologies in advance.
From Nairobi, we headed to 3 safari camps. Camps being a very loose term, think glamping (glamorous camping), not a Bunsen burner in sight, but all 3 strict eco camps where maximum effort is made to minimize the impact on the planet. Bye bye, throw away this, and plastic that, creative use and reuse is the order of the day. The strategy of choosing these 3 camps was to maximize the variety of animals seen, and more specifically watch the Migration of animals as they make their way from South to North for food. (oh and the side benefit, all 3 camps were beyond anything I could have imagined) A total of 4M animals, prominently wildebeest, zebra, gazelle are on the move during this time.
Our first camp bordered Amboseli National Park where the elephant “ellies” are king. And if you leave Amboseli without falling in love with these intelligent and mighty creatures, you need to check your radar.
We met our guides, Eric and Simon at the airport. And our Tortelis Camp hosts, a Scottish couple Candy and Graham met us at the camp with a Welcome. We would soon learn that each time we arrived “home”, someone would be waiting to greet us and ask us about our day.
For these 2 days at Tortelis, we went out early in the morning (6:30), and end of day (4pm) to maximize viewing. Rumbling around in an open air jeep with animals around us on all sides, quite simply doing their thing. Both of our guides love their job, love their land, and were able to answer all of our questions. It was a running dialog each day, pauses as we came within feet of something instead of yards, and then we would resume our conversation. Besides the animals, we started learning about the culture, the tribes, and much detail on the Masai tribe who rule the land we were exploring. Our guide Eric is Masai and lived the traditional Masai life though now raising his children in a more modern life. He takes his children back to his village on vacation so they don’t lose their roots. Could spend a long blog on what we learned about old vs new in the Masai world, but generally new represents education, farming the land in addition to owning cows, monogamy vs polygamy (insert the Mr.s comment here “more than one wife? I question the reason for one!). Our tour of a Masai village was eye opening..maybe eye popping is more appropriate, and then hilarious as the exit was through a gauntlet of bead selling women. (Not to be outdone, a Masai warrior offered Kathleen 20 cows for Katie..and he was serious!)
Back at the camp, we ate buffet style for meals. My only regret of the trip..how I wish I had written down the dishes we ate, and took pictures! One meal was better than the next, not glamorous, not froofy, just a a great mix of food and spices. And dessert!! After every meal!! Divine.
The staff could not have been more gracious and kind addressing every request.
Highlight for me at this stop was an elephant within 5 feet of me telling our jeep, “no closer”, and we listened, and on our final night, a Sundowner.
“Sundowner” to uneducated me meant a type of cocktail, instead, it means an event, i.e., we’re stopping for the event of the sun going down. Our jeeps climbed to the top of a range, and there at the top waiting for us were camp chairs arranged for maximum viewing and cocktail and snack set up. And alas the bottle of tequila that we risked life and limb for in Nairobi was part of the bar set up. Not sure that the staff knew what to make of the old white lady who said, “take a load off boys, I’ll make some drinks”. Hello tequila and some concoction of Kenyan juices. Many laughs later and the sun long since set, we drove back to camp.
After lots of hugs the next morning, we left for Cottars Camp on the Mara Reserve. One we again we took a hopper flight, landed in a grass field, were met by jeeps. Not sure how I am ever going to fly commercial again, let along stay in a Courtyard Marriott!!
Cottars Camp was built in the 1920’s and the camp is still owned by generations of the same family. Here we stayed in one house together above the camp and looking over the Masa Mara Reserve…oh and the Serengeti. Our guides were Doug and Ken and house staff was William, Phoebe, Sephora and Bonny. In a lifetime I may never live this well again, but man for a few days, it was outrageous. We had 3 days at this location and we did not miss a minute. Similar schedule, out early in the morning, wake up our animal friends, breakfast out on the range complete with a loo with a view,
lunch at the house, evening game drive, and then dinner.
Doug and Ken have been with Cottars for 14 and 9 years. They were the perfect hosts and mixed education about the land and animals with easy banter. With awe, we watched the first Migration cross the Sand River. Animals in single file heading down and over the river towards the north plains with long grass. Even Ken and Doug sat quietly and watched. “This still wows you?” I asked. “Of course, its the first of the season, we have not seen it since last year”. Kind of like the start of football season? Don’t worry I did not say that out loud. At full throttle it must be amazing as we were wowed by 3-5K animals on the move. Due to unexpected but somewhat welcome rains, the Migration is delayed this year. The animals are not as desperate to find new food sources. We lucked out seeing what we did as other travelers were not so lucky.
Back at the house, we had to keep an eye on William who liked nothing more than pouring a stiff drink, Bonny the chef who used his vegetable and herb garden to its fullest (also an amazing baker..if I can ever get the recipe for his Banoffee pie I’ll be a happy woman) and Phoebe and Sephora who kept us on schedule. This stop also included hot air ballooning for some, for others a lazy drive along the Sand River trying to flush out animals. A walk instead of a drive, complete with guns and spears for safety, and also here is where we ran with the Masai.
The house was spectacular
and Calvin Cottar happened to be in the camp while we were there and stopped up to the house for a drink. Lots of discussion about changes needed in Kenya and specifically the Masa Mara region so that the best balance of progress and tradition is achieved. Whole truth…I zoned out. Too highbrow for me and once Kevin started making me laugh I was a goner and had to discreetly leave the room. But a worthy conversation none the less. With progress comes problems, and who and what interests are behind the progressive stance is a landmine in itself. By all local accounts, corruption is rampant, and seemingly those in the most jeopardy, are those with the least. See…that’s why I walked away from the conversation. I want to pretend I live every day with “staff” and lions don’t need to kill gazelle to stay alive.
Again with tears in my eyes we left Cottars.
Highlight here, hmmm…tough to say…seeing the Migration, a run with the Masai, staying at a house like this, swimming in Kenya in a 25 meter pool in the backyard…meeting this amazing group of people…let me get back to you on the highlight here.
On to Mara Plains..a 3+ hour drive in the jeep with safara-ing (is that a word) along the way. For the final 30 or so minutes, we drove with an armed escort…somewhat disconcerting and we theorized like crazy, but the reality was much more real. After recent floods, roads and bridges were gone so the path to the camp was re-routed, known by local guides only. And the gun, well its the wild, everyone has a gun or spear right?
Mara Plains is the standard bearer for glamping.
For 2 nights we were 9 of 14 total guests and all around us, I mean right around us, were animals. Tony and Cheryl’s tent was next to “hippo highway” with the meaning becoming abundantly clear in the night when the hippos make their way out of the water to wander, and then splash back in during early morning. This was the first stop that the trip caught up with me. I fell into bed on night one and missed all the “in the middle of night wildlife sounds” that kept others awake for the night. And according to the Mr., my snoring rivaled the hyenas laughing, rhino’s snorting, and water hogs rummaging.
Our guides for Mara Plains, Kevin, very studied and serious; and Nick, who never met a Lion King movie line he did not like, and maintained hours of rift that made me laugh until my ribs hurt. He had voices, opinions, stories (he is Masai, one of 33 children of a father who had 5 wives).
Mara Plains is home to cats…and cats we saw!! Along with the complement of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, wart hogs, gazelles.
The highlight for some was surely a cheetah in successful pursuit and catch of a Thompson gazelle. With 4 baby cubs to feed, a swing a miss was not an option. I was in the other jeep and missed it, probably for the better. Much as I would have loved to see a cheetah in full sprint, the kill would have killed me. I know, I know, its nature. Watching the cubs feed off the kill was mesmerizing. And later we drove passed the kill site, nothing left. Cubs had first dibs, then the mother, then hyena, jackal, and finally vulture. All very tidy.
At Mara Plains, I started to feel the window closing. This adventure of a lifetime was soon over. Our next stop was Nairobi and then home. We sat by a fire the last night and reveled in the canopy of stars, never has the phrase been more appropriate. It was like netting there were so many. And the Southern Cross which we cannot see from here…how cool!!
Monday, we made our last trip to a bush airport and flew back to Nairobi. I swear every animal knew we were leaving and stepped out to wave goodbye..even a python snake!!
So so so many amazing things that we saw, heard, smelled, touched, experienced. Cannot recommend this trip more. And do it now if you’re my age, not for the faint of heart. Each day is long and the sensory overload is that much more overwhelming. Someone had said to me, you don’t go to bed, you fall into bed. True statement.
Periodically the Mr. and I would look at one another and the unspoken exchange, can you believe this… On the plane ride home, we laughed or maybe cried thinking about our diminished bank accounts and said, where to next. We wrote our top five picks and then exchanged notes.
Hope to see you along the way.