Help, help, a horrible heffalump

This day – my last (already?) on the ranges – started with a rare sighting of a different kind. The clouds rose – apparently for the first time in over a month, and we were able to see Mount Kilimanjaro.



Kilimanjaro is actually in Tanzania, but John tells me it used to be in Kenya. Apparently - or so he said – some time before Independence (in 1963) Queen Elizabeth asked a relative from the erstwhile German royal family what she would like for her birthday. The reply was Mount Kilimanjaro, and so the border was redrawn to include the mount in what was originally a German colony. I’ve no idea if this is true, but it sounds like a good story ...

We drove back into Ambosele, where apart from the gazelles that are everywhere here, the first thing we saw was a family of giraffes, about to cross the road. Bringing up the rear was a baby:



who on looking at the van decided she’d rather not get too close, and took to her heels



Whilst driving around the various parks, I’ve mused on the number of white vans floating around. At times they seem to gather in a great confusion (not sure what the collective might be for white vans – any thoughts?) This set me wondering if fairgrounds as we know them across Europe had made their way into Africa. I tried to explain the concept to John, who didn’t really get the idea, until I described dodgems, and pointed ahead:



Pretty dusty on the road, but not too dusty as a simile, I thought. The animals we saw most of today, inevitably on this reserve, were elephants, in various numbers and groupings. Given the way my mind works, you’ll understand that things like Winnie the Pooh came to mind, although these heffalumps are not at all horrible. Nor are they the beasts of amazement described by Sam Gamgee as Oliphaunts – but he would truly have been impressed by the display over the last couple of days.

As I saw yesterday, they can gather in large numbers, scattered across a plain as they feed, but when they move it’s shades of Walt Disney – single file and march:



This was a group –again – crossing the road, with the rear being brought up by the matriarch.



Looking at this shot, nicely sized, turns my mind to matrioshka, but that’s from another country and for another day.

Moving swiftly on, as we drove round the area, by thoughts turned back to Flanders and Swan, as we saw these characters wallowing contentedly.



Not deep water, but enough marsh to let them get well covered in mud ...

Moving further on, we came to the wetlands where a host of birds congregated. Some we had seen yesterday; others had appeared overnight.

The first of these was the black head crane:



closely followed by the Egyptian Goose



And our friends from Lake Nakuru – flamingos.



At this stage, they do not appear pink – apparently the colour comes from the algae they eat at Nakuru.

Further round, having left the water behind, we saw a family of Crowned Cranes; this lot clearly had lost something in the sand and were poring over every inch with hawklike stares ...



Shortly after, I walked up the only hill in Ambosele, to a viewpoint which looks out over the marsh. You can see from the sign where the water comes from (Kilimanjaro is in the background, again wreathed in cloud), but it’s interesting to see the clear delineation between verdant grass and arid stubble.



With that, and the day nearly at an end, we headed for the exit. On the way, we passed a warthog, who for the first time stood and stared – they usually turn tail, so most shots are from behind. As you can see, he’s well covered in fresh mud, so my guess is he was feeling pretty cool, and stuck around.



An odd sight across the whole area – which brings me nicely back to my opening heading for this trip (Lions and tigers and bears ...) – is that you see a constant stream of whirlwinds, gathering dust in their wake and spiralling to the sky (I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more.)



Anyway, with that, the drive was done, and we headed back to the lodge for the last time, with just a backward glance at the entrance.



Time now to relax, have a leisurely dinner and prepare for the drive back to Nairobi, and the flight back to the hotspots of Dubai. Can’t wait!

Leap into the unknown

Today began with a mammoth drive. From Sweetwaters, we had to head south to Ambosele, passing Nairobi on our way. The total distance turned out to be 420 kilometres, which took us around 6 hours. That may not sound like we were driving particularly quickly, but when you take into account the bulk of the roads we used, it was pretty good going. All this time gave me a chance to talk to John about basic local economics. Our route took us through the highlands by Mount Kenya, through increasingly arid plains as we approached out destination – rather as our conversation began with the fertile source of income from tourists, leading to the reality of life for the average Kenyan. The nature of the roads also came into the equation.

Tourism is the major source of income in Kenya – put simply, without the many people like me doing what I’m doing, the economy would be in real trouble. Of the amount I paid to come here, clearly some goes to the airline, which has no links to Kenya other than paying landing fees. I then paid $25 for a visa. Of the amount I paid for the actual safari, some, obviously, will stay with the travel company in the UK. A further portion will then go to the people in Nairobi who provided the vehicle, driver and so on. John, of course, gets paid a salary – of which more later – and then portions are paid to the various lodges, and the parks as entrance fees. What the proportionate splits are, I couldn’t say, but could make a shrewd guess, given what came next.

75% of Kenyans exists on less than $1 a day. At present exchange, that’s around 75 Kenyan Shillings. I then asked about prices of basics, to relate that figure to the cost of living. A loaf of bread costs about 5 shillings; a litre of petrol about 80 shillings. By the time you take into account the cost of schooling, rent and other core costs, John told me many Kenyans often have one meal a day at best.

John’s own situation was a little different – his salary was higher than the average. That said, he only has work for the safari season – about 4 months. For the remainder of the year he cannot get work, so that 4 months income has to cover him for the balance of the year. On top of that, his wife, who works as a primary school teacher, has to doa Masters in order to be able to progress in her job – and they have to find 40,000 shillings a term to cover the cost of that.

I realised that my boat trip on Lake Naivasha cost more than John’s monthly salary – that puts into context how important income from tourists is to the people, and how much tipping is important to make up income even for those on a salary.

When I asked about the other 25%, we got onto the topic of corruption, and how rife it is here. The President, who has been in power for the last 4 years, is desperately trying to change this, but of course it’s worth remembering that the first people you have to trust are those who enforce the laws. If you can’t get the police and judiciary not to look the other way in return for a few shillings in the back pocket, then no amount of legal creations can help. However, progress does seem to be being made, and in today’s paper they mentioned a number of the judiciary who were resigning rather than face inquiries.

With regard to the roadways, it would seem obvious that good infrastructure and communications are key to helping the country improve it’s economy. A lot of work has been done by the President to move on this, with the assistance of large grants from the EU and others. However, just how much of the money reached the actual work is another question – they might possibly be further on than they are; who can say for sure.

In any case, with that conversation over, we arrived at the Ambosele Sopa Lodge, and after a break for lunch, and John to get over the mammoth drive, we went out onto the reserve for another game drive (which after all is what, if anything, you really want to read – not my drivel about other peoples‘ problems ...)

Of the areas we’ve visited over the last few days, Ambosele is the driest. It covers an area of around 400 square kilometres, and is mostly flat:



(By the way, lest you wonder, the tennis balls are to keep the antennae stable.)

Inevitably, this leads to a great deal of dust, so driving anywhere close to another vehicle can get a bit painful. The range is home to the big 5, but doesn’t see the migration that sets the Masai Mara apart. That said, the only one of the 5 seen today was the elephant – but more of them later.

We saw the inevitable antelope variants – Thompson and Grant’s gazelles – zebras and wildebeest, but having taken a number of photos of them already, I left them in peace. Fairly quickly, though, we encountered a range of birds I hadn’t seen to date:



Firstly the very intense looking secretary bird – one wonders what affairs of state he’s pondering (although given what went before, it might not be too difficult to guess.) This was followed by the crowned crane:



this being the male of the species.

Speaking of males the next to appear was this:



- the male ostrich. He was in company with another male, but not a female in sight.

Amposele has all of the big 5, but the one for which it is most noted is the elephant. The habit of elephants is to go round in family groups, but with one dominant male. Once a male ceases to be dominant, or gets older and challenges the current leader, they are chased off, and live on their own. (It should be said it’s the females, or one matriarch, who does this.) When they do live on their own, they can become extremely dangerous, so care needs to be taken mostly when coming across a loner. We saw a couple of lone males earlier, and then came across this chap:



who seemed to be quite happy with life, feeding away. However, turning the other way:



showed a large number of others, so it looks like he’s still OK!

Obviously they make friends within the group, and say hello when they meet:



and also aren’t too proud to carry passengers:



As in the Masai Mara, it can get confusing as to who’s watching whom, and whether the elephant outnumber the vans, or vice versa:



Having spent a while watching these magnificent creatures, we moved on, and came across the female ostrich:



(nowhere near the male.) Staying on the bird theme, we then found a patch of water with a collection of birds:



The grey bird, I’m afraid I can’t remember, but the white one is an egret, and the other two are sacred ibis.

Moving on around the area, we found another lone elephant. It must be tough being on your own, but at least this one had found some friends:



Various other things came and went, but the other one of note was this fellow:



He may not have been laughing, but it looked like he was having a good smirk about something. (A hyena, in case you didn’t gather – this one is a spotted hyena, native to this part of Kenya; there is also a striped variety, which although I didn’t see it is native to the Masai Mara.)

With that, and a look at the top of Kilimanjaro just beginning to show through the clouds, we headed home for tea and medals, after a long day on the road.

Ever onward ...

Today began with an early call, and we were on the road by 0700. Our aim today was to get to the Sweetwaters reserve. All the big 5 and many other animals can be found here, but as with Lake Nakuru, they would not naturally be here - the reserve has been created to help support the dwindling numbers of these animals. With that, fortunate to say, they’re starting to show real progress.

Anyway, of that more later. We started off on what was to be around a 4 hour drive – I could have flown between reserves, but I’d thought that this way I would get to see more of the country. In this, I certainly succeeded, but I saw perhaps more of the quality of the road system that I really needed to. John’s term for it was being given a free massage – there are some good metalled roads, but the majority are rough dirt tracks, with no signposts, only John’s 16 years experience kept us on track.

Along the way, we stopped at Thomson’s waterfall (no relation to the gazelle, I’m told)



Whilst there, with inevitable entrepreneurial spirit, I was accosted by a chap who insisted on showing me his chameleons. He did this by putting one on my arm, which it proceeded to run up and down. Unfortunately it was my right arm, and my camera was in my right pocket, so I had to wait until he removed it before I could take this:



Moving swiftly on, we next stopped at the equator, where there was yet another retail opportunity. One thing they did do there, which impressed me, was demonstrate the coriolis effect. I know, of course, in principle, that water rotates down a pipe in different directions depending on which side of the equator you are located. What I hadn’t realised is how little distance you need to be from the equator to see the effect. By putting water into a bowl with a small hole in the centre, and placing a match stick as a floating tell tale, you could see which way the water rotated – as the water ran out, the match rotated one way from as little as 5 metres to one side of the equator, and the other way the same distance the other side. On the equatorial line itself, it didn’t rotate at all. Impressive to have this actually demonstrated. Apparently, the Masai use this as an aid to navigation – the further you are from the equator, the faster the rotation.

After that, we made progress to our next stop – at last an actual Serena “hotel” – the tented camp, which was all it had promised. From my tent, I look out over a water hole, where various animals come to drink – most of which you’ve seen in earlier pictures, but one we haven’t seen so far – the not so friendly warthog:



Whilst sitting on the porch of the tent, I was visited by a bird with the most startling colours



When I saw some later and asked John what it was, he told me it was a form of starling. Actually, he told me the proper name, but I have to submit, I’ve been given so much information over the last few days, I’m beginning to suffer from information overload, so suffice to say it’s a starling.

After lunch, we went out on a game drive, but this time stopping at conservation areas within the park. The first was a chimpanzee reserve. This had been fenced off to keep predators out, but was still around 250 acres. Most of the chimps are rescued animals from people who still think that various body parts are a remedy against various ailments. They reckon the costs of looking after the rescued chimps is around $6000 per year, which is fairly frightening – you can see more at www.olpejetaconservancy.org but in the meantime I succumbed and sponsored one of the ones here:





Wandering round the chimp area, with a very helpful ranger, took up quite a bit of time so we moved on fairly rapidly, stopping to see a male water buck,



and the last of the 3 types of giraffe – the reticulated:



which again has very different markings, but also is the only one of the three to be able to survive in extremely low water conditions.

Our last stop was to see a black rhino fairly close up, which from previous comments you may think a strange decision. It should be said that this one – known as Baraka – is blind, and kept in a small area of his own, where rangers look after him 24 hours a day. Again, they have problems with people who think that the horn of a rhino is a better specific that Pfizer’s little blue pill, and who kill rhinos just to take the horn. The reason for Baraka’s sawn off appearance is to reduce his attractiveness to such people, but they also have a 24 hour guard, as he isn’t really able to look after himself. However, it does mean you can get up close and personal – I didn’t need to use much zoom to get these:





With that, we headed back to the lodge in time for tea, medals, and an attempt to post this – internet access hasn’t been as available as promised, so this should be a bumper session! Once complete, an early night is called for, as we have an even longer drive to Ambosele in the morning.

One step beyond

We left the Masai Springs camp at 0700, with the aim of getting to Lake Nakuru in time for lunch. On the way, John was keen that we stop on Lake Naivasha, so I could take a boat ride amongst the hippos that are there in great numbers.

He passed me (for a fee) into the safe hands of Peter – which seemed like a good name for a boatman – and we headed out into the lake. We saw various birds, which Peter identified for me (fortunately, since my ornithological knowledge leaves just a little to be desired.) Along the way, we say some coots, egrets and others whose names escape me, although they’re pictured here – some knowledgeable person can surely name the ones I’ve missed.







And of course one which I can’t help but quote Lear for:

A wonderful bird is the pelican
It’s beak can hold more that it’s belly can
It takes more at one bite than I can all night
I’m damned if I know how the hell ‘e can



Moving on through the water, I saw what seemed to be some black floating objects. Closer inspection (not too close, fortunately) proved them to be a family of hippos. I gathered from Peter that hippos stick together in families, and are very territorial, so in this area, there was a group of about 25 – you can see a fair number of them in these photos.





We moved on, and Peter picked up a couple of fish from a friend. Seemed a bit strange, I thought, but we moved round the shore, and he pointed out an eagle in a tree. Whistling, he threw the fish into the water, and we watched the eagle fly down and take it.





He returned me to shore, and John and I set off in search of lunch in the Lake Nakuru lodge, which is where I was to say for this night. I’m pleased to say it was much more salubrious, and more in keeping with the way in which I wish to become accustomed.



Having had lunch, we set off on a game drive round the park. The Lake Nakuru reserve is a created one, where once fenced in, most of the animals were “imported”. The only creatures that naturally exist here are the flamingos, which you’ll have all seen on various programmes, pictures, etc. In the process, they didn’t bring many predators – only really leopards – so the animals that are here have an easier time of it than in the Masai Mara.

Amongst other things, we saw black rhino – which are bad tempered, and it truly wouldn’t do to ask then the time of day



and white rhino, which are a great deal friendlier.





Just to confuse the issue, they’re both a fairly grey colour. If you look at the pictures closely, however, you’ll see that the black rhino has a front horn that is more curved (and pointed), and the second horn is fairly pronounced. The white rhino’s front horn is straighter, and the second one is more of a stub. I’m told that the reason for the names is that they have bottom lips of different colour. Strangely, I didn’t get close enough to confirm this – I felt it a little rude before we’d been properly introduced

As we travelled round the park, John pointed out that there was a variation of the buffalo – the water buffalo. They tend to cover themselves in mud and keep it damp in order to keep cool.



Moving on from the muddy beast, we found a Rothschild’s giraffe. The key difference is that this has white legs, but also, if you look closely, you’ll see the skin pattern is different



We also spotted the inevitable baboons – having been warned at the camp to keep doors and windows closed lest they wander in and take off with anything they could grab.



Last, but by no means least, and just as the light was fading, we got down to the lake, and had a look at the flamingos. We were a couple of weeks early to see them in full flood – they travel over from Tanzania particularly to feed on algae in Lake Nakuru – but there was still a fair lining of them:





With that, time to draw a line under the day, and head for the hills – where, fortunately, the lodge was located.