A Nile crocodile on the Mara River. Well, the Mara flows into Lake Victoria, the Nile's source!
As Willie prepared the picnic site, we strolled over to the river and saw the friendly-looking guy below on the far bank.
A Nile crocodile on the Mara River. Well, the Mara flows into Lake Victoria,
the Nile's source!
The original "Evil Eye!"
He totally ignored us, so we decided that as long as he stayed on the FAR side of the river we would ignore him as well. While we were looking at him, Willie also come over to the river bank and pointed out to us a line of black ants just coming up over the edge of the bank from down closer to the river. "Safari ants!" he told us. These insects were each about 3/4 of an inch long (BIG ants!), and they marched up over the top of the bank and kept coming in a perfect line generally toward our picnic spot. We thought of the stereotype of ants being attracted to a picnic, but Willie assured us that for some reason these ants were simply moving from one nest to a new one. Many of the ants were carrying eggs or larvae in their pinchers. Willie pointed out that there was a lead ant, or scout, who stayed at the head of the column. We were fascinated, and had no idea how long the column might be. They just kept coming up over the river bank and marching along in a perfect line!
Eventually, ten or fifteen yards from the river, the scout found a hole in the ground and went down, followed by the whole party! We don't know if that hole had been prepared beforehand or was simply a "nest of opportunity." The column of ants just kept disappearing down the hole. Eventually we saw the end of the column come up over the river bank. The last ant served as a rear guard, and kept doubling back a short way from time to time, then scurried to catch up again. Willie said this one was going back to check and make sure no one was left behind. The picture below was an attempt to capture the line of ants, but they are hard to see. The line proceeds from lower left to upper right.
If you look closely you can see them across the whole picture through the grass.
Eventually the whole column had vanished down the hole, except for a few "guards" who roamed around on the surface scouting for danger or food, or whatever ants scout for. Apparently African Safari Ants are quite nasty. From other accounts I've read they will dig into your skin with their pinchers and hang on, even if you pull them apart. We didn't care to experience that first hand, so we left them alone.
I was reminded of the stories I had read in grade school about the South American army ants that can cover large areas of land and devour everything, plant or animal, in their path. Remember "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson? Well, Safari ants don't do that (thank goodness!), but they are evidently nasty creatures nonetheless. I read in one account that elephants (who basically fear nothing) avoid safari ants, which can crawl up inside their trunk and bite them there! Ouch! We zoomed in close to give you a better idea.
This would be a good place to put in a close-up picture of Willie. I never knew his last name, but he was also an excellent driver-guide.
Willie was actually an employee of Kichwa Tembo.
Willie was always cheerful to us, and always optimistic. He tried his very best to find us a leopard, but just couldn't seem to make one appear out of thin air. At one point in our drives through the Mara on a small, two-track "road," while the rest of us were scanning the grass and horizon for birds or animals he suddenly stopped the vehicle and actually got out (unusual!), went forward a few steps, and bent down to pick something up. Smiling, he brought back to the car two porcupine quills. They are black with a couple of light spots on them; one is about a foot long, the other about 8 inches, both very sharp on one end! How he could see them lying in the road with all the grass around is totally beyond me. They had to look like thick weed stems lying there! He grinned and boasted, "I see everything!" I believe him! He gave us the quills, and we brought them back with us. (Don't tell the Agricultural Inspection people!) Willie was quite a guy!
One more note I'll add here is about poaching. According to Willie, poaching is still a very serious problem in the Masai Mara and in other areas of Kenya and indeed in much of Africa. There is still a market for ivory (elephant tusks), rhino horn (thought to be an aphrodisiac), and other animal products in some parts of the world. Since many of the people in parts of Africa live in abject poverty, the temptation to make some easy money by killing animals is hard to resist. Willie told us that armed rangers patrol the national parks and other areas trying to catch poachers and prevent the taking of wildlife, but the battle is being lost. Sometimes, as with the drug dealers in America, the bad guys are better financed and better armed than the law enforcement folks.
One of the more successful efforts the governments are making involves "turning" the poachers when they are caught. Instead of just punishing them, they are shown that the same animal that may earn them several hundred dollars dead, will bring in many times that amount through tourism if kept alive. The poachers are then hired, if they are willing, as rangers and guards to prevent other poachers from killing the animals. The former poachers know who the poachers are and how they operate, so they are more successful in stopping the activity than government troops. There are so few black rhinos left in the wild that we applaud any effort that works in preserving this and other species from disappearing.
Our view down the river from our breakfast spot. There are hippos at the far
end, hard to see. (Like, impossible!)
Our picnic breakfast was a carbon copy of the day before. The same "box breakfasts" with plenty of food, fruit juice and coffee, tea or hot chocolate to drink. Again, we couldn't eat it all but carefully cleaned up leaving no trace of our presence. We were back in the Land Cruiser looking for leopards and other animals by shortly before 10:00 AM.
At 10:05 we came across four lions, just stretched out enjoying their morning nap. Again, our vehicle obviously didn't bother or interest them in the least.
Out like a light. Probably with full tummies. Not a care in the world!
A bit later we took the picture below of a group of elephants moving through the grasslands. There was a very small one in their midst, but they kept it surrounded and well protected from our spying eyes and cameras. Was this the same week-old baby we had seen three days ago? No telling.
There is a really small one in there, but we never could see it clearly.
Another "lump" in a tree. It turned out to be a ground hornbill.
This is a GROUND hornbill. What's he doing off the ground?
Then, at 11:15 we approached another tree with dark shapes in it that turned
out to be a very neat kind of bird. They were Verreaux's eagle-owls. As you
can see below, they look like big barn owls. One interesting feature of these
birds is their pink eyelids! According to our bird and animal book they will
feed both in daylight hours and at night. In one picture you can see the two
birds near each other. One then flew off, and the other gave us a full frontal
shot before leaving to join the first one.
Two Verreaux's Eagle-Owls. If you look carefully at the one on the right, you
can see the pink eyelids.
Finally, at 11:42 on our way back to camp, Willie managed to find us a leopard! Well, almost. It was a leopard tortoise, about 15 inches long (the biggest turtle of any kind we saw). We had seen two smaller ones in the Serengeti, and this one was just as colorful.
Well, its name STARTS with "leopard."
We made it back to Kichwa Tembo in time for lunch (WHEW!), just what we all needed! Sammy served us the normal, huge multi-course meal, and we felt like stuffed toads (except possibly Linda, who was better than the rest of us at only taking small portions).
Normal check-out time was 10:00 AM, but since we planned to be out all morning on an extended game drive, we had asked the night before if we could delay our checkout until after lunch. As this was the beginning of the rainy season and the camp wasn't fully booked that day, there was no problem. After lunch we had over two hours to pack up and wait before taking the 15-minute drive to the local airstrip for our 3:30 flight back to Nairobi.
We packed everything away, carefully wrapping the porcupine quills and putting them deep in Carol's suitcase, cleaned up our tent (well, maybe straightened it up a bit), and carried our things over to the lobby area. If any employees had seen us I'm sure they would have dropped everything to carry our bags, but they weren't that heavy or difficult to handle. After piling our things in the middle of the lobby floor, we wandered through the gift shop, then sat down at a table to write up our notes from the morning.
Since the normal routine at Kichwa Tembo called for free time for guests between about 10:00 AM (after breakfast following an early morning game drive) and 3:30 PM (the start of the afternoon/early evening game drive), arrangements had been made on most days for a local Masai tribesman to wander the grounds during the early afternoons. Dressed in traditional Masai attire, he would be available to talk to any interested guests about tribal customs and culture, local flora and fauna, or anything else. As we were writing up our notes from the morning, a tall, attractive Masai young man approached us, overheard our mentioning animals and birds we had seen, and joined our conversation. His name was Joseph, and he introduced himself as a "Naturalist." Obviously well educated, Joseph spoke excellent English with almost no accent. He seemed interested in our sightings and experiences, and offered several observations about local wildlife.
My point, actually, is that when approached by a local tribal man in full regalia with spear in hand, I anticipated that communicating might be difficult. Wrong! It's hard to look past the outward appearance and ignore stereotypes. Joseph seemed to enjoy meeting people from different parts of the world and sharing with them information about his people and the local area. A really nice young man.
Anyway, according to our notes, during this last game drive in Kenya we saw: elephants, giraffes, Thompson's gazelles, waterbucks, impalas, topi, hartebeest, cerval cat, 15-inch leopard tortoise, African safari ants, warthogs, reedbuck, crocodiles, hippos, and baboons. Birds included white-browed coucal, gray heron, black-headed heron, hammerkop, yellow-billed stork, abdim stork, marabou stork, sacred ibis, hadada ibis, tawny eagle, secretary bird, pin-tailed whydah, spurfowl, crowned crane, white-bellied bustard, spur-winged plover, lilac-breasted roller, green parrots, mousebirds, Verreaux's eagle-owls, ground hornbill, yellow-throated longclaw, cisticola, cattle egret, wattled plover, and tropical boubou (heard only, not seen).
It was close to 3:00 PM when we loaded all of our bags and backpacks into the Land Cruiser for the last time and set out with Willie for the airstrip to fly to Nairobi. Carol had a nagging headache, and went to the airport departure lounge to wait for our plane. I retrieved our camera and made her stand in the light for just a minute to get her picture. Here you can see the modern facilities at Kichwa Tembo Regional.
Our plane was a high wing, four-engine turboprop, and looked like a miniature military C-130 Hercules. We all climbed in, hard candies were passed around in a bowl, and we started our takeoff roll. The trip to Nairobi was uneventful and not very interesting, as the plane climbed above most of the fairly low clouds and the ground was obscured more often than not. Occasionally there was a break in the clouds, and we could see the features of the Great Rift Valley with its ridges and low areas as we passed over.
We were met in Nairobi by Joyce and Joseph of Luke Travel, with the same minivan as before, so we loaded up, piled in, and headed for town and the Stanley Hotel. I remembered the billboard we had seen driving into town the first night after our KLM flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, so was on the lookout for it hoping for a chance to snap its picture. Sure enough, we drove right past it and Carol (it was on her side) got a really clear shot. Here it is, almost American yet uniquely African!
One man's "bug" is another man's "dudu." (Swahili for "bug," remember?)
On the way into town, Linda asked if we could stop by the Nairobi open-air market for a chance to shop for some carvings or other souvenirs. Joyce and Joseph said they were afraid it would be closed for the day, but they would swing by there and see. They pulled up in an area that didn't look familiar to Les and Linda, but things do change in ten years. It didn't look like an "open air" market, but more like buildings with (possibly) shops inside. Unfortunately they were closed or closing. But one man approached the car and asked what we were looking for. When Joyce explained, he assured us that he had just what we wanted about one block over, and to follow him.
Dubiously, we followed him in the car and stopped outside another building which he opened. Linda wanted to go in, but there were a lot of people standing around looking at us (obvious tourists - it's hard to "blend in" in Nairobi!) so the rest of us decided we would wait in the car. Including Les, who made it clear he had no desire to shop, and kept muttering, "Cold beer! Cold beer!"
Linda disappeared into the doorway with the man and we waited. I remember feeling slightly guilty for letting her go in alone, and hoped she would be OK. But, in our experience she seemed quite capable of taking care of herself, and she seemed to know what she was doing. After all, she had been here several times before.
Within a minute, children and young people and some adults had surrounded our car, begging for handouts of money, pens, anything we could give. Some were trying to sell us various articles such as an "elephant hair bracelet." Genuine? Legal? From a poached animal, or fake? We didn't know and were not tempted. As the minutes passed and more people gathered around the car I became a bit nervous, but Joseph (the driver) seemed unconcerned. I guess it was just an uncomfortable feeling, not that I ever thought we were in any danger, but I'm not used to people begging like that. We tried just ignoring the people, and they soon realized they weren't going to get anything from us.
After possibly 5-6 minutes (it seemed like 30!) Linda and the man came out the door toward the car. He was bargaining hard with her, but she was clearly not too interested in what he had. She got in the car, said, "Let's go," we all breathed a sigh of relief as Les muttered, "Cold beer!" and we headed for the Stanley. It turns out she had not been too impressed with the items the man was showing her and she felt his prices were too high. We were happy to be moving again, away from the crowd.
Our itinerary from Journeys International had indicated that we were "on our own" for dinner this evening, and suggested that we might want to experience the "famous Carnivore Restaurant." But in talking among ourselves, we quickly agreed that since we had been eating so many fancy, multi-course meals, something very simple and inexpensive was our preference. I think it was Les who suggested, "How about Pizza and beer?" Boy, did that sound good! We decided we'd see if there was a Pizza Hut or similar pizza restaurant in Nairobi.
We checked in at the hotel, went to our rooms to clean up, and Les and I agreed to meet in the lobby at the concierge desk a bit later to try to find a telephone directory or ask about a pizza restaurant that delivered! No one among the staff at the concierge desk had heard of Pizza Hut, so we looked in a local yellow pages directory. No Pizza Hut. In fact, no listings under "Pizza!" We asked one of the local bellmen (his name tag said he was "Anthony") about pizza. His English wasn't great (however it was MUCH better than my Swahili!), but he indicated he knew of a place close by that sold pizza, and he would go get us some. Deal! I wrote out for him what ingredients we wanted: pepperoni, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, beef, sausage, NO ANCHOVIES! He read back my note to me, assured me that this place sold pizza and chickens and lots more, and was anxious to go get our dinners. I thought, "Chickens? As in live chickens?" With some apprehension I gave him about $15 worth of Kenyan Shillings, and he took off.
Les and I walked across the street to a grocery supermarket that was still open, and found half-liter bottles of cold Tusker beer for about 50 cents each. We bought some, along with some diet soft drinks for Linda, and headed back to our rooms. Soon Les and Linda joined us in our room to wait for dinner. In almost no time, Anthony was knocking on our door with the pizza! The boxes said the pizza was from "Pizza Inn of Africa!" It looked and smelled delicious.
And it was actually quite good. The Nairobi version of pepperoni was simply thinly sliced salami. Instead of ground beef there were pieces of bar-b-qued steak. But cheese is cheese, and the vegetables (tomato slices and onions and mushrooms) were tasty. And the beer was cold! A great dinner!
We thanked Anthony profusely (and tipped him generously), and he seemed genuinely pleased. We made a mental note that since we were scheduled to be back at the Stanley after our trip to Uganda to see the gorillas, we just might do this pizza thing again!
We had been scheduled on an early morning flight to Entebbe, Uganda, but were actually happy to learn that Kenya Airways had cancelled that flight and we were now booked on a 1:30 PM departure from Nairobi airport. That meant we didn't have to be ready to leave the hotel until 10:30 AM. No wake-up call or alarm clock in the morning! We could sleep as late as we liked (usually sunrise for me and Carol), have a leisurely breakfast, pack in a leisurely fashion, and not fizz around so much. A nice relaxing night in air conditioned luxury! Ahhhhh!
NEXT: Installment 13. Trouble with Kenya Airways, Uganda schedule changes.