Safari - Lake Nakuru

We are usually a day or two behind in posting to the blog after an experience. This blog entry was ready several days ago, but we have not had Internet for quite awhile. More details later, and we will be catching up with the posts soon. //. Lake Nakuru is famous for the half a million flamingos who supposedly live here. However, I think you see more flamingos during the opening credits of the old tv show Miami Vice than we did here. Regardless of that disappointment, there were a ton of birds to see and some other great wildlife experiences for us. For instance, we saw our first leopard! We have now seen all of Africa's "Big Five", having seen elephant, rhino, lion, african buffalo, and now leopard. We were not that close, but it was cool. You may not be able to tell that well from the photo, but it's in there (left side of tree).


We got to see the colobus monkey, which is a threatened species, and kind of unusual coloring. Our guide spotted these guys in the tree as we were driving by. So many of our guides continue to amaze us how they spot hidden wildlife, while maneuvering windy gravel roads at the same time. Both of us are pretty much in agreement neither of us would make very good safari guides.


We again got to be close up with rhinos. These guys were having a snack on the side of the road when we drove by, munching in the wet grass.


We saw a third subspecies of giraffe, the Rothschilds giraffe: notice the white "socks" and spot pattern.


We went up to a lookout point and had great views of the lake. There were lots of baboons up there and despite multiple signs asking people not to feed them, there was a group of Chinese tourists feeding them. We saw a huge male baboon, but also a little baby one climbing on the picnic bench.


We had more lion experiences, seeing one sleeping in a tree ......


three of them just hanging out......


and another one eating ...a babboon! So cool!


I am pretty sure it wasn't one of the baboons we saw earlier at the lookout. There were also more zebra, some jackals, and lots of birds to see at the ark. Each of our hotels on safari so far have been interesting lodges, especially the way they make the hotel fit the landscape. Our hotel at Lake Nakuru had lots of little chalets on a hillside that overlooked the lake. Very pretty. The food on safari has generally been really good. However, a lot of meals have been buffet and we have not been doing well with portion control - add that to sitting in a car all day, and we are both starting to feel quite round. //. Now that we've had Bedan as our driver/guide for a few days, we have a better understanding of his driving technique. The first day was painful how slow he was going, and this continued for the first half of day 2. But then things picked up. Our first time on unpaved roads the speed seemed to increase. Then he actually was driving fast (well, normal speed) on pavement on day 3. We now believe that his driving speed is based upon his intended arrival time. He slows down if he thinks we will get somewhere too early. For instance, the first day at Aberdares/ark we had a timed tour and we were the first to arrive, an hour early. Luckily, the timing thing seems to be less of an issue now.

Location:Kenya

Safari - Sweetwaters Tented Camp

We departed Samburu, passed back over the equator, and headed to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, known for it's large numbers of both white and black rhino, being home to a chimpanzee sanctuary that was helped started by Jane Goodall, and is active in conservation for many species. An American TV company actually made a mini TV series about this place, called the Ol Pejeta Diaries, following the wildlife rangers of the park. The conservancy used to be a private ranch and our camp was located on the grounds of the former owner. When on safari, there are two types of accommodation - lodges or tented camps. But these are not your average tents, and even if you don't like camping, you would love sleeping in one of these luxury tents.They are just like a nice hotel room, but instead of locking your door, you just zip up the canvas door. We are really roughing it here.


Sweetwaters camp surrounds a water hole and from your tent you can watch any animals coming by for a drink. After the disappointing waterhole at the Ark, we weren't sure what to expect, but this one was pretty good. Lots of warthogs, antelope species and birds. We were told though that this waterhole isn't "needed" as much as it is in other places (like Etosha) because part of the conservancy is wet marsh lands. However, During breakfast, we spotted these rhino coming in for a drink.


We spent the afternoon exploring the different species being protected at Ol Pejeta. The chimpanzee sanctuary was started in order to give orphaned chimps, from all over eastern Africa, a safe place to go and today it is home to about 85 chimps. Each chimp has a different story - some were orphaned because their parents were killed, some were abandoned by owners who had them as babies and simply let them go once they got too big, and some were rescued from retails shops, where they were used as a lure to get customers. A second and third generation of chimps is now being born at the sanctuary, as the original population is having babies. This little guy is just 3 months old.


There is a rhino here named Baraka who lost an eye in a fight while in the wild, and then developed a cataract in the other eye that vets were unable to successfully treat, so he is now blind. Since blind rhinos don't fare that well in the wild, he has come to rely on the conservancy staff and has become domesticated, so much that guests like us can feed him.


There is a hippo viewing spot which it is easy to spot the hippos. The hippos were quite active, hiding in the water and then jumping out, splashing around, before ducking under again. // While cruising around we saw a herd of impala, all bachelors and we were wondering where all the ladies were. A couple of minutes later we saw another herd, with about 25 females and one lucky stag. He decided to try and show us what he has going on, but the ladies were not letting him mount successfully while we were around.


In Kenya's National Parks, they do not allow night game drives. But since this is a private game reserve, it was available. Hugh went on the game drive alone (If Lynn is reading this, then he did this without leaving Betsy). It was promoted as a way to see some nocturnal animals, but in general it turned out to be more of a continuation of a daytime drive, seeing water buffalo, elephants, antelopes, hyena, etc. Did catch some zebra mating action, which was a bit more successful than the impala earlier that day. However, up until this point, the lions we've seen have generally been resting. On this night drive, we first spotted a female lion drinking water, and then followed her for about 10 minutes as she was hunting. She did not have much success, but then again, with two cars following her and shining lights on her, I imagine the impala were not caught by surprise.


The conservancy's land straddles the equator and they had the appropriate signage to let us know. While on the road leaving, we saw several signs letting us know that we were crossing the equator, every few miles, suggesting that we stop to take pictures and visit their curio shops. Even though we are not familiar with the roads here, it didn't seem possible to cross the equator that many times. The thrill of crossing has now warn off.

Location:Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya

Safari -Samburu NP

We arrived in Samburu National Park and the landscape had changed - this is the Kenya we were expecting. The abundance of animals and variety of species were great. Part of what makes Samburu special is that there are some different animals, or subspecies, that are typically not seen elsewhere. For instance, we've seen zebra elsewhere but here are Grevy's zebra, with narrower, darker stripes, and whiter bellies. (Obviously helping answer the question of whether zebras are black with white stripes, or white with black stripes).


We are still fascinated by giraffe, and Samburu has a subspecies, the reticulated giraffe, which has darker and more defined spot patterns than the common giraffe.


There were tons of the different antelope species, some of which we've seen before, including impala - Betsy thinks this guy lost a fight, Hugh thinks we need to see what the other guy looks like.


Dik diks were plentiful here - they are antelope, but quite small, about the size of a jack Russell terrier. And another antelope species, apparently only in Samburu, is the gerenuk, which has a really long neck and will stand on it's hind legs to reach taller branches.


So far, we've seen very few lions in the wild, and only females. At Samburu, we saw our first male lions. They were juvenile and so didn't have a full mane yet.


But the highlight were the cheetah. Our guide was impressed, because cheetah are typically solitary and you might get lucky and see two, or possibly three together, but we saw 5 at once. Apparently, a mother and her two adolescent cubs were being harassed by two males. (you won't really see the two juveniles that well in this photo, who are on the left behind mom and the bush).


Eventually, the cheetah had to clear out of the area as a group of elephants came walking through, and the elephants pretty much always have the right of way. There were also warthogs, crocodiles, ostrich, and more. And not to let you think we don't care about the smaller stuff, like all the birds, here are a picture of guinea hen, who because of it's name, never sounded like it would be pretty. We saw two varieties - helmet'd and non-helmet'd; these are without helmet.


We also took the opportunity to see a village of the local indigenous people. In this village, two tribes, the Samburu and the Turkana, were living side by side. They performed some songs and dances, told us about their culture, showed us some children in "school" (under a tree), their homes, etc.


It was interesting that their livelihood is raising cattle and goats in the middle of an area with predator cats, but they have been doing it for several centuries. It was a good visit but the trip ended with us having to walk a shopping gauntlet - a narrow pathway through about 40 women on their blankets selling jewelry and other crafts, all talking to us at about the same time - It was a bit overwhelming. //. It was during our time here that Betsy started a new fascination - taking pictures of trees, which our guide finds amusing. Since there are already a lot of photos in this posting, we will skip them for now, but you may start seeing some of those in the future. But just so you know that neither one of us has been fed to the lions, here we are having dinner.


Our time at the beach allowed us to go for a run a couple of times a week, but in Nairobi and here in the national parks, surrounded by large cats and other predators, there really isn't any safe running territory. So Betsy opted for a nice safe swim in the hotel's pool.

Location:Kenya

Safari - Aberdare National Park

One story of Nairobi we forgot to include: for our last night in town, we decided to eat at a middle eastern restaurant since we were given the impression that it would be good here, and we had been looking forward to it. We were recommended to go to the Phoenician, a restaurant that has been in Nairobi for awhile but moved to a new upscale location. We arrived and found that they had made some changes - they are now a Lebanese and sushi restaurant, but for a few weeks, they were not serving Lebanese food until another expansion was completed. Sushi was so far from our plan of middle eastern, and we did not like the idea of raw fish in a country that we occasionally had concern about eating raw vegetables, so we ended up next door at an Italian restaurant, which actually was pretty darn good. We began our two week safari through Kenya and Tanzania by heading about 4 hours north of Nairobi to Aberdare NP. Our first challenge was just getting out of Nairobi, as it took almost an hour because of AM rush hour traffic. However, it actually seems like it is always rush hour in Nairobi. We are traveling in a 4WD Mitsubishi SUV with our driver/ guide Bedan, but we were told we'll be switching cars in a few days due to the weather we'll have later on in our trip. We are not quite sure we believe this story, but our current car is nice and comfortable, and as it is just the two of us on our safari, there is plenty of space. Also, it took about 4 hours but it should have taken 2.5 even with the bad traffic, because our driver went so slow, even the donkey carts were passing us. Usually, tourists in third world countries are worried about their safety due to high speeds and alternate driving techniques; we were not. Our first views of the Kenyan landscape were not what Betsy had imagined. Instead of arid, desert like land, it was lush and green, full of palm trees, rolling hills, and a variety of farms - corn, coffee, tea, wheat (somehow the wheat in Kenya looks prettier than in Ohio), flowers, etc... Hugh claims he knew Kenya had good farming because of his extensive research, i.e. watching "Out of Africa". //. The first stop was at the Aberdare Country Club for lunch. From there they drove us to the Ark, their hotel in the middle of the park. It was a beautiful building in a beautiful location.


The all wood building had lots of No smoking signs, lots of fire extinguishers, detailed fire escape maps, and outside, a prominent "assemble here during fire" sign - we weren't sure whether to be happy that they were so safety conscious or nervous about sleeping in a tinderbox. Fortunately for us, there was no chance of serious fire since it rained when we arrived at the Ark, canceling most of the activities including the afternoon bird feeding/watching. Also, the hotel is built next to a watering hole with several levels of balconies, for game viewing in comfort. With the rain, very few animals were interested in coming to the water hole, and so even though there are some lights for night viewing, it was a low yield of animals (and certainly nothing like the amazing water hole experience at Etosha in Namibia). We did see lots of the African water buffalo, which we were surprised to see boss around the solo elephants who came by.


The Ark also has a watcher who is spotting the animals that come to the water hole while we sleep. If he sees something interesting, he rings and a buzzer sounds in our room (which can be turned off). At 3 am, when the buzzer sounded 4 times indicating something unusual, Hugh got up and saw two porcupines while Betsy slept. Now, they were large and cool looking porcupines, but they were still porcupines. //. Moving on, we continued to drive north and we passed the equator, both of our first times driving across the equator. Of course, at the sign were several "guides" who wanted to show us the "water draining in different directions" trick, and visit their curio shop, but we decided to skip these offers.

Location:Kenya

Extra Zanzibar photos

We enjoyed Zanzibar so much that we decided to post some more pictures without specific stories. Sorry to post out of order (Zanzibar was before Nairobi).


On the terrace of the Zanzibar museum


View of the bay


House of Peace (under renovation)


Random house in Stone Town


Random terrace in Stone Town


Flowers at the spice farm


Cocktails at sunset, the beach near Stone Town.

Location:Zanzibar

Rosh Hashanah

Leaving Zanzibar, we flew to Nairobi where we celebrated Rosh Hashanah and attended services at the Nairobi Synagogue (seriously). The synagogue was a beautiful building and the grounds were very pretty.





We were lucky that we had been put in touch with one of the congregational leaders who in addition to inviting us to services, also hosted us at his house for dinner. We really lucked out to have a warm holiday welcome, with interesting people and great food, especially the homemade challah. // Since Nairobi has quite the reputation for crime, we left our valuables, including passports, secure in our hotel. For the first Rosh Hashanah service, in the evening, we showed up at the synagogue without any ID, having not put any thought that they might have a need for security, too. Fortunately, we passed the thorough interrogation by the Mossad agent (Israel's secret service) who was working security, and allowed in. //. We were not in Nairobi too long and we did not see much as far as tourism goes. However, we didn't need much time to realize how crippling the traffic can be in Nairobi. We can also confirm that there is no use to having Amex travelers checks in Eastern or Southern Africa, as NO ONE wants them. But here is an image of one monument we passed in our travels, dedicated to the 2nd President of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi.


Our next adventure: safari in the national parks of Kenya and Tanzania.

Location:Nairobi, Kenya

Stone Town and the Beach

Our ferry approached the island of Unguja and brought us to Stone Town- we had arrived in Zanzibar. Zanzibar was at one time considered the spice capital of the world and was the center point of trade between Africa and Indo-Asia - this gave it a mix of cultures that is evident in the food, people and architecture (which comes with a different type of scaffolding - logs tied with rope).


Stone Town itself is a maze of narrow twisting streets, similar to Venice, but minus the canals. It easy to get lost within, but that is also part of the charm. It is while wandering that you notice the architecture and get to appreciate that these people are really into their carved doorways.





It was one of the very few places we've been where we were told it was safe to walk at night, which we appreciated. Our first night we watched the sunset from one of the city's waterfront bars, while the locals were practicing their flips on the beach.


We had to take the obligatory spice farm tour, which turned out to be a great idea, except for one small part. We decided to do the bike tour version, so as to get a view of some more of the people, island, etc, while getting some exercise.


The unfortunate part was that after leaving town and going through the forest, it started to rain. Our guide assured us it wasn't raining, that it was a shower. Well, the shower lasted for most of the next 4 hours, so we were pretty soaked, but the temperature was warm enough that even Betsy didn't get cold, and the tour of the spice farm was fun. They would pull some leaves off a plant, crush them, and then we would smell it and guess which spice it was. We were not that good at guessing. Betsy usually guessed lemon grass, but when they actually did give us the lemon grass and told us this one would be easy, she guessed something else. Hugh wasn't much better. After the leaf test, they would then dig up the root, or pull off the bark, or whichever part the actual spice was made from, and then explain the process of turning it into a spice. The lunch they served us later was another taste test of many of the spices. Some of the spices also had other uses, even as lipstick.


They also grow tropical fruits on the farm and we got to taste some great stuff, including jackfruit, and here is our guide climbing the tree to get us a coconut.


During one of the heavier rain periods, we took shelter and the guides took the opportunity to teach Hugh a local board game, sort of a combo between nok hockey and pool.


On the bike ride home, the sun came out and we took a short break on the beach. Betsy eating Kashi bars in various locales will be one of Hugh's enduring memories of Africa. Here she is enjoying her favorite snack, which our supply of is quickly dwindling.


After stone town, we then moved to the beach for a few days. We chose a resort on the east coast beach of Jambiani. The beach was gorgeous and the water the most crystal blue either of us had seen - it was like looking at a postcard.





There were some strange things about the east coast beaches. One is that the tides are really dramatic, with the edge of the ocean moving about 1/2 mile between high and low tides. This allowed for great beach running at low tide, but made walks on the beach difficult at high tide when most of it was underwater. We were also surprised by how some areas seemed to have a lot of seaweed while others did not. We later found out that the seaweed is being planted and farmed, apparently to support the Chinese market. It is quite apparent that the Chinese are investing heavily in Zanzibar, and in East Africa in general. The seaweed does take away from some of the beauty, particularly at low tide. //. We went scuba diving again, and although it did not have the large species like Tofo, the water was warmer and there was a great variety of coral. Also in contrast to Tofo, there were not the strong waves to push the boat through, but we did have to wait for high tide to lift the boat off the ground.

Location:Zanzibar