[Kenya] The Lions of Kenya

Seeing lions in the wild was one of the most exciting experiences we had during our safari. We saw these majestic animals a few times, both in Lake Nakuru and in Maasai Mara.

Lions in Maasai Mara

The first time we saw lions, we could barely see them. While driving in Lake Nakuru, we passed by a jeep parked on the road. The guide of that other jeep told us that there were lions hidden in the tall grass and the bushes a really long distance away from us. It actually took a while before I could see part of the lion. It seemed like it was eating something. There were supposedly a couple of others but I didn't see them.

This is officially the first lion we saw (although we barely saw it)

The second time we saw lions was in that same game drive in Lake Nakuru. We actually almost didn't have a chance to see them. We learned that there were lions in a certain part of the reserve but when we got there, the area was so full of jeeps and we couldn't park. Since none of them seemed like they were leaving anytime soon, we decided to just leave. On our way home, we had to pass through that same area of the lion sighting again and as we did, we saw several of the jeeps leaving. This gave us an opportunity to park and we finally saw the lions! It started out with what seemed like a lone lioness (or maybe a young male lion without any trace of a mane yet)...

Our first good view of a lion in Kenya

...before a head of a male lion reared its head from the grass. As if that wasn't enough, another male lion showed its face to us. So instead of just one, there were three!

Can you see the two lions at the back (one partially covered by a bush)?

One of the male lions then moved towards us and the lioness. We stayed there for quite a while, taking lots of photos...

...and even selfies. I forgot you are not supposed to turn your back on a lion but we did it because everyone there was also doing it (and the lions weren't looking at us anyway)

Selfie with the lion and the lioness

We saw a few more lions two days later, in Maasai Mara. Early in our game drive, we saw three young male lions.

Three young male lions in Maasai Mara

As we got closer towards the middle of the day, we saw what seemed to be a lioness stalking a wildebeest. We passed by several jeeps that were parked along the dirt road and we decided to stop too. From here, we saw a lion barely visible in the savanna grass that seemed to be following a lone wildebeest. The wildebeest seemed to be walking towards the large herd quite some distance away and the lion was several meters behind it, following in its footsteps. I thought that at some point, the lion would hunt that wildebeest but it never did. They were so far away from us that my photos of them are fuzzy and unfocused but it is proof that we got to see them!

The lioness followed this wildebeest for a really long distance but never gave chase

As we were getting ready to leave Maasai Mara, we spotted a lioness. It was initially walking then suddenly, it increased its pace to a fast trot (or like a lion version of a jog). Our guide Zachary told us that he doesn't normally see lions move like this - they normally walk or run but not trot - so it made him quite curious.

The last lion we saw in Kenya

It really was such an amazing experience getting to see a lot of lions in Kenya!

It was an exhilarating experience getting to see lions up close in the wild!

Next: Special and Memorable Moments on Safari

[Kenya] The Elephants of Kenya

I wrote previously that the first of the big five animals we saw was the elephant. We saw elephants during our first game drive. There were several adults and a few calves with them. They were slowly leaving the area after we arrived but we did have lots of opportunities to take photos.

The first set of elephants we saw (in Samburu)

We saw lots of elephants in each of our Samburu game drives. When our guide Zachary took us to the Ewaso Nyiro river, we saw a few of them. This one had what seemed to have a trunk that was longer than average.

Quite possibly the largest elephant we saw was also by the river. Our jeep was practically right next to this one. We stayed very quiet so as not to trigger any aggressive response from the elephant. We even managed to take selfies with it.

We also spotted this elephant with its calf standing just meters away from this crocodile. Can you see them?

The scariest experience we had in Kenya also involved an elephant. We actually got chased by one. What happened: we turned into a dirt road and we were initially the lone jeep here. Here we saw a large elephant walking slowly in our direction on the same road. We stopped and took some photos and I was hoping it would walk right next to our jeep. While we were there, another jeep arrived from the other direction. Now, there was a jeep on either side of the elephant. I think it may have felt cornered and spooked when the other jeep started to drive away - towards us in the opposite direction - because it suddenly started to move and act very aggressively. The other jeep was moving forward and it sped away but because we couldn't move forward ourselves - the elephant was blocking our path - we ended up becoming the object of its aggression. Zachary reacted very quickly and started driving in reverse but the elephant followed us. We drove backwards until we went around a bend in the road, out of sight of the elephant. But after several seconds, we saw the elephant still walking towards us. We drove in reverse again but the elephant kept walking after us. Eventually, the elephant just headed into behind some large trees away from the road. Even then, we thought that the elephant could be hiding behind the tall bushes and ram us as we drove past it so we waited for a short bit but thankfully, it was gone. Whew! This next selfie is the only one I was able to take of that elephant.

This elephant chased us for maybe a few hundred meters

We didn't see any elephants in Lake Nakuru. But we did see an elephant in Maasai Mara. Our guide Zachary told us that during the wildebeest migration, it gets harded to spot two animals in Maasai Mara - the elephant and the rhino - because both these creatures don't like the noise. As such, it wasn't a surprise that we only saw one elephant here.

The only elephant we saw in Maasai Mara

While I had seen a lot of elephants in my life, I think this trip to Kenya may have been the first time I saw an African elephant. As far as I can recall, all other elephants I had previously seen in my life, including Maali from the Manila Zoo, were Asian elephants. This added an element of excitement and discovery to our safari trip.

Next: The Lions of Kenya

[Kenya] The Giraffes of Kenya

One of the most interesting things I learned on this safari trip is that there are several giraffe subspecies. The three game reserves we visited - Samburu, Lake Nakuru, and Maasai Mara - had their own giraffe subspecies that wasn't present in the others. We were very lucky that we got to see all three of them.

Reticulated giraffe

This subspecies is the only one you can find in Samburu and you can find a whole lot of them here! The reticulated giraffe has clearly defined brown-orange patches with clear white lines separating them. It was the first large mammal we spotted along the dirt road in Samburu upon our arrival. (I say large mammal because my brothers said that they saw a squirrel at the Samburu gate.) On our first game drive, the reticulated giraffe was also the first mammal we saw.

Reticulated giraffes in Samburu

We saw so many of them in Samburu. On our second game drive, we got pretty close to several giraffes that were next to the road.

One of the large male giraffes was trying to woo a smaller female giraffe. She seemed completely disinterested in all his seeming attempts to mate with her. By the time we left this area after several minutes of taking photos and giraffe-watching, the female was still rebuffing the male's advances.

A giraffe trying to woo another giraffe

On our third Samburu game drive, we saw a whole tower of giraffes (apparently and appropriately, a group of giraffes is called a tower). There were more than a dozen of them all around us. I couldn't get them all in a single photo though, so this next photo with about 10 of them in one shot was the best I could do.

This is the most giraffes I managed to get in one shot

Rothschild's Giraffe

The Rothschild's giraffe is one of the most endangered giraffe subspecies and is the only one you can find in Lake Nakuru. It differs from the reticulated giraffe in that it has more irregular lines separating its brown patches which don't fully extend down its legs. We lucked out seeing a lone one shortly before we left Lake Nakuru. It was a very long distance away from us but we were happy to see it. (Thankfully, my phone has pretty good zoom.)

Rothschild's giraffe in Lake Nakuru

Masai Giraffe

We got to see a solitary masai giraffe in Maasai Mara. It's a bit similar to the Rothschild's giraffe in that is has jagged lines separating its patches. The difference is that its patches are darker (supposedly the masai giraffe has the darkest patches among all giraffes) and they go all the way down its leg.

Masai giraffe in Maasai Mara

We saw one more masai giraffe in Crescent Island. I also love the fact that we got to stand pretty close to it and have our photos taken with it.

Selfie with a masai giraffe in Crescent Island in Lake Naivasha

Next: The Elephants of Kenya

[Kenya] Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island

We visited Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island on the 6th and last day of our safari adventure. Similar to our Maasai Village Tour, this was an optional add-on to our itinerary. It includes a boat safari and a nature walk with animals so I thought it would be a wonderful experience for me and my family. And indeed, it was!

Lake Naivasha

Our boat safari started at around 2:15pm. Here we saw several hippos that were mostly submerged apart from the very tops of their heads. It was very exhilarating being very close to them but also quite scary because our boat was very small and an angry hippo could easily flip it over. I know that many people are attacked by hippos every year and I shared this concern with our guide but he said we shouldn't worry. To paraphrase what he said, when you send out positive and peaceful energy to the hippos, they will send you that same energy back.

Seeing hippos almost at eye level in Lake Naivasha

We also got pretty close to a couple of pelicans.

Pelicans

We also saw a couple of fish eagles. Our guide said it was a male and a female and that  the female is larger. Our guides tried to get one of the eagles to swoop down from its lofty perch and fly closeer to us on the surface of the lake by tossing some fish he had with him into the water. However, it seems that the eagles might have just eaten and were still full because none of them were attracted to the fish the guides were offering.

One of two fish eagles we saw (the other was perched on another tree)

Our guide also told us that there were a lot of dead tree trunks jutting out of the lake because the water level here has risen several meters over the years.

Many dead tree trunks jutting out of the lake

After being on our boat for about 45 minutes, we docked at Crescent Island for our nature walk with animals.

Crescent Island

Here we were joined by a different guide (her name was Susan). She told us that the reason there are a lot of large herbivores in Crescent Island is because of the 1985 film Out of Africa, which starred Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. This film shot some of its sequences here and the film crew brought many animals here to make it look more like the bush. Once filming ended, the animals were left here where they (or their descendants) continue to live and thrive. Since there are no predators here, going on a nature walk amidst the animals has become a pretty popular tourist activity. (Side note: our guide asked us where we were from and when we told her we were from the Philippines, she happily told us that she actually watches some Filipino drama shows. Cool!)

We did a nature walk with wild animals on Crescent Island

The first animal we got to see here and have a photo taken with is the masai giraffe.

Masai giraffe

We also got to see zebras,

Plains zebras

waterbucks,

Waterbucks

impalas,

Impalas

wildebeests,

Wildebeest

and gazelles.

Gazelles

We spent about an hour walking around the island and Susan very kindly took our photos with the animals. As we were heading back to the dock, it started to rain. We got somewhat soaked while on the boat but on our way back, we got to see the not-so-common sight of hippos out of the water!

Hippos on land

It was an amazing experience and a very relaxing way to end our tour, despite the rain. I'm also happy that we started our boat safari when we did. Our guide Zachary actually wanted us to start a bit later in the day - at around 3pm - because he thought it might be too hot for us to start at around 2pm. But we felt it would be good to start earlier, heat notwithstanding, to optimize our time in Kenya especially because we were all tired. If we started an hour later as Zachary initially suggested, we would end up having gotten badly drenched by the rain while doing our nature walk. That was a close call!

Boat safari in Lake Naivasha

I'm really happy that we added this option to our tour. It cost US$50 per person for both the boat safari in Lake Naivasha and the nature walk in Crescent Island, but given the richness of our experience, it was absolutely worth it.

Nature walk in Crescent Island

Next post: The Giraffes of Kenya

[Kenya] Maasai Village Cultural Experience

Our tour package gave us an option to include a Maasai Village Cultural Tour to our itinerary. This Maasai community visit would allow us to interact with the Maasai people and learn about their way of life. I thought this would be a great experience for us to have so I included it in our package. We got to do this after we got settled in Mara Empiris Safari Camp, our accommodations in Maasai Mara.

Visiting a Maasai village

It started with what probably was the highlight of our visit - a Maasai dance of the welcome us to their village. They were also chanting in harmony as they danced. It was amazing to see and hear in person!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Christian Pobre (@xtn_on_ig)

As if that wasn't enough, midway through the dance, all of the men in our group were invited to join them. We even got to participate in Adumu, the famous jumping dance. My bad knees, made worse by an exhausting trip, meant that I could barely get any decent lift off the ground, but I still did it. (Our guide told us that the jumping dance is a competition and whoever jumps highest normally gets to pay a lower dowry; I've heard and read about Adumu indicates that the winner of this jumping competition gets to marry the woman. Either way, it is an important Maasai custom.)

Getting ready to join the Maasai jumping dance

We were then showed how they Maasai people make fire...

The Maasai villagers demonstrated how they make fire

...before being invited to try and make fire ourselves. My brother and my nephew tried it.

My brother trying to make fire

We were then invited to enter their houses. The houses are made mostly of cow dung, which we were told is pretty water-proof.

Inside the house of Tommy, our guide (I believe he is also the son of the chief)

Once we stepped out of these houses, we were then regaled by another Maasai dance, performed by the women. This time, the women in our group were invited to join them and they did.

Dance of the Maasai women

Afterwards, we visited the Maasai Village Market. We bought several souvenirs here.

Maasai village market

The Maasai Village wasn't too far from our hotel - the Mara Empiris Safari Camp - so we actually walked most of the way back home as our guide Tom talked more about their life here.

Walking back to our hotel from the Maasai village

It was such a culturally-enriching experience. It was great to understand the Maasai people a little better and to have a tiny bit of an immersion into their lives. I absolutely loved seeing their traditional dances and even getting to participate! I'm very happy that I added this optional activity to our itinerary.

My family with the Maasai community

Next: Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island