Friday 20 February 2009

Safari


After a few days in Nairobi we've checked out safari opportunities. It's quite easy to get started. In Nairobi you get asked all the time if you are interested in one. The friendly hotel porter recommended us his friend and we checked two companies and compared them. The time now used to be high season. Because of the economy crises and political unrest in late 1997 tourists don't come in high numbers. Our deal was 3 days Safari (2 nights in a camp) and travel from and to Nairobi to Masai Mara. The best was that the three of us got a own minibus, driver and cook for 110$ a day! The national park borders to northern Tanzania and continues as Serengeti. The animals move between these two parks and are now mostly in Tanzania and come back in the rainy season (starting March/April).

We arrived Wednesday morning and at the late afternoon our first drive in the Masai Mara started. In front of the park is a big Masai village full of colorful dressed people. They like to wear colorful bright clothes because the lions don't like these colors. The park is full of all kind of animals. Giraffes, gazelles, lions, Zebras... Everything you have seen in a TV documentary. We had luck to see lions and even a cheetah with two cubs. The second day was a full day in the game park. Highlight of the day was the hippo pool with a lot of hippos and some hungry crocodiles. The rest of the day was long hours driving for animals. We had the feeling all went out and left us alone in the park.
Today, the last day, was very spectacular. We saw hunting lions in the early morning! Our driver has seen some other minibuses near a creek where we've spotted a family of lions two days ago. The lions circled around a hat beast and started the hunt right after the minibus stopped. We've watched the hunt from beginning to the end when two female lions grabbed the hat beast and a male lion threw himself on the animal to throw it down. We spent an hour watching the male lions eat. They didn't share the meal with the female lions who successfully hunted. A real chauvinistic king of the jungle ;)

We have now a little stop before we enter the bus to Uganda. We'll spend our weekend in Kampala and at the beginning of the river Nile. We want to do some rafting and if we survive we'll be back at the beginning of next week. As already mentioned we'll split up to Mombasa and mount Kilimanjaro. I hope I find a reliable internet connection in Uganda and finally upload the outstanding photos.

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