Lake Nakuru National Park

After leaving Aberdare National Park, we headed to Lake Nakuru for lunch and then for a game drive. After lunch, we added two more people to our tour - a very nice couple from England. They joined us for the next two days.

They seemed to be our lucky charm.
We started out the drive and almost immediately saw a mother lioness.

Looking around, we could see her cubs on the hillside.

She called them, and they promptly fell in line behind her.

She led them right to their lunch.
A tasty meal of zebra caught earlier or the day before .
Ahh....now a nice nap after a hearty lunch.

We didn't get a nap though. We continued on our drive.

We saw lots of giraffes here. These were the Rothschild giraffes.

Their fur pattern is less defined than the reticulated giraffe, and they have white up their legs, which looks like white knee socks.

There were also quite a few red-billed ox-peckers along for a ride (and a meal!). You can see one peeking out from just above the giraffe's mane.

Our first glimpse of a rhino was the endangered black rhino.
This species has a hooked lip and tends to graze on shrubs and small plants.

A little later, we (and this jackal) saw white rhinos.

They have a wide square mouth, and graze on grasses.

The whole area near the lake is covered by birds -
pelicans.....storks....

and an impressive display of flamingos!
As we were viewing the wildlife, we watched a huge storm blow across the lake. We managed to just stay ahead of the storm and all its rain. The wind really picked up, which was nice, since all these birds really really STUNK!!

This was the first place we got a good look at the plains zebra.
I happened to get a great shot of this rare mutant two-headed zebra. :-)
But(t) this is the view we usually saw.

The short grasses also made it easy to see the cape buffalo.

The vervet monkeys were busy playing in the grass too.

After the drive, we had about an hour drive to Lake Naivasha, which is where we spent the night at Lake Naivasha Simba Lodge. When we arrived, Thomas tried to sell us a morning boat tour on the lake to look for hippos. None of us gave him an answer as to whether we wanted to do it or not. He told us to be ready at 7:30 the next morning.

Most of the game drives have been 2.5-3 hours long, so we collectively assumed that was the length of the boat tour, and we were supposed to meet at 7:30 for that. We decided to meet him at 10:00 and either sleep in, get a massage at the lodge, or go for a walk.

At breakfast, I confirmed with the other couple that we were still meeting at 10:00. They agreed and then went back to bed. I went for a walk to the jetty on the lake. On the way to the lake, I was able to get really close to these waterbucks.

I was close enough to this giraffe that I could have walked right between his legs!

Around 8:15 am, I just spotted this hippo when I heard Crystal shouting for me. I hurried back to meet her, and arrived to get scolded by Thomas for being late. It turns out that we were supposed to leave at 7:30 (unless somebody went on the boat tour, and then we would leave between 8:15-8:30 - so I really wasn't "late").

When nobody showed up at 7:30, he called each of our rooms and woke the others up, but was furious that I wasn't there with them. The other three members of my tour were not upset that I delayed their departure by 10-15 additional minutes, but Thomas was. He seemed to get even angrier when I suggested that we could make up those 10 minutes by skipping one of the overpriced curio shops where he liked to stop! I think he needs to go back and take another course on good customer service! I didn't dare tell him that I needed to use the restroom before we left, so I just hopped in the minivan and tried to hold it as long as possible. After about an hour, I began pestering him with "Are we near a bathroom yet?"

After a 5 hour drive on bumpy gravel roads (and a curio shop / bathroom break) we finally arrived at the Masai Mara!

Masai Mara

The last stop of the safari was the Masai Mara. We spent two nights at the Mara Simba Lodge.
Here we saw families of elephants casually walking across the plains.



There were some unique looking trees.
This is a sausage tree (Kigelia africana).

It gets its name because the fruits look like sausages hanging in a butcher shop.
We were told that this is a favorite fruit of the elephants.
The third type of giraffe we saw was the masai giraffe.
The spots are similar to the Rothschild giraffe, but it doesn't have the white knee socks.
There were lots of grazing animals, including antelopes, gazelles, and this hartebeest.
We saw lots of hawks, eagles, and vultures, but none were as beautifully colored as this lilac breasted roller.

The stars of the Masai Mara were the lions.

It was incredible how close we were able to get to them.
Watching the cubs snuggle and play with each other was a treat.


Once the lions decided they were tired with being watched, we went back to the lodge.

I had the chance to go on a walking safari with two maasai guides and a ranger.
We walked right up to the bank of a river filled with hippos.
One didn't seem thrilled about posing for my camera, so it was time to move on.

I didn't need to worry about the ranger firing his gun. Other than the hippos, we didn't see any large animals. The most exciting find was this dung beetle.

and this lizard
and the huge galls on this acacia tree filled with ants.

Back at the lodge, we were entertained by vervet monkeys who liked the tree next to our patio.

Is he making a pass at me?
or trying to impress his girlfriend?
The tree next to our patio was also popular with bats.
These banded mongooses were very entertaining to watch. They were part of a group of about 12.

They chased this eagle from tree to tree to bush to rock. I was surprised the eagle didn't pick one off for dinner (and to teach the rest a lesson).

Just as it was starting to rain, we spotted this male ostrich

along with the female.

As the rain picked up, I got a quick look at this hyena. Then we had to hurry back as roads were starting to turn to rivers.

We were there at the height of the wildebeest migration. I was disappointed that we were staying too far from the Mara River to watch them cross. But there were lots of wildebeests in the park, which made the lions and vultures very content (and full!)


Why did the wildebeest cross the road?

To get a gnu name!

Our guide didn't have much of a sense of humor when I told him that joke.

The zebras frequently stayed with the wildebeest herds. I think because they can outrun the wildebeests if a lion tries to eat them.
This was the favorite pose of the zebra. Every time I had a nice shot lined up, they would turn and moon me as I clicked the shutter.

It was time for the safari to end and for us to head to Zanzibar for some beach time.