OUR CURRENT FAVOURITES : A Second Honeymoon

 

 

 

 

THE PONDS IN AFRICA

One of the greatest things about safaris is that you never know what‘s going to happen next. Almost the first thing we saw was a huge matriarch elephant scratching her bottom on a jagged tree stump, a look of utter bliss on her face. The second, a randy young lion trying to get frisky with an older female and getting a great clout across the face from a huge paw as she rejected him.
  
It must be nearly twenty years since we were last in Kenya. Nairobi, what little we saw of it, is a bustling busy city with high rise buildings, the inevitable traffic jams and the poor, who are much in evidence. We were soon though on a light plane, all to ourselves, hurtling over the countryside to our tented camp in Meru National Park. We flew over areas of intensive agriculture, vegetables, fruit and flowers mainly for the European markets which seems crazy when you consider the periodic droughts that hit this land. All though are cash crops, and they do need the money.

We landed on a deserted dusty airstrip where soon a battered landcruiser arrived driven by a Masai warrior in tribal dress of bright cotton decorated with tartan like designs and smothered in bead necklaces and bangles. With a shaven head and a “colgate white” toothy smile he greeted us in perfect English. He told us his name was Vincent.

After a dusty drive along atrocious dirt roads, worse than usual because of resent heavy rains, we arrived at the very lonely camp to be greeted by more warriors with hot towels and cold passion fruit drinks. The manager was a white Kenyan, Adrian Allen, and like all “colonials” very laid back and instantly welcoming and friendly. We had the camp entirely to ourselves! What with a personal plane and an empty camp we began to wonder if people were avoiding us. We soon settled into our tents, very spacious with a working lavatory and a bucket shower which is a very African gadget. When a shower is needed one shouts out for hot water and a couple of the staff will, eventually stagger to the tent and fill a canvas bucket on top of the tent which gives just enough water to soak, soap and rinse.

We stayed at this camp for three days and were joined by a young Scottish couple on their honeymoon who somewhat surprisingly seemed very interested in the animals! At the end of our stay we arrived back at the airstrip and boarded a Safari Air Cessna and settled ourselves in. Five minutes later we were told we were on the wrong plane so had to deplane and start all over again. Light air travel is so casual here with very little supervision and no safety cards etc. American & European airlines would have a fit.

Our next camp was a lot more sophisticated with electricity and hot and cold running women, oops! Sorry water. This camp we had heard about and have given charitable contributions to. It had done tremendous work particularly with black and white rhinos and grevy zebras and as a result the whole park is teeming with game especially huge herds of elephant, buffalo and antelope. We saw several large prides of lion and we were lucky to spend some time with three cheetahs, my favourite cat, a mother and two youngsters. Three days here and very pleasant. Run by an American couple who were mainly involved in the administration side, the field work and hosting being carried out by Masai.

The third camp was in the Masai Mara, a huge wonderful game area which we had visited about twenty years ago. Luckily unchanged and unspoilt. The highlight of this camp was our visit to the Mara River to watch some of the huge numbers of wildebeest attempting to make the crossing. This creature was obviously designed by a committee who seem to have forgotten to give it a brain. They cross at natural fords where the waters flow swiftly. Crocodiles, lions, hyenas and vultures hang around waiting for the casualties. The animals stand scared on the banks until the pressure of those behind forces them into the water where they start frantically to swim for the opposite bank. The noise is unbelievable, mooing and coughing, grunting and screaming coming from thousands of throats. Rather like a football crowd! The majority head for beaches or low banks up which they slither but the rest head for the cliffs and boulders and slither around terrified while crocodiles take their pick. It must be one of the natural wonders of the world and quite beyond my powers of description.

We did see one very extraordinary sight that of a hippopotamus munching on a drowned wildebeest. Hippos are strict vegetarians and at first we didn't believe our eyes. Back at camp the ranger told us that there had been one other reported case some years previously and that some experts reckoned it was in need of medicine rather like cats and dogs eating grass. We went up river a short way to have a picnic and were appalled to see dozens of bloated carcasses floating down river from other crossings, it rather spoiled our appetites.

On our final day Mila went on a game drive, I stayed in camp for a restful morning. Just my luck as they found several young lions playing with what looked like a football. This turned out to be a very rare pangolin covered in small armoured plates which the lions could not penetrate. Two of the Masai who'd lived all their lives in the area had never seen one before.

It was pretty well the most successful safari we've ever been on. Almost, but not quite, a second honeymoon.



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