Karen Blixen Camp and The Mara

Wow, it's been over a week since the last post. Just taking life slowly, I guess. Among other things, I'm trying to figure out a way to get to Italy in October at something close to a reasonable airfare. Soon, travel will be the exclusive domain of the rich.

Back to Kenya and the wonderful, haunting Masai Mara. It is easy to close my eyes and transport myself back to the company of zebra and cheetahs --maybe that is what I did all last week? Hmm?

Our digs on the Mara were not too shabby. The Karen Blixen Camp, she of Out of Africa fame, is a luxurious, lush, safari elegant "camp" in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Until you are there, you can not see it as you bounce down a road which is no more than a path of rocks and mini boulders, jarring ruts and elephant dung. And..then you are there, being greeted with wide smiles as staff offers cool cloths to wipe the dirt off face, neck and hands and then gives you a wonderful cooling glass of fresh passion fruit juice to wash away the dust lodging in your lungs. You know that all is good.

We arrived on the Mara via plane, taking off from a relatively normal dirt airstrip in the town of Nanyuki but landing on a dirt field with nothing but a vehicle and guide Nixon to meet us. It was really pretty cool!

The later plane to Amboseli made this one seem large!

On the way to "camp," we were mesmerized by the flat, never-ending savanna with tall, tawny grasses blowing in the breezes, populated by hundreds of zebra and wildebeast. Nixon drove right through herds who seemed to be oblivious to us--we weren't fearsome like lions and cheetahs. They weren't interested in the strange Land Rover animal.

Reach Out and Touch

After being escorted to our tent and just leaving our duffels where the porters put them, we enjoyed a very good lunch--chefs in nowhere are very good and accomplished. Then we went on the first of several Mara game drives including early mornings, late afternoons, all day, and a sundowner.

A sundowner is when you leave camp just before sunset, drive out on the savanna where you can get out of the Land Rover, mingle with zebra and other animals (at a respectful distance), have tasty snacks, wine and soft drinks and watch the stunning beauty of the sun lowering and finally dropping below the horizon. The silence of the savanna is broken only by sounds of nature and rustling bushes.

Mingling

Awesome can not describe the impact on the soul

During our drives we saw herds of elephants, family units with the mother elephants taking care of their toddlers and teens and hundreds of zebra milling around at the river, deciding whether or not to cross. This was fun to watch as one would try and then step back while another would gather the courage to try. In the meantime these hundreds of followers are forming groups, regrouping not sure what to do. Finally, on this day, they decided the stars were not aligned right so in total herd mentality turned around and left, waiting for a more auspicious day. In the meantime, vultures by the dozens and crocodiles on the bank lie in wait for the certain tragic death of a hapless zebra.

 

This Day Vultures and Crocs are Foiled.

There are so many things I could write about: the half hour watching lions mate almost continuously (much to Casey's fascination), cheetahs chasing and playing, hippos basking in the sun with an occasional snort and foray into the water, topis posing grandly in the bush, hyenas searching for carrion, graceful giraffes loping along, more, more and more.

I could tell about the exquisite massage that totally eliminated the sore muscles and joint aches acquired in 7 days of safari travel. And then, there was the thrill of sitting on our tent porch and watching giraffes, elephants and gazelles parading by us on the other side of the river.

 But, I am stopping now as this is getting too long to be read. Next I will tell of the after dark rules, Casey's birthday celebration and maybe something else that comes to mind.

So much of relating safari is in the pictures not the words. At the top of the blog is a link to my Flickr pictures which are just a few of all that were taken (8gb).  This is a link to just the Mara pictures. The Mara

Don't forget that Casey is blogging, too. KZ on Kenya