Jul 2007

We only spent five nights in the Masai Mara, but it was undoubtedly the experience of a lifetime. We’re back in Nairobi this evening, with only a few hours to enjoy endless showers, catch up on laundry and email and update the blog before we head off to Zambia early tomorrow morning. It’s hard to pick just a handful of photos for the site from the two thousand (!!) or so we have taken over the last five days. So, we’ve focused on the ‘Big Five’ and added cheetahs which we just loved. Here are some of our best experiences on safari:

Lion. Lions are very common – almost a guaranteed sight – in the Masai Mara. On our last evening, we saw two prides within ten minutes: one with eight lions, and another with fourteen! On a way back from a long day’s game drive, we spotted a particularly regal lioness resting up a tree, which is apparently quite unusual. Generally, lions here prefer to rest in the golden long grass, where they are very well disguised. Our most lively encounter of the safari was with a pair of lions……

Leopard. This is the most elusive of the Big Five in the Masai Mara, and we were very lucky to see a leopard up a tree with freshly killed gazelle on our very first full day. We couldn’t actually see much of the leopard as she enjoyed her lunch, but we could hear bones crunching and flesh being torn. On second thought, maybe it’s a good thing we couldn’t see it! Anyway, after lunch, the leopard moved to a lower branch of the tree, and spent the next twenty minutes or so posing for photos for the numerous safari vehicles that had rushed to experience this rare animal at work.

Rhino. OK, so we cheated for this one. Very close to the Kicheche Main camp is a Rhino Sanctuary where we were able to round off our Big Five. Rhinos have been hunted for their horns almost to extinction here, so the Sanctuary was established to protect several White Rhinos donated by the South African government.

Cheetah. Definitely a highlight of the trip! We enjoyed almost an hour early one morning with a cheetah and her two five month old cubs. One of the cubs struggled onto the front of our land cruiser – apparently for the first time! – and snarled at its own reflection before becoming very curious about the three humans behind the shield of glass! I got some very cute close up shots, but was distinctly less comfortable when the mother jumped up on the bonnet with ease. She showed interest in climbing INTO the back of the open-topped truck where Lloyd and I were taking piccies, but our guide started the engine which prompted her back to the two cubs.

If anyone is thinking of a safari in the Masai Mara, we’d highly recommend the Kicheche Bush Camp. It’s a small, six-tent operation run with an extraordinary attention to detail. Every need or concern was anticipated and executed flawlessly. The camp is unfenced which means the local life can – and does! – move freely around the camp. Our first night there, I awoke at about 4am to the most frightening sounds imaginable. Protected only by canvas, I sat in the dark while lions killed a zebra only 30 meters or so from our tent. For the next hour, hyenas tried to intimidate the lions into surrendering their kill and eventually formed a group of twenty or so which was apparently enough to encourage the lions to leave. Lloyd awoke at about 5.45am to find me sitting bolt upright in the bed. It honestly didn’t occur to me to wake him. I didn’t know exactly what was going on (the details were filled in later by the camp director) but I knew something had been killed. I remember sitting there holding my breath as the tent flapped in the breeze, convinced that I was next on the breakfast menu. As you would expect in that kind of environment, we had a walkie talkie by the bed to summon help if needed, but as it was our first night, I just thought that maybe it was normal and didn’t want to reveal my terror!

Anyway, I should probably reassure my mother at this point that we were perfectly safe inside the tent. Guests are walked to and from their tents by local Masai Askari (Warrior or guard) during the hours of darkness. And just before the wake up calls at 6am, they drove around the camp to scare away any remaining hyenas. Quite an adventure which perfectly set the stage for our safari experiences.

There is so much more to say, and so many pictures (literally thousands) that you will just need to tune in later for updates and thoughts after we have been able to digest this experience. For now, enjoy!

Our last day in Athens is invested in a little R&R and not a small amount of recovery from last night’s excesses. With Emma and D’ell heading back to London today, we meet for a late breakfast on St G’s famous balcony overlooking Athens. A few of us were suffering, and given the backdrop, this photo was fittingly entitled: "Monumental Hangover"!

Lloyd is off-loading almost 14 pounds of kit (clothes, some of the technology stuff) on poor Emma to cart back to London for us, in preparation for our journey to Africa tomorrow. We are taking a puddle jumper from Nairobi to the Masai Mara on Wednesday that has very strict weight limits of 15kg per passenger, and Lloyd’s kit was about 26kg upon departure! We’ll still be over, but we’d rather keep the excess to a minimum, as we don’t know how secure the ‘storage’ will be for excess luggage! In any event, his pack was too heavy and we’ve still got a long way to go!

The only thing I surrender is my running kit. Who am I kidding when I think I’ll run in every country? May as well get rid of it now and lose the guilt associated with shuffling it around my pack for the next five months.

And that’s about us up to date! We’re not expecting to have internet access in Kenya or Botswana, which could mean our next post will be from Cape Town, South Africa on the 3rd or 4th of August. If we’re lucky, we might get to upload some posts from Victoria Falls around the 25th July, but that might not be possible. So don’t send out the search parties until August….

After returning to the hotel in the wee small hours, we sleep late, and don’t wander lazily down to our now-traditional breakfast hang-out until about 11am. We love Café da Capo for its simple little sandwiches (smoked salmon, prosciutto/tomato/cheese, ham/cheese), good coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. Perhaps best of all, it’s self-service so we can avoid being put off by nonchalant Greek waiters. Brash pigeons scurry around your feet to catch your crumbs, as you try to strategically maneuver yourself to avoid being in the direct line of the Greek chain-smoker invariably sitting right next to you. But we wouldn’t change it for the world. For a moment, just a moment, we can forget we are tourists and observe the daily routine of ‘real’ Athenians.

Fueled, we leave Emma by the pool, and head out in the full heat of the day to visit the Panathenaic Stadium. It’s quite well known as the venue for the first ‘modern’ Olympic Games in 1896, but it turns out that games were held at the site since about 330 BC! That’s a very long time ago. Anyway, perhaps to protect it from the graffiti that has infected just about every other inch of Athens, the gates to the stadium are closed, and we are allowed only to admire the structure from one end. Not to be deterred by the Greeks clear desire to keep us out of the stadium, Lloyd and D’ell decide to host their own mini-Olympics. I’m happy to announce that no Americans, Brits or indeed Greek tourist police were harmed in the making of the following video.

We wander back to the hotel through the National Gardens which offer some welcome shade from the 2pm sun. The return to AC is too much for me, and I fall asleep practically within minutes while Lloyd backs up photos (the loss of the camera very fresh in his mind!) and sorts out some gear to send back to London with D’ell.

In anticipation of a late dinner, Lloyd and I wander to the nearby taverna to snack on Greek salad and tzatziki. We were here just two days ago, after our trip on the ‘funk’ular (funicular) to the top of Lycabettus Hill. After our feast (I just LOVE Mediterranean tomatoes), we start to head out the door, but are stopped by our hosts – two white-haired gentlemen – who are offering us some home-made baklava. To be honest, until this point, these two guys have been quite stern towards us, but now they are beaming with pride as they offer us a plate of baklava (not on the menu, by the way) and two forks.

Lloyd is in heaven, proclaiming it the best baklava he has ever tasted, much to the delight of our hosts. True to my commitment to be a little more adventurous on the food-front, I try it and can appreciate the crisp filo and sweet honey-nut dessert. A moment of kindness from our hosts that we will never forget.

We rendez-vous with D’ell and Emma close to 8pm, and head back up Lycabettus Hill on the ‘funk’ular railway. It’s a lot busier than it was the first time we were here (two days ago), with sunset looming and most of Athens bathed in the day’s last moments of light. With this red-gold filter, and from our perch above the city, Athens could be the most beautiful city in the world.

There are a couple of dining options atop Lycabettus and we are lucky to secure a table overlooking the city, where we enjoy a bottle of champagne and appreciate the sunset. Given its location, we assume this is a tourist trap, but the food is surprisingly good. Tonight, the Rapsani (wine) is going down particularly easily, and we surprise ourselves by ordering bottle #3 before dessert! Even better, our first bottle apparently depletes the supply of 2001 Rapsani, and the next two bottles are 2000. Lloyd and D’ell are convinced that the 2000 is superior. For my part, after a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine, I’m not quite sure I can tell the difference.

Hangover, anyone?