Only in Kenya

So, based on a potentially factually inaccurate cartoon, no trip to Africa would be complete without visiting Kenya:

As mentioned, we flew out of Zanzibar very late, meaning we got to Nairobi late.  I think it was about 9pm.  It is dark, and it is raining very heavily.  The traffic was absolute chaos.  They don't appear to have bothered painting lines on the roads, because people would probably ignore them anyway.  Round-a-bouts involve pointing your car in the direction you want to go, leaning on the horn, and just driving that way, you can go in any direction from either the centre "lanes", or the outside "lanes" of the round-a-bout.  This results in very ineffective roundabouts.

Eventually we arrive at the hotel which we will depart from in the morning.  It's ok, but nothing special, I have nothing to add except that I think their 'Supreme of Chicken' gave me stomach problems...

A long bumpy ride

After breakfast, we set out for the Mara.  It is a long drive, on roads of questionable quality.  It takes us from about 7:30am to 1:30pm to get there.  Our first stop is this tourist trap:

Here the tourists try to get the perfect shot out over the Great Rift Valley, while the locals try to shove more of the same 'traditional' souvenirs down their throats.  As usual, I succumb to the pressure and buy something overpriced... someone is getting a line of seven elephants with useful swahili phrases carved into them, hope you look forward to it!  Simon has perfected the art of ignoring them.

Here is the view:

On we travel from this for several more hours.  The road is dirt, very very bumpy, but the scenery is reasonably nice.  When we arrive at the entrace gate to the game park we turn off to find our camp site.  The locals have made a horrible mess of the area before you enter the reserve, there is rubbish everywhere, it really looks and smells like a dump.  Given this is their "premier" game park reserve, I would think the government would put a little more effort into it, but this is Africa.

Inside the park is fairly close to pristine though, and on the first afternoon we have a few hours to go on our first drive.

Game Park Drive 1

Now, it seems that Disney may have raised my expectations a little beyond what was possible for the animals of the Massai Mara to achieve.  It was my understanding that the animals would be doing something like this:

While singing and dancing along, all in one place, to a sound track composed by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice, FANTASTIC!  Instead what I found was the animals to be spread very sparsely across the park, and mostly sleeping, or grazing slowly.  What a let down.

Day one animals included:

Wildebeast:

Antelope:

Zebra:

Zebra crossing:

Buffalo:

Mr Giraffe, who makes me laugh:

Elephants:

And apparently Baboons... I can't see them.

Everyone knows that horizontal stripes are not figure flattering... a few more hours on the stair master for you Mrs Zebra:

The so called "King of the Jungle" the lion, is apparently the most lethargic.

At one point, it appeared the male was going to do something exciting.  But instead he just got up, yawned, stretched, and went straight back to sleep.

And a leopard (not pictured).

End of Day 1.  This drive went for 2 -3 hours I think, and was pretty interesting most of the time, with the trips between animals made interesting by our completely mad driver.  However, in 2-3 hours we have seen just about every interesting animal with the exception of the rhino.  I start to wonder what could possibly lie waiting on a full 6-7 hour day drive.

Day 2

A long day.  Not helped by the fact that I am now suffering some mild stomach cramps which I still blame on the Supreme of Chicken in Nairobi.  As expected, it is a long day of seeing exactly the same animals sleeping and grazing.

We did get a good shot of the leopards today though:

Some ostriches:

And some lions who have half killed an antelope.  It keeps moving while they gnaw slowly away at it, it would seem Lions are actually quite cruel to their prey!

A long bumpy road away, we find the Mara River where apparently a few hundred Wildebeast are "about" to cross.

We wait there for about 2 hours I think for this to happen.  The wildebeast are perhaps being spooked by this guy:

And there is a lion waiting on the other side.

In the end we give up, the wildebeast have apparently decided the grass is not greener on the other side after all.

There were some hippos in the river as well:

Also present, crested cranes:

Pigs ("pumbas"):

One lizard:

And some gazelles:

That may seem like an action packed day.  It was not, there was a lot of just driving around doing nothing.

Day 3

Not photographed.  It was more of the above, plus a long hunt for a non-existent rhino.

I think safari game park drives would be a lot more interesting if they made these game parks significantly smaller. Then, at specified times, they should release a bunch of gazelles/wildebeast and let the lions chase them down.  And how about throwing in a nice bar and restaurant, and accommodation with views of all this.  No, I'm not talking about a zoo.

Okay, I'm talking about a zoo.  But a zoo in Africa, and still on the Massai Mara.  I want authentic, just convenient and catered authentic.  The long and short of it, in my opinion, is a safari is definitely worth doing as it is amazing to see such a diverse range of animals in the wild.  But only one, and for no more than 2 days.  I don't think I could have sat through another day of this so I am now content that I didn't see any other of the game parks.

We drive home in the afternoon.   Lunch is eaten at a tourist trap enroute where I buy a couple of other overpriced souvenirs.  Note, I am getting much better at haggling, but they're still a lot harder to budge on prices than the Thais.

Back in Nairobi, this is Simon's last night.  He leaves at about midnight, and I am to set off in the morning for the gorilla leg of my trip.

Here are some more animals photos for your viewing pleasure: