Safari!

Safari is a Swahili word for “man who blunders around the bush and scares the animals…” no, really it means “journey” and what a journey we had! This will be a longer posting than usual, so fasten your seats belts and hang on!

Just saying the word Safari conjures up images of rolling savanna, herds of wild animals, hot, hot days with cool nights, seeing Kilimanjaro every time you look to the west or the south, and…I could go on and on and on…but I digress. We did see Kilimanjaro, but from afar – more about that later.

We arrived at Mombasa and we left Mombasa as soon as the ship docked. We were immediately taken to the airport for a charter plane hop to the Galdessa Camp located just north of the Kenya-Tanzania border in the Tsavo East Game Reserve, the largest in Africa. The plane was a twelve-seat, single-engine Cessna, plus pilot and co-pilot. Fortunately, there were only twelve of us, so no one had to be lashed to the fuselage… It was a quick, 40-minute flight at about 6500’ from Mombasa to Manyani, the local airport serving Tsavo East.

Getting on the plane in Mombasa at left; the dirt strip where we landed in Tsave Reserve; our chariot for three days (we need to remember pillows next time).

Actually, I am dignifying it by calling it an airport. It was a dirt strip in the middle of nowhere that the pilot had to make a pass over to assure there were no animals grazing. The landing was uneventful – actually, we have had commercial landings that were harder and bouncier than this little plane. Once we stopped and began to unload, we were able to see that the landing strip was indeed a grazing area for a lot of the local wildlife. The markers were quite evident – large piles of dung from various species, some of which appeared to be still steaming… We soon learned to identify the various herds by the size, color, shape, and composition of the dung. An education that I am sure will assist in my real world life…

Our first glimpse of the Galdessa Camp on the left; the main lodge center and right.

Clockwise from top left: On the way to our luxury accommodations; the bucket shower (this is only a simulation...)The main bedroom and observation deck from the river bank; a closeup of the main room. 

The first of our five game drives began immediately as we were on the ground at about 9:30 AM and were not expected at the camp until about 12:30 PM, so we would have about a three-hour game drive for our introduction to the area. After entering the Reserve, we were not on the road for more than ten minutes when we spotted our first game – a small herd of zebra. It was eerie. We stopped and snapped photos, and whispered among ourselves, and looked at them, and I swear that if they had had cameras, they would have been snapping at us as well. They just stood and looked at us and kept on grazing and twitching at flies. We were not more than about 50 yards away.

Then followed a small herd of elephants, impala, several pairs of Dik-Diks (small deer that mate for life and always are found in pairs), and several giraffe. Although a lot of the sightings were at some distance, many of the animals were less than 50 yards from the jeep.

Galdessa Camp is what you would call “glamping” rather than camping. Emphasis on the “gl” for glamour. Actually, that is a misnomer as well. There was no hot water, no electric plugs in the “tents,” and we immediately learned that rule number one was that we could not be outside either our tent or the main lodge without a “walker.” The walker’s job was to assure that we did no harm to any animal that might stray across our path, such as an elephant, hippo, or other local resident. OK, it was really the other way around. The camp is truly in the middle of the reserve’s grazing area and there are no fences or other artificial separations between us measly humans and the real landlords of the area. At night we found that several Masai warriors were added to the list of walkers. The regular walkers only carried flashlights and whistles. The Masai carried lances – large, heavy, iron lances which we were told they could thrust accurately as a distance of less than several feet. Each boy must take part in a lion hunt using only one of these lances as part of the rite of passage to manhood. We felt very safe with them.

Clockwise from top left: Our Ranger, Juma, our Guide, Rolem, and our Tracker, Kocha. Kocha is 83 years old and could ourwalk, outbend, and outdo all of us; our Masai night walker, Shikio, and our day walker, David; our driver/guide, Dixson and his "baby"; the boys waiting when we got back from a game drive or walkabout.

I won’t bore you with descriptions of the meals except to say that the food and service were on a par with any three- or four-star restaurant. We had a choice of entrees, and beer, wine, or bottled water.

After our brief check-in and indoctrination to the camp rules, we had time for a short nap and then we met again at the lodge to take our first evening game drive. The best game drives are either in the early morning or the early evening. That is when the animals come out to feed, water, and play since it is just too hot and oppressive during the middle of the day.

The evening drive gave us another opportunity to view more elephants, zebra, impala, baboons, water buck, crocs, a wild cat (sort of like an ocelot), and a very large turtle sunning on a log. We also got an excellent view of the Yatta Lava Flow, the longest continuous lave flow in the world at about 300 km long. The lave flow is a ridge running north to south at an average elevation of several hundred feet above the savannah plain and is unique geologically.

As we were heading back toward the lodge, our driver, Dixson, stopped and said “do you smell that?” Of course, we all quieted down and started sniffing the air thinking that perhaps there was yet another species of animal dung that we had not had an opportunity to include in our repertoire… He drove slowly around a sharp bend and went off-road for a few feet and stopped. There, spread before us was the lava flow, the setting sun, and a “sundowner” set up in the bush. The sundowner is a full bar, bar snacks, tables and chairs all set up on a gentle slope that afforded a view of the setting sun while contemplating the virtues of the local brew, or wine, or beer, or whiskey, or whatever suits one’s taste. WOW!

Our sundowner. What an experience!

Then back to the lodge for dinner and bed. Tomorrow would be an early start for the morning game drive: 5:30 AM wake-up call.

The first night in the tent proved to be interesting. Since there was only the main generator that went off after dinner and since each tent had only a small solar panel to generate the tent’s electricity, we couldn't read or play cards, so the only thing to do was to sleep. Easier said than done. It was pitch black. I mean PITCH BLACK. It was also noisy: hums, hisses, grunts, rumbles, snorts, splashes. And that was outside the tent. If one had to get up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature, one had to use the provided flashlight to stumble around the tent and get to the bathroom. Fortunately, it was in the tent. However, it was only separated from the “jungle” outside by three walls of screening. Talk about freaking out…

The next morning we had a walking safari. That is, we loaded into the jeeps after coffee and were driven several kilometers up the road to the site of Lugard’s Falls. I believe Lugard was the explorer that discovered the place. The water in the river was low and we could walk out onto the rocks and explore the general area. We were first introduced to our guide, our tracker, and our Ranger. The guide was, of course, to guide the party along the way. The tracker was to look for tracks, “read the dung,” demonstrate making fire with his bare hands (and two sticks), and generally give us some jungle lore. The Ranger was a member of the Kenya Wildlife Service Ranger Corps. He was the only one armed with more than courage, a smile, and the knowledge that any one of us only had to run faster than any other one of us… He carried an AR-15 Rifle and about twenty extra clips. I am not sure if that meant that he was well-equipped to handle any herd of anything that might cause us stress or if he was just a bad shot with plenty of ammo. Fortunately, we never had to find out.

From left: a shot of Mt. Kilimanjaro - we didn't get there because it's about 75 miles away, but it sure is impressive; Kocha, the Tracker, making fire; a shot of the type of landscape we were walking and riding through.

The walk took over two hours over some pretty rough terrain. Definitely not for the faint of heart or the out-of-shape. Fortunately, I am in shape – round is definitely a shape.

About halfway through the walk, we were walking along the riverbank and came upon a herd of hippo bathing. There were about 20-25 of them and I couldn't help but notice that the Ranger had unslung his rifle and was carrying it at ready arms. The first rule of the walk was that you could get ahead of the guide or the Ranger, but you never, never get ahead of the tracker. Now we understood why. We were only about 30-40 feet from the hippo and they were curious about us. They did not appear to be aggressive, but the guide told us that they could sprint for short distances at up to 60 KPH.

After walking back up the hillside from the river, we found the jeeps waiting for us to take us back to the lodge for breakfast. As we drove back we again had an opportunity to see more animals and shortly before we got to the lodge, Dixson stopped and said he wanted to take as quick look at a trail branch for hyena that had been seen in the area. As soon as we went off-road, we discovered that breakfast was to be a “bush breakfast.” Just like the sundowner the prior evening, we had tables, chairs, a small buffet of juice and cereal and, off a little way in the trees, a field kitchen set up for eggs and omelets, bacon, and sausage.

The bush breakfast setup.

After breakfast, we stopped at the lodge for a quick pit stop and then another short game drive before lunch. After lunch, a nap. After nap another longer game drive to look for lions. Apparently, due to a dry spell, a lot of the larger animals had moved further away from the river to forage and find water. We had to drive an additional 40 KM to an area where Dixson had heard there were lion sightings. The drive was typical of what we had had with the addition of wild dogs, gazelles, hyenas, ostrich, and more elephants and giraffe. As we approached to general areas where lions had been spotted in prior days, we came on a large troop of really big baboons. One had a small baby on her back that Dixson believed to be about 2-3 months old.

We slowed after that and began looking for lions. We noticed that for the first time that there were jeeps from other lodges in the area as well – apparently, everyone got the word about the lions. Sure enough, about 15 or 20 minutes into the watch, Dixson whispered “look at that clump of grass between the large green bushes.” There is was – a lion head! Perhaps only another bunch of grass… No! A lion, but far away – probably about a 500-750 feet. How he spotted that is beyond us, but that is why they are the guides…

As a courtesy, he radioed one of the other jeeps about the location and they all converged on the area. Big mistake! One of them cowboyed his jeep off the road and into the grass to make the lion get up and run in hopes of getting better pictures. The lion did get up and did run and we found that there were two of them and we got some pix. The good news is that the lions did not appear to be too stressed and the jerk that went off-road got stuck (with six passengers aboard) and his buddy that went in to try to push him out also got stuck (with another six passengers). We left and they might still be stuck…

As we left the area to return to the lodge, Dixson explained that going off-road subjects the driver to a fine based on the number of passengers on board and the severity of the offense. The fines start at $300 USD per passenger. $300 might not seem like much to some of us, but multiply that by six passengers and possibly a surcharge based on where he was and that comes out to the better part of a year’s pay for the driver. It will probably cost him his job as well.

Once back at the lodge, we had dinner and to bed. Another early wake up as we were flying back out the next morning.

During the night, Bonnie had to get up and heard a snorting noise outside. She asked the Masai walker the next morning if there was a wild pig or some such last night and he said no, it was a hippo. He showed us the tracks just a few yards from the tent… Apparently, the hippos, baboons, hyenas, and other locals come up and wander through the camp at night on their way to feed in the grassy plain nearby. It was fortunate that we did not discover this little nugget of information until we were ready to leave…

After breakfast we drove back to Manyani airstrip, loaded on the Cessna, flew back to Mombasa. At the airport we were then loaded on a Five Forty Aviation commuter jet for the 40 minute flight to Zanzibar, Tanzania to meet the ship.

We took almost a thousand pictures during the three days and it took a lot of culling to come up with what I am going to post here. I saved all the animal pix for the end because it is easier to put them all here than to try to remember exactly what, where, and when we saw them.

Baboons. The baby is in the bottom two pictures.

Some of the exotic birds and a gecko-like lizard we encountered.

The Nile crocodile we stumbled on during our morning walkabout.

We saw two elephant herds, including the one with the baby on the bottom. The cows were very protective of the baby and surrounded it immediately as we drove up.

These are the famous Tsavo "red" elephants (with a baby). The red color is from the dust they cover themselves with to ward off parasites.

Gazelles. These are giraffe gazelles and not Thompson's gazelle that are commonly seen in zoos.

Do I even need to put a caption on these???

These were the hippos that we were about 30-40 feet away from. They look placid, but when they look right at you, it is enough to induce a puckering sensation ...

Hyenas. Very large and very scary. There were about a dozen in the pack.

These two male impala were "play" fighting as a way of establishing the pecking order in the herd.

Top two pix are impala and bottom two are water buck, a large antelope-like or deer-like like quadruped.

The lion we finally found. He really wanted to get away from the harassment of the other drivers.

Of course, the fellows with the colorful pajamas...zebra.

Well, we missed seeing much of Mombasa and we missed seeing much of Zanzibar, but we wouldn’t have traded it for anything!

I realize this post has been a long one and I appreciate your reading this far. We have a day at sea to recuperate, then a day in Mayotte followed by two days in Madagascar.

Stay tuned…