Africa Safaris & Culture

Although we had already ventured into Northern Africa while in Egypt, we weren't content with covering so little of this huge continent. Sub-Saharan Africa was calling us. We would have come here straight from Egypt, except that we had made the sailing commitment in Greece that didn't allow us to order our time to fit in the Middle East and safari Africa together. Not to worry, though, because the delay gave time for the rains to calm down, making wildlife viewing much better.

From Rome we caught a flight to Nairobi, Kenya where we landed at four in the morning without any plans at all. Luckily, the airport was swarming with budget safari operators. Although it was difficult to sort through the various offerings, we eventually picked a safari operator and found ourselves on the way to Kenya's Masai Mara Park just a few short hours after landing. The Masai Mara is famous for the huge amounts of wildlife it hosts, including the dangerous "Big Five," coveted trophy animals for hunters and photographers alike. They include: Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant, and Rhino. We were fortunate to see all of them! (We spotted Rhino in a nearby national park, Lake Nakuru, not in the Masai Mara).

Although this male lion is passively lazing around during daytime, they are quite active at night. We saw several lion kills during our time in Africa and even saw them in the process of stalking and chasing water buck and zebra at one point, but the lions did not make the kill. They didn't look like they were trying very hard for the last charge, but they must be doing their work at night.


We were lucky to snap this shot of the elusive leopard.


The main reason we were able to find this animal is because the leopard had deposited the remains of last night's hunting in a tree overhead.


These aggressive buffalo are close relatives of the cow, but infinitely more dangerous. Although lions occasionally attack them, they are fearless fighters, and will even defend other buffalo against lion attacks.


Elephants are the largest land animals on earth, with bulls sometimes weighing as much as 26,000 pounds! Big as the bulls are, it's the women who run things in a matriarchal order. Elephants are also rarely, if ever, prey for other animals. Even though they are herbivores, they are one of the most dangerous animals in the wild due to their sheer size!


We had to be careful around the elephants, as they can easily flip over our vehicle if we disturbed them. It was fun how close we got to them as well as to all the animals - as you can get an idea of below. Mothers, who go through 22 long months of gestation are particularly irritable and protective of their young.


The Rhino is a highly endangered animal due to demand for it's horn and other body parts, some of which are believed to be powerful aphrodesiacs or medicinal. We were fortunate to take a close-up look at these animals in Lake Nakuru Park in Kenya.


Kenyan Lake Nakuru's salty waters also hosts millions of pink flamingos.


There were so many birds that the lake appeared to have a floating, pink doughnut ringing it's fringe. It was so beautiful!


Giraffes begin life with a 6 foot drop out of mother, and it gets even higher from there. These gentle herbivores grow up 17-20 feet high and bulls can weigh in at 2,600 pounds, comfortably eating tree leaves that elude lesser creatures. Interestingly, they're difficult prey for lions, as they have a powerful kick. One way a lion may catch them, though, is by grabbing them by the neck when the giraffe holds his head down to munch on grass rather than leafy trees. Giraffes have a difficult time managing the blood pressure build-up that occurs in their head if forced to stay low for too long due to their long neck and high-up heart, so the giraffe quickly succumbs to the lion.


The zebra's black stripes confuse would be predators when they're in a group. These smart creatures have done well and were very abundant across Africa. They are the leaders of the path for the annual migrations to food sources.


Wildebeast, or Gnu, are incredible because of their sheer numbers . It is the annual migration of 3.5 million Gnu that makes visiting Masai Mara particularly inspiring! We also enjoyed our guide's comment that this was his favorite animal because they are so "dumb." He finds them entertaining because they are frequent meals for lions as they never learn better to stay away! They'll graze right up next to a lion.


We loved the hairdoo on this pumba (warthog.) He's got sweet meat for the lion, but is rarely bothered due to his nasty tusks. However, when he is being chased, he has been known to have a terrible memory, forgetting that he's being chased, and resume feeding. In this event, he becomes a tasty snack for the predator.


The Hyena has an undeserved bad reputation after the movie Lion King. These sucessful predators have jaws strong enough to chew up the teeth of other animals. They not only hunt well, but can even take on male lions in groups. That said, this guy is about to fill his belly on a buffalo killed by a group of nearby lions the night before. Be careful walking in the African bush, as hyenas have the potential to bite off human hands swinging in stride.


Tanzania's Ngorogoro crater is an amazing microcosm of African wildlife. It was very cold due to the high elevation. We didn't expect Africa to be cold, but it rarely got above 70 in the day anywhere, and dipped into the high 30's several times! But we can't complain as it's easier to put on a jacket than burn up; it was mostly just pleasantly surprising to enjoy such nice weather.


Kenya's Masai Mara National Park is the Kenyan section of the Serengetti, which is shared between Kenya and Tanzania. It is full of all types of wildlife, and full of the Masai People. The increasing populations of the Masai settlements, along with other increasing uses of the national park lands has lead to some land conflict and conservation challenges.


The Masai are famed warriors and display their prowess by jumping, singing, and dancing. We took some time to jump along with the best of them. Rusty tried his hardest to prove that he was a capable jumper but he failed to gain the full approval of the warriors.
















No trip would be complete to Nairobi without stopping by "The Carnivore." This restaurant serves up skewers of African meats and domestic meats. They no longer serve wildebeast and zebra, but crocodile and ostrich are still on the menu.




We enjoyed meeting some new friends who accompanied us to "The Carnivore."


We found the people of Kenya delightful. In one instance, we were humored when a young man exchanging our money asked "are you on amazing race?!" We also enjoyed some of the "God" advertising we noticed. "God's Grace Driving School" and "God's Will Beauty Salon" struck us as particularly fine examples.

Travelling during and after the 2008 presidential elections has also been a very interesting experience. In Brazil, during the lead-up to the US election, we learned that would-be politicians were changing their name to Obama. Nowhere was Obama fever more prominent than in Kenya. Obama is 1/2 Kenya, with roots in the Luo tribe. According to local sources, his paternal grandmother still lives there. During the election, a lot of people in Obama's home region took time off work to attend voting polls which were set up for the locals to cast their votes in relation to the US election. No need to say who won the Kenyan vote. When telling people where we are from, we always heard the exuberant response "Obama! We share Obama with America." In one conversation, a guy asked where we were from and when we told him, he responded "Oh, Obamaland!"

In another funny yet kind of disturbing experience, Rusty suggested that an employee turn off an idling bus, spewing out lung choking fumes, since the departure time was still 3 hours away. After numerous requests, it was exasperating to hear him repeatedly respond "yes, one must not waste," but he still failed to switch it off. Eventually, Rusty asked "you are just saying that aren't you? You don't really intend to do anything?" The young man responded with a smug "yeah." Finally, Rusty got a different person to turn it off.

As we mention frequently, we are reading loads of literature while traveling. Africa was no exception, and Rusty read an intriquing book about the rise of modern Africa from its colonialist roots, "The State of Africa" by Martin Meredith. Needless to say, Africa has seen more than its share of autrocities, autocracies, and corruption of epic proportions. From  leaders siphoning off 100's of millions of dollars to their personal private bank accounts to dictators dining on the hacked up bodies of their rivals, this continent has seen it all.  We leave hoping that the beautiful people of Africa will one day find peace and prosperity.