The rare horned zebra

From Arusha to Nairobi was an easy 5 hours on a coaster bus. Aside from the usual dusty detours the trip was uneventful. We were a little worried arriving in Nairobi as it has a pretty bad reputation, but were pleasantly surprised, once again proving that if you aim low you are unlikely to be disappointed! As usual we were adopted by a handful of safari touts immediately we set foot outside our hotel. They were a pretty helpful bunch though and are useful to help you find the various safari offices. Having visited a few, we booked 4 days in the Masai Mara and were off the next morning. Compared to Tanzania the safaris were much cheaper - $100/day with accommodation in a permanent tented camp including an ensuite.

The Masai Mara was amazing. There really is no other word for it. Amazing numbers of animals including vast herds of safari vans (8 seat vans with a pop-up roof). Our driver for the first two days wasn’t great, but we still managed to see a heap of lions, cheetah, rhino, elephant and all the usual antelope. For days 3 and 4 we switched drivers and the second fellow was a lot better. He was content to sit and let us watch the various animals for as long as we liked and we started the morning by spending a good half hour watching a trio of lions with a very freshly killed zebra. We were also lucky enough to see a serval in the afternoon and followed it for a while. We had lunch under a tree along the Mara river with a vast herd of wildebeest on the other side waiting to cross. Wildebeest may look stupid, but they have got the whole river crossing thing figured out – they wait for the zebra to go first and if they don’t get nailed by one of the dozen big crocs waiting for them, then they will have a go. Unfortunately we only got to see a couple of zebra crossing before the crocodile queue became a bit too obvious and the others decided to try and find another spot where there weren’t a heap of lizards smiling at them (my suggestion would be “not next to the dead hippo” as a starting point – but what do I know!?) So sadly for us, but happily for the zebra/wildebeest, we didn’t get to see any Discovery Channel style crocodile attacks although I certainly wouldn’t be recommending the river for a swim! With our new driver we also picked up a new set of punters, including a highly enthusiastic and excitable Indian guy and an older Israeli fellow. Having been animal watching for a while now it is easy to forget how cool it is, so it is good to have someone along on their first day or two to remind you.

I have long said that there is no such thing as stupid questions, just stupid people - and now this has proven to be true for Israelis as well. I am not sure which question was the most impressive, but I think it has to be “Is that a zebra?” as we were driving past a dead Masai cow (it was brown and complete with horns). I had to bite my tongue very hard not to answer that it was indeed a new sub-species of brown zebra which had sprouted horns – although tragically the only example now wasn’t looking very healthy. When it was pointed out that it was actually a cow – he asked how it got there, having just been taking pictures of Masai people pushing herds of several hundred cattle into the reserve as they have over-grazed their lands which are immediately adjacent. Perhaps he thought they were herds of horned zebra?

Anyway we are now in Mombasa, having decided to forgo our planned safari to Lake Turkana in northern Kenya due to the deteriorating security situation in the north resulting from an ongoing drought. Apparently the local pastoral people are shooting each other more than normal and seem happy to extend the welcome to anyone else who is misfortunate enough to wonder past. Our trip down to Mombasa was another memorable bus ride – the highlight being a dvd of a 2 hour Arabic opera sung by Saddam Hussein’s long lost twin brother (or Saddam himself if it was really his twin brother in that basement……). The ambiance was added to by an almost opaque orange tint on all the windows which meant that while you couldn’t see out to be terrified by how fast you were going, everything looked green when you got off until your traumatized eyes recovered. It was something like being trapped inside a rocket propelled orange whilst someone outside strangled one cat after another.

We are heading down the coast tomorrow to Diani Beach to do some over-priced diving – but apparently it is pretty nice and since we have opted out of a 10 day safari the budget has a bit of fat in it for a while. On the downside, someone has managed to steal Nicole’s email password and access her Paypal account and knocked off US$400. Should be able to get it back as it was unauthorized, but it is still a hassle. Gotta love dodgy internet cafes! The things we do to keep you lot up to date…..