Ngorongoro and the Serengiti
Showing posts with label African Safari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African Safari. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 April 2013
African Safari III
Amboseli National Park
The guide books say this park lies nestled under the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro. The three days we were there, we barely saw the mountain, shrouded as it was by thick clouds.
As we drove out of Nairobi, and along long straight highways, we began to get an idea of the expanse that Africa is. Wide flat plains stretch on either side of the road for miles on end, as far as the eye can see, ending only on the horizon where the land meets the sky. Clear blue cloudless skies for the most part, and glorious sunshine. The weather was glorious on the way out, although we encountered rain off and on during the three days at Amboseli ... rain that sometimes had the driver scurrying to lower the roof of our safari vehicle. At other times, we preferred to let the drizzle in, the clear sight of the flat Amboseli plains and the animals in the distance was more than enough to compensate for the slight dampness.
Amboseli is an elephant conservation park ... and we saw lots of elephants. Starting with our hotel, the Serena Lodge, where as we waited to check in, we saw in the distance, a herd of wild elephants graze in what could loosely be termed the backyard of the lodge. And then every single day ... herds and herds ... grazing among the plains, near swampy areas, wherever there was some tree cover to be found, the elephants found it first.
Also spotted a cheetah the first day ... and then three the very next day ... the three were on a hunting mission near a pack of antelopes and gazelles. It seemed their mind was not on the hunt, for they were half-hearted about it ... and gave up fairly quickly. And we watched it all through excellent camera lenses which brought the animals almost to within touching distance.
Also realised the excellent camouflage the coat of the cheetah provides in the sandy grassy plains of the Savannah. I had read it in geography books, but when I failed to spot the cheetah in a sandy rocky patch, until it actually rose and started moving, only then was I able to appreciate how brilliantly Nature has provided the camouflage for her creatures.
Another prize spot one afternoon ... a lioness with her two cubs ... barely fifty yards off the track. The park radio is effective ... barely is an animal 'spotted', and the word goes out ... within minutes there are almost forty-fifty vehicles lined up along the dirt track, all with tops raised, as their occupants gaze at the animals and shoot them ... with their cameras. S was happy that his lenses got almost as many looks as the animals did! And even happier that he got great pictures, both father and son did.
Ostriches were remarkable spots the first, but we saw them every day thereafter, so after a while we stopped taking pictures. The same with the gazelles, antelopes and wildebeest. The clown cranes always excited interest, though ... always spotted in pairs, with their unusual, very flamboyant coloring, they were a colorful contrast to both the green grass, and to the sandy brown plains.
The guide books say this park lies nestled under the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro. The three days we were there, we barely saw the mountain, shrouded as it was by thick clouds.
As we drove out of Nairobi, and along long straight highways, we began to get an idea of the expanse that Africa is. Wide flat plains stretch on either side of the road for miles on end, as far as the eye can see, ending only on the horizon where the land meets the sky. Clear blue cloudless skies for the most part, and glorious sunshine. The weather was glorious on the way out, although we encountered rain off and on during the three days at Amboseli ... rain that sometimes had the driver scurrying to lower the roof of our safari vehicle. At other times, we preferred to let the drizzle in, the clear sight of the flat Amboseli plains and the animals in the distance was more than enough to compensate for the slight dampness.
Amboseli is an elephant conservation park ... and we saw lots of elephants. Starting with our hotel, the Serena Lodge, where as we waited to check in, we saw in the distance, a herd of wild elephants graze in what could loosely be termed the backyard of the lodge. And then every single day ... herds and herds ... grazing among the plains, near swampy areas, wherever there was some tree cover to be found, the elephants found it first.
Also spotted a cheetah the first day ... and then three the very next day ... the three were on a hunting mission near a pack of antelopes and gazelles. It seemed their mind was not on the hunt, for they were half-hearted about it ... and gave up fairly quickly. And we watched it all through excellent camera lenses which brought the animals almost to within touching distance.
Also realised the excellent camouflage the coat of the cheetah provides in the sandy grassy plains of the Savannah. I had read it in geography books, but when I failed to spot the cheetah in a sandy rocky patch, until it actually rose and started moving, only then was I able to appreciate how brilliantly Nature has provided the camouflage for her creatures.
Another prize spot one afternoon ... a lioness with her two cubs ... barely fifty yards off the track. The park radio is effective ... barely is an animal 'spotted', and the word goes out ... within minutes there are almost forty-fifty vehicles lined up along the dirt track, all with tops raised, as their occupants gaze at the animals and shoot them ... with their cameras. S was happy that his lenses got almost as many looks as the animals did! And even happier that he got great pictures, both father and son did.
Ostriches were remarkable spots the first, but we saw them every day thereafter, so after a while we stopped taking pictures. The same with the gazelles, antelopes and wildebeest. The clown cranes always excited interest, though ... always spotted in pairs, with their unusual, very flamboyant coloring, they were a colorful contrast to both the green grass, and to the sandy brown plains.
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
African Safari II
First day in Nairobi includes a trip to feed giraffes and a visit to Karen Blixen's home.
Giraffe Manor, an old manor stands grandly amidst acres of smooth green lawns, surrounded by scratchy jungles, which house protected herds of giraffes. The manor is a five star hotel, horrendously expensive, N informs us, where we can visit for high tea in typical British tradition, or enjoy lunch or dinner ... but reservations are needed. The food is secondary to the beautiful views from the manor dining room, and the biggest draw is of course the giraffes that stroll regularly across the lawns, and occasionally peep into the dining room. They seem to be as curious as the visitors who frantically scramble for cameras to capture this once-in-a-lifetime experience of giraffes in your dining room.
But we don't venture there, we move to the feeding platform. Yes, a platform is needed, given the height of giraffes :) An affable Kenyan guide hands out small packets of giraffe food, and tells us each visitor is allowed only two packets. They don't want to overfeed the giraffes.
The giraffes apparently don't agree. One sweet giraffe, Helen, happily nuzzled all the visitors crowded onto the platform and ate the bites proffered by each one.
Giraffes have black tongues. They really do! Long sticky black tongues that snake out of their mouths to pick up the pellets that we hold out to them.
I wish I had carried my hand sanitizer!
A and D have the time of their lives feeding Helen for as long as she wants to eat. This was really a once in a lifetime experience for them, and they didn't want to miss a moment of it.
Giraffes also have beautiful liquid eyes and long thick eyelashes any woman would die for!
Some warthogs are hanging around the platform, happy to eat the pellets that fall while the giraffes are being fed.
After Helen finally loses interest in the food and wanders off, we decide to leave. No other giraffe seems to be venturing near the platform.
Next stop ... Karen Blixen's home. Karen Blixen is the author a over a dozen books, her most famous one is Out Of Africa, which was of course made into a major motion picture with the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. I saw the movie in childhood, and still remember the stunning landscapes of Africa I first saw there.
A quaint stone cottage set in deep green, landscaped lawns, a very old fashioned kitchen, the bedrooms of Karen and her husband ... hers much bigger and better furnished than his ... a study, a library, a dining room still with the table set for dinner ... the old European settlers who moved to Africa lived in comparative luxury and comfort. Yet how would they have felt, living so far away from any countrymen, in such alien situations? It takes a certain kind of courage and a different mindset to be able to move and live so far away from home, and everything familiar. And how lonely would Karen have been?
She had an affair with another man - out of loneliness? Or was it because of an unhappy marriage? S and I remark on how 'modern and liberated' she was, to have an affair, G sees nothing strange or out of the ordinary. Seems we Indians still inherently disapprove of extra-marital affairs regardless of circumstances.
A late lunch at another very nice restaurant, very 'British expat' in both ambience and clientale ... I begin to see what living in India in British times must have been like for the British.
And we reached home tired and satisfied with the day. Dinner at home Indian food cooked by N's Kenyan maid, followed by a movie on TV ... a good start to the holiday!
Giraffe Manor, an old manor stands grandly amidst acres of smooth green lawns, surrounded by scratchy jungles, which house protected herds of giraffes. The manor is a five star hotel, horrendously expensive, N informs us, where we can visit for high tea in typical British tradition, or enjoy lunch or dinner ... but reservations are needed. The food is secondary to the beautiful views from the manor dining room, and the biggest draw is of course the giraffes that stroll regularly across the lawns, and occasionally peep into the dining room. They seem to be as curious as the visitors who frantically scramble for cameras to capture this once-in-a-lifetime experience of giraffes in your dining room.
But we don't venture there, we move to the feeding platform. Yes, a platform is needed, given the height of giraffes :) An affable Kenyan guide hands out small packets of giraffe food, and tells us each visitor is allowed only two packets. They don't want to overfeed the giraffes.
The giraffes apparently don't agree. One sweet giraffe, Helen, happily nuzzled all the visitors crowded onto the platform and ate the bites proffered by each one.
Giraffes have black tongues. They really do! Long sticky black tongues that snake out of their mouths to pick up the pellets that we hold out to them.
I wish I had carried my hand sanitizer!
A and D have the time of their lives feeding Helen for as long as she wants to eat. This was really a once in a lifetime experience for them, and they didn't want to miss a moment of it.
Giraffes also have beautiful liquid eyes and long thick eyelashes any woman would die for!
Some warthogs are hanging around the platform, happy to eat the pellets that fall while the giraffes are being fed.
After Helen finally loses interest in the food and wanders off, we decide to leave. No other giraffe seems to be venturing near the platform.
Next stop ... Karen Blixen's home. Karen Blixen is the author a over a dozen books, her most famous one is Out Of Africa, which was of course made into a major motion picture with the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. I saw the movie in childhood, and still remember the stunning landscapes of Africa I first saw there.
A quaint stone cottage set in deep green, landscaped lawns, a very old fashioned kitchen, the bedrooms of Karen and her husband ... hers much bigger and better furnished than his ... a study, a library, a dining room still with the table set for dinner ... the old European settlers who moved to Africa lived in comparative luxury and comfort. Yet how would they have felt, living so far away from any countrymen, in such alien situations? It takes a certain kind of courage and a different mindset to be able to move and live so far away from home, and everything familiar. And how lonely would Karen have been?
She had an affair with another man - out of loneliness? Or was it because of an unhappy marriage? S and I remark on how 'modern and liberated' she was, to have an affair, G sees nothing strange or out of the ordinary. Seems we Indians still inherently disapprove of extra-marital affairs regardless of circumstances.
A late lunch at another very nice restaurant, very 'British expat' in both ambience and clientale ... I begin to see what living in India in British times must have been like for the British.
And we reached home tired and satisfied with the day. Dinner at home Indian food cooked by N's Kenyan maid, followed by a movie on TV ... a good start to the holiday!
Sunday, 20 January 2013
African Safari I
Don't know if it was the best thing to do - kids arrived on 23rd Dec morning, and we left for Nairobi on 24th Dec night. So they did a 12 hour time leap east, and then 6 hours west ... their body clocks must have been thoroughly confused!
Doha airport, Qatar ... Qatar Airways seems to be doing their best to wean away traffic from Emirates. They seem to be succeeding too. Airport under renovation ... we had to take a bus to the waiting terminal. A bus!!! Who uses buses nowadays, with all the air corridors?!
All right, the airport is under renovation, they explain. And the transit terminal is certainly adequate, and shows promise.
A hot chocolate from the coffee shop revives the kids and me. S prefers to prowl the shops and the airport lounges. Free and fast wifi makes the wait pleasant ... out come two laptops and two iPads. So much for an internet free holiday!
Nairobi airport. A reminder that Africa is indeed a poor continent (so what if we paid first world rates for the safari hotels!) The airport reminds me of Delhi airport in its pre-refurbished days ... scratch that ... it reminds me more of Bhutan, Paro airport twenty years ago. See a mixture of races waiting at the Immigration line ... and for the first time, we notice the number of Indians. Had forgotten that Kenya has a big Indian population. It's a sight that we will continue to see all through our stay.
Immigration ... A and D hadn't got their tourist visas, S and I had. Turns out we needn't have bothered, they were through the Visa on Arrival line faster than us. Our Immigration officer took ages to clear the three men ahead of us, though he waved us through quickly enough. Fingerprints and photograph on arrival ... hmm, maybe not as backward as I thought.
N and her fiance G waiting for us with the safari car. A forty minute drive through the outskirts of town to her apartment, and as we drive, it hits us ... we are in Africa!
Wide open spaces, flat grasslands as far as the eye can see ... such a difference from the tall cement jungles and ever present up and down roads of Hong Kong. And the sky ... such a clear blue! It strikes us again how polluted Hong Kong is ... something we tend to forget, living there all the time.
N's apartment is beautiful, cool, golden brown walls, wide balconies and open windows. Grills on all the windows remind us that Nairobi is not such a safe city to live. But the complex is pretty, the apartment equally so, the rooms spacious ... N is well settled. Lovely to see the little girl I first saw as a roly poly chatterbox five year old, grown into this poised, beautiful, smart and confident young lady, who's doing so well in life.
First day we settle down and get to know her fiance. Tall, good looking, bright blue eyes ... is he good enough for our precious girl? We decide he is ... A and D take to him instantly. He's quiet and serious to start with, but opens up with the mad S family slowly.
N had planned a festive Christmas dinner at a well known restaurant nearby, with the interesting name "Carnivore". It promises exactly what it delivers. We're all pretty adventurous, and try almost everything on the menu ... S and I balk at ox balls, but A and D are in the mood to try everything. Yep, ox balls are exactly what they say they are. One bite is enough ... after all, they can now truthfully claim they've tasted them. Ostrich and crocodile meat is as far as I'm prepared to go!
Tomorrow we plan a trip to feed giraffes. Tonight jet lag finally catches up.
Doha airport, Qatar ... Qatar Airways seems to be doing their best to wean away traffic from Emirates. They seem to be succeeding too. Airport under renovation ... we had to take a bus to the waiting terminal. A bus!!! Who uses buses nowadays, with all the air corridors?!
All right, the airport is under renovation, they explain. And the transit terminal is certainly adequate, and shows promise.
A hot chocolate from the coffee shop revives the kids and me. S prefers to prowl the shops and the airport lounges. Free and fast wifi makes the wait pleasant ... out come two laptops and two iPads. So much for an internet free holiday!
Nairobi airport. A reminder that Africa is indeed a poor continent (so what if we paid first world rates for the safari hotels!) The airport reminds me of Delhi airport in its pre-refurbished days ... scratch that ... it reminds me more of Bhutan, Paro airport twenty years ago. See a mixture of races waiting at the Immigration line ... and for the first time, we notice the number of Indians. Had forgotten that Kenya has a big Indian population. It's a sight that we will continue to see all through our stay.
Immigration ... A and D hadn't got their tourist visas, S and I had. Turns out we needn't have bothered, they were through the Visa on Arrival line faster than us. Our Immigration officer took ages to clear the three men ahead of us, though he waved us through quickly enough. Fingerprints and photograph on arrival ... hmm, maybe not as backward as I thought.
N and her fiance G waiting for us with the safari car. A forty minute drive through the outskirts of town to her apartment, and as we drive, it hits us ... we are in Africa!
Wide open spaces, flat grasslands as far as the eye can see ... such a difference from the tall cement jungles and ever present up and down roads of Hong Kong. And the sky ... such a clear blue! It strikes us again how polluted Hong Kong is ... something we tend to forget, living there all the time.
N's apartment is beautiful, cool, golden brown walls, wide balconies and open windows. Grills on all the windows remind us that Nairobi is not such a safe city to live. But the complex is pretty, the apartment equally so, the rooms spacious ... N is well settled. Lovely to see the little girl I first saw as a roly poly chatterbox five year old, grown into this poised, beautiful, smart and confident young lady, who's doing so well in life.
First day we settle down and get to know her fiance. Tall, good looking, bright blue eyes ... is he good enough for our precious girl? We decide he is ... A and D take to him instantly. He's quiet and serious to start with, but opens up with the mad S family slowly.
N had planned a festive Christmas dinner at a well known restaurant nearby, with the interesting name "Carnivore". It promises exactly what it delivers. We're all pretty adventurous, and try almost everything on the menu ... S and I balk at ox balls, but A and D are in the mood to try everything. Yep, ox balls are exactly what they say they are. One bite is enough ... after all, they can now truthfully claim they've tasted them. Ostrich and crocodile meat is as far as I'm prepared to go!
Tomorrow we plan a trip to feed giraffes. Tonight jet lag finally catches up.
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