It’s goodbye to the plains today as we move on to Lake Nakaru. If you’ve ever seen those pictures of thousands of flamingos crowded over a lake – this is it!
There’s a road that takes us in a nice straight line from where we are in the Masai Mara, but William says the road is “very bad” and we can’t use it. Coming from him, I can hardly imagine the state of the road we want to use. So we must head back towards Nairobi, along the rocky, lumpy, crummy road we came on, and then head north west towards Lake Nakaru on the main road from Nairobi to Uganda. At least it’s all on sealed roads, but two sides of the triangle is very African. The impatience of most drivers on the Kenyan roads beggars belief, and the overtaking techniques are rivaled only by the Spanish, who like to make a road built for two cars wide, fit three cars when they choose.

We hit a rock too many on safari yesterday, and started the day with a leaking diff. The workshop at the lodge had us on the road only a couple of hours late.

The thing about a lot of third world countries is that there is always a construction department, but rarely a maintenance department. So in a nutshell, things are rarely serviced, painted or repaired. Like the guard rails along the precarious road edge, that have been wiped out by a vehicle (I hope it saved the driver), and remain a mangled mess. Or the toilets that once worked. The window that was once not broken. The bowser that used to pump diesel. The painted sign where the paint was once not peeled off. The road that once had no pot holes. All these things make it the experience we love.

So we made it to Lion Hill Lodge on the banks of Lake Nakaru, and here’s the deal on the flamingo thing. Due to the high rainfall this season, the lake is rather full. This presents two problems. One is the fact that the flamingos like the water knee deep (no sign of that) and the other is that the normally salty water is rather on the freshwater side due to being diluted by the rain. And that means that there’s not much algae to eat, which is what the flamingos like to eat, so they’ve upped and gone to some other lake. How’s that for annoying? Tourist based thinking that is.

Well, we’re not too fussed. William has “guaranteed” that we will see rhinoceroses here, and that’s a big call from any guide. He showed his colours today, when we went for a late afternoon safari.
The lions here are a different type to the ones in the Masai Mara. These lions  like to rest in trees, mainly on the low lying branches. This has contributed to the decline in the leopard population at this reserve because that’s what the leopards like to do. And it’s  quite rare to see a lion doing just that. But we came across two within 10 minutes driving today, and one had just awoken and wandered off into the bush. The other was still sleeping in the tree. There was an absolute traffic jam, as vans in both directions just stopped and jostled and generally made the Westgate Bridge in peak hour look like a good run. There is no where to pull off the track and get around the whole affair. And William just backed up to what looked like a really bad position to observe the lion. He said it would wake soon, and that when it did it would walk our way. And he was right. It was worth the wait. It was another lucky sighting.

Here he is just perched in the tree.

Time for a stretch.

Okay…last lion photo. They are so grand. And we were really close.
We also saw Thomson gazelle, Waterbuck antelope, buffalo up so close it was scary, dozens of baboons heading up to the treetops for the night, some helmeted African guinea fowl, a black shouldered grey kite (the ornithologist here again), and no rhino. Worse still, no leopard.

I love watching the baboons. There were dozens making their way along the road.

Above is a buffalo. They don’t really ring my bells, but are one of the big five. So you sort of have to take a photo.
Before dinner, there was an African dance for us to watch, and Harry was enthralled. I bought him a drum as a souvenir, which he takes everywhere and has named Fred. That’s a Harry thing to do. Here’s Harry and Fred:

It’s been nice to stop here for four nights at Simba Lodge. I think we might have eaten enough food to last us a month. It reminds me of the buffet days at the Swagman Restaurant. Remember that anyone? The Indian dishes are superb, but all the deserts are, well, dreadful.
Hello to everyone in 3/4B and 3/4C at Bellbrae School. Fergus and Harry are so sad to be missing school this week. But they will have lots to tell you when they get home.
Like what we saw today:
Started with cheetahs. There were two – a mother and a young one. They were hunting for something to eat, but we didn’t see any action. Then we saw a Martial Eagle sitting in a nearby tree, more ostriches, a juvenile Pygmy Falcon, and giraffes feeding on leaves so high that they had to stand on tiptoes to reach.
It was quite a lion day too. We saw a car parked by a lone tree, so we followed their tracks through the long grass to see what they were looking at. We found a lion with his pride of 4 lionesses sleeping soundly in the shade of the tree. The photos below tell the story. Another lucky find for us.
Later we came across another honeymoon couple of lions, also making a new lion. Very Discovery Channel.
We saw lots and lots of hippos in the Talek River. They look so slow and gentle, but can be so very dangerous. The guides hate it when we want to get close for photos.
Another session in the pool, and today John has the boys learning backflips. After the cool off in the pool, we met with the off duty staff from the lodge at their soccer pitch. The boys took along their AFL footy, but soccer was the game that won the vote (15 Kenyans to 3 Australians).

Fergus and Harry playing soccer. The Kenyan in red is Alex who was our waiter for all our meals here. We got to know him quite well. Still couldn’t talk them into playing Aussie rules though.

One of the cheetahs we watched hunting.

Here’s the lazy lions having siesta.

A tired King of the jungle.

Here’s a large harem of impala. The male who “owns” them is just out of the shot.

Below is the male from our honeymoon couple. He was rather pleased with himself.

We were meandering across the plains of metre high grass, when John noted that, should the Kenyan government ever decide to abandon the Reserve for these wonderful animals, that contract for harvesting the entire area would be a “nice one” indeed. Those that are into the harvesting caper (Alison take note) would appreciate the idea.
Then, we came across another van with a flat tyre where Athens had already pulled up to help. So of course, Our guide William did too, and my question is:
How many Africans does it take to change a tyre?

An early start, but earlier for John. Once again, he’s the caged animal. As he’s not allowed to go for a run outside the gates of the lodge with the lions, cheetahs etc, he was reduced to running along the fence line of the grounds of the camp here, several times, and then round and round the soccer pitch (also several times) and by the time he had breakfast he was giddy.
Today’s animal encounters were: wildebeest, banded mongoose, Thomson gazelles, impala, elephants (yes, I did take more photos, and yes, they are worth it), hyenas, jackal, a beautiful crane, a cheetah devouring a kill, giraffes (took more photos but the light was bad so you’ll never have to see them), lion and lioness on honeymoon (see below for the details), another jackal scavenging a carcass, a blue (as in the colour) lizard, zebras in migration proportion (amazing photos below), a Roller bird, another leopard tortoise crossing the road, hippos galore (nothing endangered about them here), and finished the day with a lioness and her cubs in the shade of a tree. Phew.
We chilled out by the pool after that and John taught the boys how to do bombs, eggs and gutsies. He clearly had a misspent youth at the Harold Holt pool. Then it was the customary hour or so looking through our photos while we watched the hippos over the balcony here at the lodge, surrounded by others staring at their own digital devices and marveling at what a day with wild animals can be.
Our biggest disappointment is that the migration is late this year. There is one group of wildebeest that has arrived, but there are thousands to follow. Given the location of the leading animals, the zebra, they will not make the river crossing for another few weeks. so we are now officially “not lucky”.
Here are some of our highlights today:

These are some hyenas we saw having on feast of antelope. Hovering around was a jackal,  looking for the scraps.

This is the first group of wildebeest to arrive. I wish we could have seen even more.

We came across this crane. It’s the national emblem for Uganda. We saw this one, the male, and also the female.

Here’s the cheetah we saw feasting on what we think was an antelope of some sort. She was right beside the road.

Well here’s the honey moon couple! That’s the way William describes them. While we watched these beautiful animals, we learnt, and observed, how they mate. It happens every 7 or 8 minutes for 2 weeks. No typo. And Fergus got it all on video. They now know what “hooshmakundi” means! And below, is the look (wish you could hear the roar) as the male expresses himself.

This is a sausage tree, because it grows………fruit shaped like sausages. And you thought I was going to say it grows sausages, didn’t you?

Check out these amazing lizards! The one on the left is the male. They were mating too!

Nice view for a Magpie fan!

Now this was worth coming here for. There were zebras as far as we could see, and in a few days the wildebeest will arrive. This is officially nowhere! There is an area between Kenya and Tanzania that neither country owns. So we can add “No Where” to our passport stamps. (I was surprised that they actuall missed the opportunity to stamp us out and back in.)

Here’s the lilac breasted Roller Bird. (I’ve become quite the ornithologist)

Oh, and did I mention there are hippos in the river over the deck of the restaurant here? We really are having the best time here in Africa.

As open and deserted as the plains of the Mara look, the reality is quite different. No one is allowed to be in the reserve, except for the tourists’ safari vehicles. The Masai people get a few designated areas to graze their cattle within the reserve. So it’s fair to say you’d expect it to be deserted. But looking at this photo, you’ll see there are times when it’s positively peak hour.

If a guide finds something “good”, meaning lions, cheetahs, rhino (we’re still waiting for the call on that one) etc, he gets on the radio and tells all the other guides, and before you know it, vans and 4WDs pop up in all directions. The herd mentality takes over, and if there’s a gathering of cars, then others will follow.

And on further discussion with William, he tells us there can be hundreds of cars crowded round an animal. So perhaps I shouldn’t complain! We came at this time because it worked for us (between races, and covered school holidays), and as it happens now is when the migration is on, as thousands of animals move north from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya.

And as for isolation, my mobile phone will commonly drop out between Torquay and Anglesea, but our guide will get regular calls, and chat away on the open plains here, miles from anywhere! And below is the reason! Here is a picture of an African mobile phone tower. Nice touch heh?

Below is a picture of a lady we met back in Botswana. Her name is Precious (yes, it is) and she holds her grand daughter Chloe. It’s highly likely she will whip out a mobile phone at any time.

I’m sure there are real roads here across the plains, but probably no maps. Our guide, William, just seems to turn in random directions through the maze of tracks wherever he thinks we might see some animals. I asked him how he knows where he’s going, and he just smiled and said he knows where he needs to end up. What a relief.

We’ve noticed that there are very few Australians and Poms here at our lodge. Since we’ve been in Kenya, it seems all the other visitors are European, Scandinavian, and Japanese. It’s quite a contrast to Zambia and Botswana.

Oh, and our afternoon safari drive was close to fruitless. That must mean we will have a good day tomorrow when we head to the Mara river and hope to see the “crossing” of the animals across the Mara and Sand Rivers from Tanzania.