Kenya and Tanzania - Day 13
By the end of today we will be living in a tent down by the river.
Our baggage was out the door by 7:00 am and we were in the Jeeps for our five minute ride to the airport at 7:45 am. During our ride to the airstrip we saw another new species.
This is the blonde zebra. The blonde zebra has less melanin than the darker zebra. This photo provides a good comparison.
How can you tell the difference between a male and a female zebra. The female zebra is white with black stripes and the male zebra is black with white stripes.
The airstrip has an electric fence to keep animals off the runway. There is no control tower so our plane made a pass over the runway to visually make sure no other planes were taking off. Our AirKenya flight landed and within a few minutes and we were on our way to Maasai Mara. It was an uneventful 40 minute flight.
We landed and our new drivers were waiting for us.
The facilities are not extensive at the Maasai Mara airstrip.
In no time at all we were onboard our new Jeeps with our new drivers and were on a game drive. We immediately saw dozens of zebras and wildebeests. The difference between Maasai Mara and the other national parks is the Jeeps can go off road in search of the animals. If our driver sees a giraffe a half mile away on the savana he just goes there.
Here is a great photo taken by Gail Anderson. That giraffe is just a little too short to reach the leaves on the acacia tree. Next year he will be tall enough. Gail says - “Always reach for the stars, or the perfect acacia leaf.”
Here is some giraffe trivia. I believe giraffes are the only animals called different things based on their activity. Giraffe standing = tower, giraffes running = journey, giraffes lying down = kaleidoscope.
Taryn had promised us a surprise on this leg of the trip. She did not disappoint. Our drivers went down several narrow trails and stopped next to some park rangers.
The park rangers told us to get out of the Jeeps. During our entire trip we were told to never get out of the Jeeps. They guided us along a path and we immediately came upon two white rhinos grazing nearby.
The rhinos were only a few feet away. The rangers said if the rhinos start to move in our direction just slowly back away. We were quite close to the rhinos for a long time. They are the only two white rhinos in Maasai Mara. Their names are Queen Elizabeth and Kofi Annan. The rhino Queen Elizabeth is 22 years old and was born on Queen Elizabeth’s birthday. Kofi Annan is 18 years old and was born on the day the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations made his first visit to Kenya.
We were up close and personal with the rhinos. The name white rhino is a mistake. These rhinos are not white they are gray. Originally they were called wide rhinos because their mouths are so wide. Over time the term wide became white and no one corrected it.
There was some minor drama as one of the Jeeps had a flat tire. The pit crew would rival any at the Indy 500 and had the tire changed in no time. It is amazing that after all the miles of very rough roads we have driven that this was our first mechanical incident.
We arrived at the Fairmont Safari Club and were greeted by the Maasai.
This Maasai group had a kudu horn section. They were not brass horns.
We had a presentation from the hotel staff regarding living in tents. There are no room keys because they are tents. The monkeys are very clever and mischievous and know how to open zippers. Do not leave any food lying around in your tent or they will trash it. Our tents are the river. Do not swim in the river, do not fish in the river. There are many, many hippos and nile crocodiles in the river and they will kill you. OK, I will not go in the river.
Our tent is built on a platform with a rain fly roof and is very comfortable.
We have a four poster bed with mosquito netting. They also provide hot water bottles to heat up the sheets at night.
This is the first time we have needed to use our conversion plugs. This tent living is tough duty.
The hotel offers mini bar packages ranging from $75 to $328. Who wants to spend that much time in a tent?
The cost to live in a tent down by the river is $1,016 per night.
One of common local trees is called the fever tree.
The fever tree gets its name from the pioneers who believed that the tree caused fever. The tree often grows in marshy areas. In fact the fever was malaria which they caught from mosquitoes that bred in the swampy fever tree habitat. The other name for this tree is yellow bark acacia.
Tomorrow we will be up and out at 5:00 am to go for a hot air balloon ride over the Maasai Mara.