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(page 3 of 6)
Where the Wild Things Are
Life on a Kenyan Safari
By Michelle SalaterVolcanic dust mushrooms behind the Land Rover as we wind through the plains of southern Kenya’s Amboseli National Park. It’s my first wildlife safari, and I feel as if I’ve entered a National Geographic photo essay. A warthog prances alongside the vehicle. In the distance, three zebras chase one another in circles. A herd of elephants grazes with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background; its streams of snow glisten in the early morning sun.
Our driver cuts the engine and points to his left. My breathing is shallow, as I focus my binoculars on a mother cheetah and her two cubs. This is what I’d traveled to Kenya to see. But the statuesque cats pay no attention to us. They’ve spotted something much more interesting: A lone Grant’s gazelle is about to become lunch.
They sit, patiently. We do the same. An hour passes like this. The savannah has long since gone silent.
The mother cheetah stands. She’s on the move, her cubs trailing at a safe distance. Cautiously, she approaches our vehicle and gives us a once-over before trotting across the road. She crouches low to the ground and begins to stalk the gazelle, which is still munching on the same patch of grass. As her cubs hurry to catch up, the gazelle lifts his head. He notices the predator is now meters from him and darts out of sight. The cheetah leaps up and vanishes. We don’t have to witness the attack to know that she has caught her prey.
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To go on safari means to take a journey. Not the destination, but rather the voyage itself is what’s important. From my first game drive, I understand the power and freedom that the word safari contains.
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Kenya, the east African nation roughly the size of Texas, is a land of extremes. The diverse landscape ranges from snow-capped mountains to arid, sandy deserts; woodlands to swamps; highland plateaus to grassy plains; freshwater lakes to the sandy beaches along the Indian Ocean. The abundant wildlife is as varied as the land. Kenya has nearly 30 national parks and 30 national reserves, making it a playground for wildlife enthusiasts, photographers and adventure-seekers. People come from all over the world for a chance to see the “big five”: leopards, lions, bison, elephants and rhinos.
Kenyan people have an intimate relationship with wildlife. The country is one of the few places left where people live so close to a vast number of roaming animals. You don’t have to venture into the bush to see them. Only four miles from the Nairobi city center, impalas, lions, cheetahs, bison, rhino and smaller mammals live in the Nairobi National Park.
Kenya is truly a magical land. It conjures up iconic, romantic African images of wildebeests grazing beneath acacia trees, an untamed wilderness where lion prides lounge in the afternoon sun and hippos submerge themselves nose-deep in watering holes. There are tree-dotted open savannahs and limitless skies.
Of course I’m not the only St. Louisan to have been drawn to and seduced by these sights. “I chose Kenya because the movies Born Free and Out of Africa were both centered in Kenya, and I wanted to experience that same feeling,” says Mary O’Toole, a St. Louis travel consultant. She and her husband, Joe, took an 11-day safari through Kenya this past spring. “Africa was always in the back of my mind as one of the most exotic destinations that I could possibly dream of.”
The country did not disappoint.
Traveling with Abercrombie & Kent, one of the top safari outfitters in the industry (Travel + Leisure winner for “Best Tour Operator and Safari Outfitter” from 1996 to 2004), the O’Tooles set out on a whirlwind tour, visiting the Sweetwaters Game Reserve, the Mount Kenya National Park, the Masai Mara National Reserve and the Samburu National Reserve.
Their first destination, the Sweetwaters Tented Camp, is located on the privately owned 24,000-acre Sweetwaters Game Reserve in Nanyuki, a few hours’ drive from Nairobi. At Sweetwaters, the O’Tooles got their first taste of camping in the bush, where they learned camping in Kenya doesn’t equate to roughing it. Quite the contrary. Most tented safaris maintain a balance between camping and comfort. Depending on how upscale you go, you may find your tented safari accommodations nicer than most hotels.
“Our private tent sat on a watering hole and was complete with wooden floor, nice furniture with netted bed and private bath facilities,” says Mary O’Toole. “After our game drive, we returned to our camp, where dinner awaited and a cozy hot-water bottle had been added to our bed.”
Excitement fills O’Toole’s voice when she speaks of her journey.
“Our first game drive brought us upon a pride of lions near dusk,” she recalls. “Our guides felt the lions were looking for something in particular, so we followed them for about an hour and a half, at times coming within a few feet of them. At last, they found the prey—an injured zebra. The lioness did the hunt—sneaking up on the unsuspecting zebra, while her three male cubs waited behind. The lioness took down the zebra and killed it, and then the males came in for the feed. Our guide told us that we were very fortunate to have been able to witness the actual hunt and kill, as he has only seen it happen four times in the 17 years that he has been a guide.
“This was pretty upsetting to watch,” O’Toole continues. “The herd of zebras close by circled, as the mother zebra howled in sadness over the death of her baby. I had to keep telling myself, ‘This is nature’s way.’”
O’Toole isn’t alone in her eagerness to share her safari experience. Deb Schwenk, assistant dean for clinical affairs at Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine in Belleville, was so intrigued by Africa after a two-week Kenyan safari that she returned in March 2006 for a three-week safari through southern Africa—only this time she took six friends with her.
“I loved it the first time and wanted to see it again and share it with friends,” says Schwenk. “But southern Africa is different from Kenya. In Kenya, we would drive through the bush and come upon wild animals. In south Africa, we had to stay on paved roads in the parks, and they used watering tanks to draw the animals. Kenya isn’t like that at all—it seems much more wild. Untouched.”
Schwenk’s Kenyan safari took her to the Samburu National Reserve, the Masai Mara Reserve and Mount Kenya National Park, where she stayed at the famous Mount Kenya Safari Club. Established by a Texas oil baron, a Swiss millionaire and film star William Holden, it has hosted such illustrious guests as Sir Winston Churchill, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Located in the Mount Kenya National Park, the lodge’s 100-acre landscaped grounds, which straddle the equator, provide a spectacular view of Africa’s second highest mountain, Mount Kenya. This year, Travel + Leisure voted Mount Kenya Safari Club one of the 500 greatest hotels worldwide.
“We stayed in a cabin with a fireplace and a bathtub that was shaped like a mini flamingo,” Schwenk adds. “It was very luxurious. Very British.”
Located farther north on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River, the Samburu National Reserve is a lesser-known destination in the region that used to be called the Northern Frontier District. Only in this semiarid part of the country can you find the reticulated giraffe, Somali ostrich, Grevy’s zebra and beisa oryx. It’s also home to more than 365 bird species.
“On our evening game drive, we spotted a leopard sleeping in a tree and a rare striped hyena, and then came upon a pair of lions mating,” says O’Toole. “My husband, Joe, was sitting up on the roof of the Rover while we were waiting for the next mating session, and the male lion was watching Joe closely. Gerald, our driver, told Joe to move down slowly into the Rover. The lion felt challenged because Joe was higher up, and the lion was getting upset.”
The O’Tooles stayed in an elevated, thatched-roof tent at the luxurious Samburu Intrepids Club. Luxury aside, they offer a warning about the baboons and black-faced velvet monkeys in the bush. “Our partner tent opened the zipper to receive their morning coffee and did a tug-of-war with a velvet monkey for the tray of coffee and cookies in the morning,” says O’Toole.
While in the reserve, the O’Tooles visited a Samburu village. “It was one of the most moving experiences I have ever encountered,” says O’Toole. “The most touching to me was when I met a young mother named Mary. She was a beautiful young woman with several children, and I felt a bond with her, even though I know that it was just her English name, not her tribal name. I purchased a wedding necklace that she had made to remember her.”
Both the O’Tooles and Schwenk opted to drive instead of fly from location to location.
“We drove everywhere, but flew to the Mara because it was so far,” Schwenk says. “If you drive, you’re going to see a whole lot more than if you fly. You see how the people live, you see the countryside and the way people live from town to town.”
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Every July and August, the Masai Mara National Reserve, considered Kenya’s best game-viewing park and one of the most popular safari destinations in Africa, plays host to the annual Great Migration. A million-plus wildebeests and zebras travel over 600 miles north into the Mara from the parched Serengeti plains in neighboring Tanzania. Predators follow close behind. The animals follow the rains to the lush banks of the Mara River, where they graze until October, at which point they return
to the Serengeti.
Schwenk, who visited the Masai Mara in mid-July for the migration, says, “I had it in my head that I had to see the Masai. We went on a trip to a village, saw the huts made of cow dung, met the villagers and saw how they lived. They are a stately, very tall, very dignified-looking people with their red robes wrapped around them. I peeked into one hut and saw the same world history book I had in the 10th grade.”
Before daybreak on their second day, the O’Tooles were whisked into the sky on a hot-air balloon for an aerial view of the Mara. It was an adventure born out of daydreams, reminiscent of Jules Verne’s novel Five Weeks in a Balloon.
“Even though it wasn’t migration season, we were able to see quite a few species,” says O’Toole, recounting how they landed along the Mara River and enjoyed breakfast while hippos snorted in the nearby waters. “The beauty is breathtaking,” she says of the Masai Mara reserve. “It has a calmness about it, even though it is the wild.”
For O’Toole, not only is this Masai Mara her favorite destination in Kenya, but that country itself now tops her list of international destinations. “I can honestly say that this has been the most incredible trip of my life. Kenya is nature at its best.”
As for me, the photographs in my living room remind me daily of my safaris in the Serengeti. Each time I pass them, I’m reminded of the smells, the hyena calls and the mist settling amidst the grass. My own journey into the Kenyan bush has yet to end.
