Kenya: Serian Lodge, Mara North Conservancy

The flight in to the Mara was our luxury flight (by comparison to the others). First class seating with 2 seats per row and headphones for quiet and communications.  Flying down to the Mara,  we flew over towns, forests and cultivated fields, not the open African bush you may have imagined. 

The drive from the airstrip to the Lodge was our introduction to the local fauna, including (cw from top left) a Warthog, a Hippo, a Topi, more Hippos, Impala,  a Zebra, and a Crocodile.

Our lodge, Serian "The Original", located in the Mara North Conservancy, a soemwhat exclusive area, available to only 11 camps. The Serian has Individual tented lodging spread around a central communal area. The individual lodges and the thatched communal area have stunning views over the Mara River with its hippos and crocodiles. The lodge is "designed to be a retreat from the bustle of contemporary life", ie no wifi. Most of us had phone service so this isn't the retreat imagined, That said, despite the fine touches it did have a "back in the day" feel about it. 

At  lunch one day, the managers of the lodge had friends from the neighboring lodge, another lodge and a boutique hotel in Nairobi over one day. We had lunch with them. Most of them grew up in Africa and had great stories. It was like reading entertaining memoirs.

From our tent we could look across the Mara River to see hippos and crocodiles. Closer to our tent, we saw two dik-dik's facing off, the winning dik-dik, and a baboon. 

By the time we got settled and ready for lunch, it had started to rain. If we had been 5 minutes sooner we wouldn't have had to dash to the lodge in a failed attept to stay dry.  

After lunch, we hung around chatting as we waited for our late afternoon game drive. Fortunately the rain dried up and we had a fine sunset & game drive.

We saw our first waterbuck and a mound of lions complete with a cute active cub.

We also saw some interesting birds. The awkward looking Maribou stork, the drab Coqui francolin, and the colorful Greater Blue-eared starling.

The Mara North abuts to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya which borders on the Serengeti in Tanzania, Combined the two total over 12,500 square miles of protected area. They are home to the migration of roughly 600,000 wildebeest. They are part of a larger migration that also includes approximately 200,000 zebras, 400,000 gazelles, and 12,000 eland. 

 Wildebeest and their companion animals move between "breeding and feeding grounds". Lucky for us they were focused on feeding and the grass was greener in the Mara.

We spent a very productive day in the Maasai Mara. We loved it despite the long bumpy ride which was hard on our backs. For breakfast, we identified a spot with a good view of the herd. It shortly became a spot in the middle of the herd. Unimaginable!

While we expected to miss the migration we actually witnessed several herds of thousands. Basically the herds go where there is food to eat. And there had been recent rains in our area and the lush green vegetation drew them. We were delighted to see the migration as they munched their way along where the grass was greener. 

While our original goal for the Mara was to see lots of animals, we did not realize how many types of birds we might see.

CW from top left:  Hammerkop,  African Wattled lapwing, Black-billed bustard, Red-necked spurfowl, Maribou stork, and Black-headed heron

Ostrich, Grey heron with African Sacred ibis, Long-crested eagle, and 2 shots of Secretary birds.

And lots of Vultures: Cape vulture, Lappet-faced vulture, Rüppell's vulture, Lappet-faced vulture, White-backed vultures in tree (10  remaining after several others flew off).

Between the Mara North Conservancy and the Maasai Mara National Reserve we not only seriously upped our bird count but also our animal count, seeing hippos, crocodiles, baboons, waterbuck, striped mongoose and cheetahs. Plus lots of babies, including young jackals, hyenas, topi, zebras, elephants, hippos, and lions. 

Here are some of the animals we saw in the Maasai: African buffalo with cattle egrets, topi, elephants with baby, cheetah and with a fellow hunter, and a baby elephant.

One of the ugly 5, a warthog, a Masai giraffe (2 views), a baboon, a young zebra, and a  zebra and off-spring.

A "dazzle" of zebras, elephants, a banded mongoose, a crocodile, and a pair of lions.

Our guide posed in Tanzania for us at the border between Kenya (Masai Mara) and Tanzania (Serengeti) . Later we enjoyed lunch in the bush before continuing our drive..

On our drive back to the Mara North we noted wild animals heading toward the villages along the way. Interestingly zebras and others use the local villages as a safe(r) haven over night,

The next morning  we chose to avoid the bumpy ride and took a walk. Our three guides posed for us, we captured a shot of the local trees and an African Buffalo that we made sure to avoid.

On our final game drive we stayed closer to home. It was still productive revealing a Rüppell's starling and Bare-faced-go-away-bird while .

Along the way we saw elephant, a young jakal, a young hartebeest, topi, a hyena on watch duty, and a lion rolling in the grass. The hyena dig a village of tunnels. Once they tire of a village they leave it to the warthogs to take over. 

We wrapped up our stay with sundowners around an open fire toasting marshmallows while enjoying a dance performance by local Masai women. 

Somethings we learned about the Maasai: They live a semi-nomadic life. Their livelihood typically centers around cattle (aside from those who work in the National Reserves  and Wildlife Conservancies. Similar to the Samburu people, the Maasai are famous for their bright red clothing and colorful beaded jewelry, which can indicate social status, age, or other aspects of identity. Also similar to the Samburu, they have a four-stage life system consisting of young boy, warrior, elder, and chief. And while it seems less common than in the past, polygamy is practiced.

It was time to move on to Egypt. and a new phase of our journey. Our time in Kenya lived up to our expectations, although we were disappointed to not see any leopards. Some of the unanticipated pluses:  many interesting people, cultural activities village life, dance, crafts, learning about conservancy techniques, 

Our flight to Nairobi was delayed 40 minutes as they repaired a flat tire on the front of our aircraft. Note the guides lined up with the luggage as they wait to see that our plane will indeed be departing for Nairobi.

Upon arrival in Nairobi we enjoyed lunch at Cultiva Farm Kenya, a farm-to-table establishments with a creative menu including: wild mushroom skewer, grouper fish taco, fire oven cooked caprese, king fish ceviche, soft-shell crab sliders, with a Veuve Ambal Cuvee Rose Brut sparkling wine. After lunch we toured the gardens.

Next we were off to visit the Karen Bixen Museum. The movie Out of Africa (starred Meryl Streep & Robert Redford) is about Karen's life in Africa. We watched the movie before leaving home as part of our "homework". 

We headed to the hotel early as we had a 3:00am flight to Cairo!!!

Kenya: Sarara Treehouses, Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy

Namunyak Conservancy is a small reserve in northern Kenya. Sarara Treehouses are built in the trees downhill from the main lodge. Access to the Treehouse level required hiking down 83 steps … and back up those 83 steps for meals and activities. Needless to say we were careful to bring what we needed with us on each trip to avoid running back to the room.

The accommodations were pretty cool. We enjoyed the outdoor shower, Pat did not. however, appreciate the poor lighting in the bathroom, nor the lack of any convenient place to use a hairdryer. Dave & Shelly were quite forgiving of Pat's hair though, so all was fine. 

The activities here included game drives and a game walk complemented with lots of cultural visits focused on the local Samburu People. Here we had some great elephant (with several young including a 1 week old), and giraffe sightings. 

We spent a morning at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, a rescue center for orphaned baby elephants. The youngest being only a few months old. They keep the elephants until they are around seven years old and able to care for themselves and then release them into the wild. There is also a small herd of other orphans (giraffes, an oryx, ostrich.mand elan......) who seem to think they are a family of like species. There are roughly 35 elephants all fed on a goat milk based diet until shortly before being released to the wild. They are fed every 3 hours. The daytime feedings are a popular event. 

The Samburu seem to be related to the Masai, a better known people. The Samburu consider themselves one of the lost tribes of the Israelites. They have some notable customs:

- They are oblivious to actual age Instead they note the phases of life with the notable first stage being when young men (probably 12-14 years old) are circumcised and become warriors. At this stage they can no longer live at home and must learn to live as a group. Stages for males are child, junior warrior, warrior, senior warrior,  junior elder, elder, senior elder, and wise ones. The early stages all roughly span 8-10 years. As you may guess, the wisdom of age is well respected here. 

- We visited a village fenced in with piles of scraggly branches. The people are still nomadic and the village has no solid walls, The village is protected by a huge somewhat circular shaped 4-5 foot high fence made of piles of spiny brush. We experienced the evening activities with the goats returning to the compound first with the larger animals (cattle and camels) returning later to provide a protective buffer for the more vulnerable goats. Animals are separated by family ownership with baby goats separate from adult goats. Views from our flight into the area show several of the "fenced-in" areas.

- You can tell a lot about a Samburu by their jewelry. Everybody wears lots of beads, especially the young warriors. Beadwork and other jewelry tell a person's history. Young warriors are the flashiest. Women's earrings tell you if she is married or not. But we can share only a few photos because they feel that pictures of them or their domesticated animals steals their souls.  Note: The Samburu who work in the tourist industry do allow photos so we got a few.  Below: Our tracker, (an elder) and our guide (either a senior warrior or a junior elder).

- One very interesting activity is the "singing wells". During the Dry Seasons, warriors dig wells into dry riverbeds on a daily basis to access hidden water sources for their livestock. The Warriors sing individual, recognizable chants to call their specific cows and camels, which come to their  designated troughs for drinking water. For the lucky families, wells are quite shallow and one warrior can scoop up the water into a trough. But wells cam be 30 feet deep or so requiring a chain of warriors to pass the water buckets up. 

- The well area is also targeted at night by the local elephants. Some get lucky and find one of the shallow areas with water. And the rest must get some moisture because they keep coming back.

- One evening we enjoyed a Ngoma, a cherished cultural practice among the Samburu peopler, with sacred ritualistic singing and dancing. We enjoyed a nighttime performance of a dozen or so dancers. Their dance includes a lot of hopping around and well harmonized chanting.  The performance followed a full days work so started at sunset. The sky was nice but it was hard to see the dancers.

Our most common sightings here were elephants, giraffes and the much smaller dik-diks, plus cattle and camels (no photos of the latter because they are domesticated.)

We said Good-bye to the staff and were off the the Masai Mara.

Kenya: Lewa Wilderness

Flying in and out of small airstrips in cozy bush planes, means facing luggage weight limits of 33# per person and being allowed only soft-sided luggage. Before leaving Rwanda, we packed two duffles and stuffed them with our other luggage into our hard-sided bags. The hard-sided bags would remain in Nairobi while we visited the wildlife parks. 

We arrived at the hotel in Nairobi Kenya around 9pm and went to the bar for a snack. We adjusted our luggage according to the restrictions and got a good night's sleep. We met up with Dave & Shelly the next morning for breakfast at 8am. This became pretty much the pattern for the rest of the trip. 8am brekkie, 9am meet with the guide. Except on safari when we were met the guide at 6:30am or so. These days breakfast waited til after the game drive.

It takes a lot of gear for a 6 week trip to game camps (where you are out in the chill of pre dawn and post dusk) and to the desert heat of Egypt and Jordan. Not to mention bags of photography equipment and binoculars. All of which needed to be shrunk to 1 duffle and carry-on (soft sided only). It was scary to see the luggage for the 4 of us but we managed to comply with the restrictions.

We were off to Lewa Wilderness Lodge in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Safari Camp airstrips are serviced out of the small regional Wilson Airport in Nairobi. It is small and very informal. We had a large regional flight. The plane accommodated 12 passengers. This was big and spacious. Our next flight, 3 days later,  accommodated only 4 passengers.

We flew into the Lewa Airstrip where we were picked up by our guide who took us to the lodge. We shared a suIte with 2 ensuite bedrooms and a large common area. The drive to the lodge was our first taste of safari drives for the trip.

 At Lewa Conservancy rhinos, elephants and lions were common sightings. Dining area had a view of hillside with frequent animal sightings. Between the ride to the lodge and the evening drive we collected (viewed) numerous varieties of birds and animals.

Birds from day 1. Clockwise from top left: Pallas Fish Eagle, Yellow-Necked Spurfowl, Mocking Cliff Chat, Ring-Necked Dove, Black-Shouldered Kite, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Kori Bustard, Superb Starling, and Northern Red-Billed Hornbill (center).

Animals from day 1. Down the left side: Mom and baby (African elephant, Southern white rhino, Grévy's zebra) down the right side elephants, Southern white rhinos, lion .

Day 2 we added significantly to our collection of birds and animals. Even a colorful lizard made an appearance. When we returned to the lodge from the morning game drive, we found the property had become the playground for a troop of vervet monkeys. Strangely they were not around on Day 1 or Day 3.

Birds and a lizard from day 2. Clockwise from top left: Rock Agama, Southern white-crowned shrike, Somali Ostrich, Black-winged Kite, Eurasian Collared Dove, Egyptian Goose, White browed coucal, and a Grey Heron.

Animals from day 2. Clockwise from top left: Grévys zebra, Impala and young, Vervet Monkey, Spotted Hyena, and Cape Buffalo.

More animals from day 2. Clockwise Adult Male Lion, White Rhinos (mistakenly called White from the Afrikaans word describing its mouth: “wyd”, meaning “wide”), Reticulated giraffe, Grants Gazelle, and Red Hartebeest.

Birds from Day 3 .Includes one new bird (golden eagle). Clockwise from top left: Speckled pigeon, Golden Eagle, African Spoonbill, Hadada Ibis, and a White-bellied go-away-bird.

Another day of game drives and we saw: clockwise from top left: baby white rhino, Eland, Impala, waterbuck, Grant's Zebra, Elephant and young, cape buffalo, a dik-dik, and a warthog.

We ate family style with other guests. 1/2 of the guests live or have lived in NJ (including Dave & Shelly).  The grounds and buildings are beautiful. The facility is nearly self-sufficient. Most food grown on site.  All the carpentry is done onsite. Blankets and rugs are  woven on site.  We visited the gardens, the weaving area and the woodworking shop. They use the downed acacia for their primary building material.

While elephants are a big attraction to the sanctuary, they do major damage to the trees, eating all the succulent young branches. In order to allow trees to get established, areas are electrically fenced off. Safari vehicles cross between areas via "Elephant gates"...wires sporting 1000 volts safely over the vehicles and generally keep the elephants away. 

Returning from our day 3 morning game drive, we were waylaid to a breakfast in the "bush" followed by a camel ride. It's quick tricky getting on the camel with (in. my experience) 3 back & forth motion when you really want to be hanging on. Our reactions to riding the camels varied. Shelly very much did not like it. Dave liked it the most. For the two of us, it was fine and might be especially appreciated if we were tired and had a long way to go.

We visited the Conservancy HQ Headquarters where they demonstrated their system for tracking animals and dealing with poachers. Some of the animals equipped with gps tracking devices (huge awkward but affordable ones). The HQ is equioed with computers hooked dup to multiple screens that can locate tracked animals over time. They also have specially trained dogs for tracking down poachers.

Our flight to Sarara Treehouses Lodge & Namunak Conservancy in northern Kenya was via a 4 passenger aircraft. Claustrophobic Pat was not at all pleased to be assigned the tiniest space in the back seat of the plane.

Outtakes of animals

Gourmet Rwanda: Meza Malonga

We had a dining experience at Meza Malonga gifted to us. It began with a boat tour on a traditional fishing vessel and a tour of the facility. When you add the food we seriously enjoyed out  four hour dining experience. 

Meza Malonga, formerly a popular restaurant in Kagali, now offers a dining experience at their recently opened farm-to-table restaurant / culinary school. Access is a combined short drive and boat ride from the Volcanos NP. There are a range of experiences on offer. We had the "8 course" dining experience, with small plates and paired drinks arriving for each course. By our count, it was10 courses! Toward the end we resorted to tiny tastings of the official tastings. We simply couldn't eat it all.

Our tour not only showed off the kitchen and classroom it introduced a small portion of the 400 spices they have available. … and that the students must familiarize themselves with!

Our first course was offered as part of the tour. Pineapple juice with mint accompanied 2 small crispy cups, one with veggies including fresh peas, the other one with meat tartar and carrot purée. All were good but the juice combo was the star.

We moved on to our table for course two::

• A new potato and moringa salad (the pod of the moringa tree is consider to have many healthy effects) with a cucumber masquerading as  fettuccine.  
• Lemon "waffles", but I'd say they were fried lemon rosettes.
• Gazpacho cucumber, a little sweet
• Sorghum bread with sun dried tomato
• Cassava chips with sesame seeds
• Wine: Vergelegen Chardonnay 2023 (S Africa)

Course 3:

• Shrimp with carrot noodle (noodle marinated in a citrus juice, I think) plus the shrimp are stuffed or rolled in a dark meal giving the very cooked shrimp a meaty appearance.
• Bread topped with lake cod fish with harissa sauce
• Fermented mango with moringa
• Wine: Mooiplass Sauvignon Blanc  2023 (S Africa)

Course 4:

• Minced beet in beet foam which was slightly picante
• Beet butter with a beet bun. It had slightly citrus notes.
• Wine: Soul of the Mountain Red Blend from Olifantsberg

Course 5:

• Aubergine soup with Pepe, a flavoring from Uganda (one of several garlic like spices)
• Caramelized slivers of aubergine & champignons in a small amount of thick tomato soup
• Bread with aubergine
• Wine: Moorplaas Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (S Africa)

Course 6: 

• Cauliflower purée, roasted cauliflower and shredded dried egg yolk
• With: Apple Ginger Kombucha

Course 7:

• Tree tomato Sorbet with Egyptian black (dried) Lemon with ground pepper and more subtle spices
• With: Fermented mixed berry drink

Course 8:

• Meat filet with Nigerian spices and tree tomato sauce
• Veggies (chayote, butternut, onion, carrot…)
• Brioche
• Wine: Mooiplaas Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 (S Africa)

Course 9:

• Mango purée,pineapple
• Banana ginger drink
• Butter cake (tiny bundts)

Course 10:

• Caramel ice cream
• Coffee cream
• Honey comb cake
• Chocolate trio
• With: coffee & tea

And then we said good-bye to Chef Malonga.