Welcome to the Jungle

The Kenya trip happened after a couple of postponements(office and visa) but it was seriously worth it. Landed there during the migration season which rocks. After landing in Nairobi, stayed at family friends place. Went around a couple of places there, giraffe park, croc park, a mall and my parents went shopping(I stayed back and played with the kids there). There was of course the customary party social gathering to attend fortunately they were restricted to the nights of arrival and departure alone.The safaris though began the very next day.

The first day we traveled to Aberdare national park and stayed in the treetops hotel. It is a lodge situated in the heart of the jungle in between two watering holes. The top floor is open with a great view of both the watering holes. The lodge itself was a 3 storey wooden fortress with loads of windows on all floors till the basement for every possible view. Spent the late noon to evening watching waterbucks, bushbucks, impalas, Babylons, warthogs, buffaloes and a multitude of fresh water birds. As we came down for dinner, there was a tusker drinking from the freshwater supply right below. I spent most of the night watching, as a buffalo, 3 bushbucks and a hares kept me company. Somebody told me about a hyena as well but could not see it.

We traveled to lake Naivasha the next day stopping at the equator to experiment on the Coriolis effect. 20 feet on either side of the equator the spin of the water was absolutely opposite. As we got closer to the lake the zebras and the Thompson's gazelles were actually seen on the road. An alternate option would have been to go to lake Nakuru for the flamingos but that is for another trip. The main industry in that area is florticulture as was evident from the flower farms around that area.

The lodge where we stayed was about 500 mtrs from the lake which meant we had lots of bushbucks, marabou storks, multitude of smaller birds and 4 giraffes(1 Rothschild, 2 reticulated and 1 masai) running about in the sprawling lawns. A small moat with a bridge and sign warning about dangerous animals beyond 6 pm marked the ending of the lodge grounds. I tried chasing the giraffes a bit for a few shots but they are timid. The bushbucks and storks even more so. In the evening we went out for bird trip. Managed to see drongos, hoopoe, blacksmith and banded lapwings, kingfishers, woodpeckers, cormorants, ducks, an eagle, dovetail and others. The lake itself had hippos floating around(the dangerous animals in the sign). I hiked again in the morning the next day as well without a guide to catch the sunrise and then we drove to the main area of interest: Masai Mara.