EXPLORING THE MARA AND THE COMMUNITY LAND, BLOG 2. MARCH 5TH 2020

The Alarm clock buzzes us awake at 5:30 and I jump out of bed and begin to get ready for the coming day. Paul gets another fifteen minutes of lounging since he can get ready in half the time I can. We hear the clinking of dishes outside our tent at six o’clock and then Nicholas’ softly informs us that our tea, coffee and toast is ready. We unzip our tent flap and walk out into the dim light and Nicholas’ points out the coffee pot, the tea pot, creamer and sugar plus a basket of toast with butter and jelly all arranged on a small table. As Nicholas turns to leave, we thank him and then sit down and enjoy the hot beverages and toast by the light of a burning candle.

We leave our tent, escorted by a Maasai man, and walk to the dining tent. It is cool this morning and Paul has donned his rain coat which helps cut the chill of the early morning air. We meet Ping who will be our guide for the next two and a half days. Ping was actually supposed to meet us at the airport yesterday but he stepped on a nest of ground dwelling bees the morning of the day we arrived. The poor man was stung repeatedly and had to see a doctor for the pain. The doctor gave Ping an antihistamine which ended up causing him more trouble than the bee stings. Ping had a severe reaction to the medicine and was bed ridden for the rest of the day. He insists he is doing fine now. There also is a young woman who will be with us on our game drives. Sarah will help spot wildlife and assist Ping in serving us our bush breakfast.

We drive to an area named Topi Plains and it is well named as there are Topi scattered everywhere. There are areas in these plains where the grass is not quite so tall and this is where you see most of the Topi.

We are on our way to the community land; this is where the Maasai can graze their cattle. Because the grass is short here most of the wild animals have migrated to this area. Due to the floods that have occurred in the Mara many of the river crossings have been destroyed. The crossings that we do use took a lot of hands on work to make them more or less passable. I think it took us nearly an hour of driving to arrive at the community land.

Although we saw plenty of animals sprinkled through the Mara before we crossed the river to short grass country the difference in the number of the grazers between the Reserve and the community land is stunning. A myriad of zebra, Impala, hartebeest, giraffe and so on are enjoying grazing in the safety of the short grass. We spot a tailless zebra on our drive and I can’t imagine how trying it must be not to have a tail to shoo away the relentless flies.

Ping sees a giraffe and her baby in the distance so we drive over to have a look. Ping immediately notices that the little giraffe has a terrible head wound. Now that we see the injury it explains the odd stance and tilted position of the baby’s head. Ping surmises that a leopard must have leapt on it possibly from a tree and somehow the protective mother fought the predator off. We watch the pair for a bit and it is tough to see the week-old giraffe tremble in pain and rub its forehead against its hip in a vain attempt to get rid of the horde of flies that are covering the deep wound. As horrible as it sounds, I am afraid it would have been more humane for the baby giraffe if mama hadn’t rescued her offspring.

Because the wound is so fresh, Ping thinks the leopard that attacked the giraffe is probably close by. The pair are very near the river, and the mother giraffe keeps staring towards some brush that is growing along the riverbank. Ping drives slowly along this area but we see nothing that resembles a lurking leopard, although the brush is so thick a leopard could easily disappear from sight.

Ping decides to drive across the river and look for the leopard on the other side. The crossing is a bit dicey but Ping seems to know where the big boulders are and we make it to the other side. Unfortunately, we don’t make it up the incline as the left rear tire becomes buried in sand and mud. The normal ritual of backing up and going forward to free the vehicle only results in a spinning wheel that is soon buried up to the axle. Oops.

There isn’t a shovel in the vehicle, (I think there was supposed to be), and even though several other safari vehicles drive by no one stops to help which really shocks us. I remember when we were stuck in the Serengeti in 2018 and there were people that came to help immediately. Ping says that the guides have had such a bad morning, (to most people if you don’t see big cats that is a bad morning), and they feel pressured to keep searching for leopards in the woodlands along the river. We don’t feel that way at all as there is wonder and beauty in everything if you just look!

Ping calls back to the camp and tells some of the staff they need to come and pull us out. There is a curious audience gathering across the river. They happen to have four hooves and black and white stripes😊. Truthfully, I believe they would like to come down to the river and drink but they don’t quite have the guts to do so with we humans standing outside of the vehicle.

In the meantime, Ping decides we may as well have breakfast while we are waiting to be rescued which suits Paul and I as we are hungry. Anthony the chef, filled the breakfast box with crepes, sausage, bacon, boiled eggs, fruit and yogurt. Sarah and Ping set everything out on a table that they cover with a table cloth and then invite us to help ourselves. There is just nothing more satisfying than enjoying a bush breakfast with wild animals to watch as you eat.

When we have finished breakfast, there are natives that are coming across the river on motorcycles. Often the driver has one or even two passengers but at the water’s edge the passengers have to get off and traverse the river on foot. The rocks where they are crossing look very slippery but the half dozen who wade across stay on their feet, including an older woman. One of the first motorcyclists that arrived on the scene has rather taken over and seems to be giving orders not only to Ping but to the motorcyclists who are fording the river. He shouts and gestures to the motorcyclists what path they should take to avoid the rocks. The drivers follow his advice and make it across without too much trouble. At one point there are a group of natives that decide to physically try and push our truck backwards. They literally lift the front end off the ground a bit but cannot dislodge the buried tire. Rats.

The camp vehicle finally arrives and we find out that they had to come via a longer route because the closest route to us had two vehicles blocking it. They were stuck I know it isn’t funny for the guides but we couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation. As the guys from camp begin backing down into the river, Ping is telling them to go one way and the bossy fellow is yelling at them to go another way. Well, I’m not sure whose direction the driver followed but they took the wrong advice as they get their truck high centered on a rock! I’m pretty sure some of the zebra staring at us are braying with laughter. Three men, including Ping wade out into the river and begin rocking the vehicle while the driver tries to drive forward. By gosh it works. I think Ping gets into the rescue vehicle and backs it up to our stuck truck. In the meantime, someone has taken the shovel that our rescue crew brought and removed some of the sand and muck from behind the buried tire. The winch is attached to our truck and Ping tells us to load up. It doesn’t take much of a yank and our vehicle is pulled free. The camp rescuers pull us just a little way then unhook the winch. Ping then maneuvers our vehicle around and we drive back across the river into the dazzle of zebra who are patiently waiting for us to leave.

We wave so long to our camp rescuers and continue our game drive. Paul asks Ping about the man that was giving out all the advice. Ping laughs and says that this was his cousin and that before long the whole village will have heard the story of Ping getting stuck at the river crossing! That explains why the man stayed for the entire ordeal. Ping says he will have to put up with a lot of guff from his family and relatives over his bad luck. Paul and I suggest he tell them that it was the American client’s fault as we insisted in crossing there to search for the elusive leopard😊.

After this little blip in our morning game drive, Ping takes us to a bushy area not far from the river. Here there are lions doing what they do best, which is sleeping. There are supposed to be five but we can only locate four of the lazy beasts. We also enjoy a herd of elephants with two tiny babies, one of the youngsters is feeling very frisky and makes us all laugh at his or her antics. We also see Grant gazelle which to me are the loveliest of the antelopes.

We return to camp around two o’clock and have lunch. Anthony has fixed us pork chops which are very good. Ping tells us the harrowing story of how he was attacked by a Cape Buffalo several years ago. The only thing that saved him was that the buffalo threw him into an acacia tree and the wicked thorns entangled his coat and kept him from falling back to the ground which would have been a sure death. A friend was walking with him and ran to the village telling everyone that Ping was dead. The village people came back and killed the buffalo which was still waiting under the tree to finish the job and rescued Ping. Ping shows us the scars from the thorns that had imbedded into his skull and chest, plus a deep notch in his ankle where I would guess he had a compound fracture caused by the horns of the buffalo when it threw him into the air. Holy Cow, that is so scary.

We retire to our tent and rest before our late afternoon game drive. A thunderstorm blew through mid-afternoon but it didn’t last long and the storm didn’t produce much rain thank goodness.

We left on our game drive at 4:30 and Ping took us to a place next to the Mara River across from the Tanzania Triangle. There is a leopard in this area and we drive around looking for the secretive cat. Ping stops the truck so we can admire a majestic Fish Eagle perched in a nearby tree. Paul sees another Fish Eagle in a tree farther down the river. Ping is looking at the second Eagle when he yells out, “there is a leopard”. No way! The sauntering feline is across the river in Tanzania and to far away for a photo. We watch the cat through our binoculars as it leisurely strolls along. The nonchalant leopard seems to be angling closer to the river. Ping is sure that the leopard will cross the river as its territory is on this side of the Mara river.

Ping drives away and stops at a bend in the river where he thinks the leopard will cross. He gives the animal ten minutes to reach the crossing area and if it isn’t here in that time period, Ping remarks that this means the cat went somewhere else(😊). We wait and stare across the river into Tanzania hoping to see the spotted cat walking our way. While we wait, we also watch two hippos in the river that are either fighting or attempting to mate, with those critters it is hard to tell.

Fifteen minutes later we give up on the leopard and start back to camp. We have driven half way to camp when Sarah quietly tells Ping that there is a Serval cat up ahead. The small cat is a beautiful golden color but unfortunately it won’t hold still long enough for me to snap a photo. Oh well. I commend Sarah on spotting the little cat in the tall grass.

After returning to camp, Paul and I shower and boy is that refreshing. We are escorted to the dining tent by our trusty Maasai. The bartender, Brian, asks what we want to drink and we decide to have gin and tonics. Brian asks what we saw on our game drive and we tell him about the leopard that didn’t cross the river. Paul jokes that the leopard couldn’t cross because he didn’t have a passport. This strikes Brian’s funny bone because he laughs out loud! Then he jokes back that perhaps tomorrow the authorities will grant the leopard a temporary immigrant visa.

For dinner we have a tasty carrot soup and wonderful rolls. This is followed by thin slices of steak on mashed potatoes which is quite tasty. Ping ate with us and regaled us with more stories about his adventures as a guide and in getting this camp started. The man really is a great story teller.

Time to retire for the night so we are rested up for another adventure tomorrow. Nancy