ONE LAST MORNING GAME DRIVE IN THE CONSERVANCY BEFORE LEAVING FOR TANZANIA, BLOG 7, MARCH 18TH 2020

Since our bush flight to the Kenyan border doesn’t leave until late morning, we have time for a short game drive this morning. We leave at 6:15 and Francis is on a quest to find the roaring lions that we all have heard this morning. I am not sure how you pinpoint where or how far away the noisy lions are but we are all ready for the search.

Francis drives around the perimeter of the camp until we reach the grassland which borders the observation platform. Our guide says this is the general area where he last heard the lions roaring. We search but don’t find any lions, so Francis moves on.

I don’t know if it was luck or intuition but after covering a lot of ground Francis finds the two male lions. The younger lion is lying by the rough road we are traveling on and Francis stops the truck right next to him. His buddy is thirty yards away lying near a small stream. As we sit and observe the sunlit lions, suddenly the older lion begins to roar, prompting the guy next to us to join in. Paul and I have heard plenty of roaring lions but never one that is only a few feet away. It is scary yet awesome. The pulsating roars literally gives me goose bumps. In the cool morning air, after every roar, the lions have a cloud of mist briefly hanging in front of them. I don’t have a good enough camera to capture the lions cooled exhalations in my photos however.

When the lions have finished their impromptu concert, Francis shuttles us over to the red-maned male so we can have a close up look at him. I notice that his skin is very loose, so much so, that a fold of it is resting on the ground. As the sun warms up the lions, as the cheetahs did, rise to their feet and wander to some nearby bushes. As I suspected, they are very thin so the duo obviously aren’t having much success in hunting. As they disappear into the brushy cover we continue on our way.

Since we are having breakfast in camp this morning, Francis starts driving back to Encounter Mara. We have been driving for a while when we happen upon a male and female lion. Unbelievable! There is a small stream separating us from the relaxed pair. After sitting with the lions for a few minutes, the female gets to her feet and strides to the stream, crouches down and laps up some water. The lioness then strolls to our truck and plops down next to our rear tire. Oops, I guess we are the nearest shade for the lioness but this feline obstacle will keep us from backing up to reach the road. Our dilemma is solved when the big cat rises to her feet and moves on. I guess the vehicles feeble shade didn’t meet her standards. The big male soon follows what we presume is his mate, to find shelter from the sun and we return to camp. What an incredible game drive we have had on our final morning here!

Edwin, one of the friendly staff here, leads the three of us to our breakfast table which is set up on the observation platform! It is gorgeous down here this morning albeit we have no giraffe or other wildlife to watch. I guess no one is feeling the need for salt this morning. The three of us visit as we enjoy our breakfast and the stunning view. Paul and I tell Jacob how much we have enjoyed being on safari with him. We also state that watching his genuine amazement upon our encounters with the array of animals here was really fun for us. Jacob replies that he is glad we were safari mates too. Once we have finished eating, we reluctantly return to our tents to finish our packing.

Paul and I carry our luggage to the community tent and put money for the staff into the tip box. We then take the path down to where Francis is waiting to drive us to the airstrip. Several members of the staff have gathered here to say goodbye to us. Paul and I thank the crew for taking such wonderful care of us and also express how much we have relished our stay at Encounter Mara.  Jacob is taking the same flight as us so we all have one last drive in Naboisha with our terrific guide, Francis.

We haven’t traveled far when Francis stops the truck and turns to look at the three of us. He proceeds to tell us how much he has enjoyed being with the three of us and how happy it made him that we found all of the wildlife interesting. Jacob, Paul and I inform Francis what a pleasure it was being guided by such a friendly, knowledgeable young man.  We also say how impressed we were with his uncanny ability to predict a wild animal’s behavior.

As we continue towards the air strip, we have a heck of a sendoff. A pride of seven lioness are lounging around a brushy patch not far from the road. We spend a few minutes with the lovely felines before moving on to catch our bush plane.

Once we get to the Ol Seki Airstrip, we find that our plane hasn’t arrived yet. There is a man driving a tractor which is hitched to a packer and he is pulling it down the dirt runway. There aren’t any wild animals on the airstrip though, which has happened to us before at these bush airports.

I forgot to include in my blog the reaction from the Maasai in our two Kenyan camps, when Paul showed them a photo of our cattle, with the Flint hills in the background. Let me just say that their faces literally light up. Suddenly they see us in a different light and many of them call us American Maasai. The photo often led to questions about our cattle and then having the Maasai tell us about their cattle at home. The funniest reaction we had, (our cattle are black and very big compared to Maasai cattle), came from an older gentleman at Encounter Mara camp. He took Paul’s phone, enlarged the photo and insisted that those weren’t cattle but buffalo!

We board our small plane, take off and land ten minutes later on another dirt runway. This is Jacobs stop where he will board a bush plane that will fly him to Nairobi. We shake hands with our delightful safari companion and wish him well as he anticipates his next adventure, trekking to see gorillas in Uganda. Thirty-five minutes later we land near the Kenya/Tanzania border at Migori Airstrip. Our pilot apologizes for the bumpy ride. What bumpy ride? I guess I slept through it.

We depart from the plane, gather our luggage and follow the man who comes out to greet us. Dickson, (I think this was his name) will take Paul and I, a couple from Louisiana, and two women from Illinois over the border into Tanzania. Once we get through the red tape that will allow us to enter Tanzania, Dickson will drive us to another airstrip for our second bush plane flight of the day. Before we leave the “airport” Dickson leads us over to a gazebo type shelter where we sit on wooden benches and fill out forms that we will need for exiting Kenya and for entering Tanzania.

We arrange ourselves in Dickson’s’ van, and then we are off. I believe it takes us about an hour to reach the border. Paul and I cannot remember how or what was required to leave Kenya meaning it must not have amounted to much. Once we are in Tanzania, (I can’t remember what the towns name was), Dickson parks in front of a concrete building and instructs us to bring our bags with us. Before we are allowed to enter the building there is a huge tin can containing a strong hand sanitizer and we are instructed to wash our hands. The woman from Louisiana cautions us not to get any on our clothes as it will definitely leave a bleached spot. The stuff sure does stink and of course I find that I have dripped a small spot on my cuff.

Our luggage is put through a screener and we must take off our belts plus everything out of our pockets. Once we put ourselves back together, we proceed down a corridor to hand over our visas and get our passports stamped. Those of us who have e-visas end up taking much longer to get through the red tape than the two women from Illinois who buy their visas at the desk. When someone mentions how much faster it was for the two women who didn’t have a visa, Dickson shakes his head and tells us that you are better off to wait and get your visa at the border. Poor Paul, he spent hours on line getting our E-visas for Kenya and Tanzania.

When we have finished with this part of getting approved to be in Tanzania, we pile back in the van, drive up to a heavy wire fence where an armed guard opens the gate and we drive through. Dickson parks the car within a few yards of that barricade, we exit the van, and a female guard uses a security wand on we women and a male guard waves a wand over the two guys. Dickson leads us through a door where a woman takes our temperature and writes it down. I guess we all passed the screening for the Wuhan virus since we file on to another part of the building. Here two bored looking men are sitting behind glass and we must give them our passports to look at.  Everyone passes muster and we walk out the door and load back into the white van. Sigh of relief from all of us, I think.

The chatty woman sitting next to me starts to take a photo as we are exiting the Tanzania check point. I politely remind her that Dickson told us to not take photos of the border crossing or of armed police. The last thing we need is to tick an officer off!

I try to snap photos as we are driving down the city street and highway. I do manage to get a few pictures that are decent. I am always amazed at all the activity going on around us but also sobered by the poverty and uncleanliness too. After thirty minutes we arrive at a tiny air field, Tarime Airfield, where one plane is waiting. I don’t believe two planes could occupy this air strip at the same time. Our luggage is loaded in the belly of the plane, we thank and tip Dickson for all his help getting us into Tanzania, and then we board the small plane.

Thirty minutes later we land on a deserted strip and the Illinois women leave the plane. As I am looking at the empty lot and vacant buildings where the women are now standing, it dawns on me that his is the “airport” where Paul and I and our four friends flew out of in 2018 at the end of our Tanzania safari. As we taxi down the runway, the two women wave goodbye to us. I hope someone is picking them up soon!

Thirty minutes after our first stop we land at Seronera airport. This is where our guide George came to get a permit for one of the parks we visited in 2018. It really is a very nice building considering we are in the middle of nowhere. Of course, there are some really high-end resorts quite near to this airport so that probably has something to do with it.

As we walk into the building, we see George, wearing his brilliant smile, waiting for us. After exchanging greetings and giving each other a hug, George leads us to his vehicle. We fondly remember this vehicle from 2018 and all the adventures we experienced through the truck’s windows. We laugh when George tells us he must return to the airport building to get us a permit for our visit to one of the Kopje areas, I think. Paul kids him a bit and wonders if we are going to have to lend him our credit card to pay the fee like we did in 2018. George laughs heartily and assures us that it isn’t necessary this time.  In 2018 getting a permit was a time-consuming ordeal but today George returns, permit in hand, within a few minutes.

Next stop, Nyumbani camp. Nancy