Last week something rare happened to the three groups involved in the different projects. We had 1 1/2 days off. Throwing caution to the wind we decided to explore a different side of Africa, namely ‘Wild Africa’. As we are allowed to stay in this beautiful country and enjoying the company of many amazing people, it was just esstential to also explore the wild and untouched nature of Kenya to fully understand this culture and country.
Early Sunday morning (7th of August) the whole group left to Tsavo-East-National Park (15,000 sqm, as large as Israel) and home to lions, giraffes, ostrich and especially 15,000 elephants). We divided into girls and boys bus and each of us enjoyed the ride to the park, especially as the girls got challenging questions from Samy, the driver of the bus. We had a quick stop over at a souvenir shop, where Mousbah bought a mask, which was suppose to bring us fortune for the safari tour. And this fortune was in dire need as Brian was breathing down our necks by saying "The only thing I want to see is a lion" so there was lots of pressure on our drivers. Even for safari standards lions are quite rare. Normally, one says there is a 1 out of 6 chance in seeing a lion. From the start, we all greatly fell in love with the vast nature unfolding in front of our eyes as we drove through the gates. For miles and miles the most stunning and varied landscape stretched out in front of us. Within half an hour drive into the park we had at least experienced five different nature sceneries ranging from dry treeless savanna to the typical Baobab Tree and very tropical looking areas.
During the first hours of our tour we found out that this variety of nature scenery was home to a great array of fascinating creatures. Amongst some of the creatures we spotted, while looking out of the open roof of our small bus, were: countless elephants, many ostriches, various antelopes (incl. oryx, impala, waterbuck), warthogs, zebras, baboons. To spot these animals in their natural habitat was a fascinating experience for all of us and we did not get tired of driving for hours around the spectacular sceneries. Even though, we all felt greatly happy and fulfilled by what we saw, Brian still had not seen his Lions. As the day slowly emerged to an end (our bus was already on its way back to the lodge), we suddenly saw a huge group of buses on the road in front of us. It seemed like they had spotted a Lion. As we drove closer there ‘was a huge shout’ and just two meters next to our bus and about 50 m away from all the other buses a Lion was sitting peacefully at the side of the road. This beautiful female creature seemed to be the icing on top of a fantastic day. For some minutes that felt to us like hours, we watched the Lioness in front of us yawning and stretching. With a sudden movement it stood up and made a half heartedly attempt of going after some buffalo’s but that would have been just too fantastic to experience a proper hunt for pray.
Over night, we stayed at a hostel and went to bed quite early as all the different impressions really overwhelmed us. Strengthened by the breakfast we left the hostel early in the morning to further explore the nature. Right a the beginning, we had to wait for a group of baboons crossing the street, before we were able to continue our journey. It was just amazing to see how the whole environement and its creatures woke up and got prepared for the upcoming day. This time the girls bus was in front of the caravan and right at the beginning Roxanne spotted some giraffes eating, the first ones we saw during our trip. Later on the girls bus stopped near by a huge male elephant that was standing at the side of the street. While we were watching him, he started walking towards us and after 5 minutes the elephant was so close that he only had to stretch his trunk in order to touch us. Carefully, our driver moved away from the elephant as it is still a wild animal and hard to predict what can happen.
All in all we had a great time experiencing wild Africa and Brian especially was over the moon with happiness but all others felt greatly fulfilled and ready to take on the task lying ahead of us.
Did Brian leave with any cubs ;)
ReplyDeleteNice photo's guys!
Mariaelena.