Out and About on our First Safari Day

Oh my gosh, we're going on SAFARI!!!!! (If only we can get out of this airport!) Luanda Airport is not winning any efficiency awards.

The first day of safari after our arrival was all about discovery…. Just kind of figuring out what this was all about.  We were constantly being surprised by the scenery and all the superlatives I can’t think of to describe it, the experience itself (kind of pinching ourselves and giggling that we really ARE on safari), and enjoying the over-the-top fancy-pantness of the place we were staying. Here's our view!

Paul lounging outside our tent - we were snacking on watermelon dipped in gin as a welcome aperitif. Refreshing and delicious.

The extra touches that the And Beyond staff put into things was really impressive. We received little good night messages with roses every night at Bataleur, and we were woken by coffee delivered to our tent in the mornings. With us being just a little under the weather, they also brought hot water and salt for us to gargle. The And Beyond lodges have the best service I've ever experienced.

I'll need to do a blog just on the design of the And Beyond lodges… they were all breathtaking, creative, tasteful, and something I would love to call home

Here is the main camp tent. We were able to lounge about after safari each evening, and enjoy meeting other guests and hearing about their experiences too.

This was the view from the plane as we flew into Kichwa Tembo Airstrip. We ended up driving all over this area. It was so vast.

We spent the afternoon of the first day finding lions, giraffes, zebras, coyotes, and cape buffalo. Eric, our guide kept us out until the dusk of dusk; we were probably the last to leave the park our camp was just 10 minute’s drive outside of camp, so we had the luxury of staying late. On our way home ran into a hippo in the rain right in our path where we had to cross through a little stream in the truck.

The trucks themselves are pretty fantastic. Paul and I spent a good couple of days after we got back researching the practicality of owning a safari truck. I think we need to have a home in the Masai Mara for it to actually have any practicality at all, but they sure are rugged and chic in a rustic way.  I can just imagine rolling up to Starbucks on a Saturday morning in my forest green 8-seater Land Cruiser or Range Rover with open sides and a double diesel tank. Super fixe. (Super “cool” in Portuguese – Fixe sounds like Feesh).

 

Eric, our first driver was very knowledgable about the animals; he was great with Nico, and was really a good teacher for all of us.

One of my first zebras… at some point along the trip you start to become a little numb to the exotic factor associated with the animals. It's only because of the sheer volume of animals that can be seen. I still look at the pictures though and love the way they look.

Our poor General cape buffalo… he was such a lonely beast eating grass by the riverside.

Our first lioness. We were so amazed to see her up close and yawning like crazy… rough day hunting and eating, I guess.

We could hear the elephants trumpeting as they walked across the plane. The demonstrate such a tight bond to one another, never leaving anyone too far behind, and making sure the young are between the adults.  

If this was my backyard, I would never tire from the view. The colors of the grass and trees together are striking.

We got back to the lodge and were welcomed to a very warm scene including four tables set for the guests at the lodge. There are only about 10 tents that housed two people each, and the Bataleur Camp did an excellent job of keeping everyone’s space from each other so that you really felt like the only guests in the whole place if you wanted to. Alternatively, you could also engage with other guests in the comfy sitting areas.  Rose petals covered the table, and we enjoyed our first evening in the Masai Mara.

Again, I need to blog about the decor. I really do want to retire here…. and Munich….

Safari Time - First Day in Masai Mara

I haven't been great at posting about our safari. Mostly because I was overwhelmed by the number of photos that we had jointly taken between two couples with three cameras and two iPhones.

That said, I wanted to capture some of the stories about our trip before they started to fade away… that, and we're leaving on Friday for Victoria Falls, so I want to make sure that I've caught up to at least our trips in the 3rd quarter of last year!

We departed Luanda for Nairobi, and not only were we with our good friends Lina, Edgar, and their son Nico, but on the same flight were one of my co-workers, my big boss, and their wives. They were headed on safari too, and we ended up running into them again the next day at the domestic airport. (Good timing for a vacation, I can't miss emails from the big boss if he's not sending them!)


The first evening we stayed at the Norfolk hotel, which was just lovely. This is where we learned about dawas the "medicine" drink - dawa means magic potion in Swahili.  Honey, lime, and vodka on ice?... okay! This was especially nice because we were fighting a bit of a sore throat/cough for a fair part of the trip, so whatever could help was welcomed. The boys quickly became fans of Tusker beer. The beer was named after the elephant that killed the owner and brewmaster. Nice.



We woke up early the next day, and after a quick breakfast under the veranda at the Norfolk, we hopped a car to the domestic airport to take us to our first airstrip.

The airport is itsy bitsy, but it works… we were quite limited in what we could pack. Each of us was constrained to 30lbs (including my camera and lenses?) - luckily they let that slide. We hopped on a plane that looked like a bus inside, which took us to the Okiombo airstrip, where we waited for our next plane.. In the end, this was sort of like taking buses - where Okiombo was a central station.

Nico at Okiombo - He had just received his first pair of binoculars….

Several visitors would first land, and then either a safari car would be there for some of them, or another plane would land and pick us up in smaller batches to go to their respective camps. The Masai were there to help move the luggage from one plane to another. This was the first time I saw Masai in person, and their tartans were in striking contrast to their deep chocolate skin tone and the blond tones of the Masai Mara. It was really beautiful.

We had a little time to kill at the air strip, so it turned into "photo shoot" at Okiombo. Here's a nice one of Lina and Nico. I was practicing my portrait shots…

We caught a little hopper to Kichwa Tembo airstrip, where we landed and were welcomed by our hosts for our first safari stop in the Masai Mara at the And Beyond Bataleur camp.

 We were warmly welcomed with a little mid morning snack, right at the airstrip, we had a little table set up with a full bar, snacks, champagne, and our first view of the Masai Mara and of zebras. They were all over the place. Our safari guide was there with the car waiting for us, and on our way to the camp, he gave us a little mini safari, where we met a General cape buffalo. Generals are the oldest cape buffaloes, and they have effectively been retired from the herd, and go rogue and become loaners. Generally younger buffaloes have given them the boot.

When we got to the camp we were in awe. We very quickly checked out our tents, which were amazing, and spurred me to consider living in the Masai Mara when I retire. I quickly set up the tripod for some photos (the airstrip is in the far far distance, and we could see a plane parked when looking through my telephoto lens.) Sure enough we were lucky to have visitors almost right away.

Edgar and Lina were one camp over from us (we couldn't see each other, but we were able to hear them) and all of a sudden we hear "guys! look out your window!" We ended up having a pack of elephants welcome us to the Masai Mara by crossing about 400 m in front of us as one of our very first experiences. We were pretty much overwhelmed at this point. Something Lina commented on early on in the trip and stuck with us was that "these animals weren't placed here…. this is their home!" You see a lion in a zoo, or an elephant, and it's just not meaningful compared to this. Do this trip in your life.

We were all pretty pumped up by this time, and we walked down to the main camp to be seated right by where the long grass kicks up. Out comes a delicious first meal (keep in mind we live in Angola, and food is not something that we take for granted anymore). And so began the gin and tonics, which, along with Dawas, Kilimanjaro Ales, and Tusker beer, became the favorites on the trip.

A delicious first lunch in Kenya at Bataleur Camp. We are just in awe of where we are...

This was the view from our lunch table...

After lunch we hopped in to the safari car with our guide Eric. The first day we saw many giraffe, a pair of lions, zebra, cape buffalo, ostrich, hyenas, and more, I'm sure, but these are what I can remember off the top of my head. The picture below is taken close to where part of Out of Africa was filmed. I think I was most amazed by just how much space there was. I was never bored just looking at the landscape - it was ever-changing as we drove around, and it gave me a sense of both peace and awe all at once. I loved the Masai Mara/Serengeti the most.

In the middle of the night, I woke up, with a full moon lighting the "back yard" of our tent. I could have sworn that there were elephants right up close eating something… I got out of bed to take some pictures and then went back to sleep... Of course, my eyes were fooling me, and as the world woke up, the elephants turned into bushes and trees. But I did get to catch a nice sunrise and some moonlit shots of the bushes… what a goof. More to come - I will put together some stories from our outings into another post. I just wanted to introduce you to the Masai Mara part of our trip, and the Bataleur Camp.