TRIP TO MASAI MARA NATIONAL PARK - WILD AFRICA

 

Sometimes things did not move the way we wanted. It was my last probable transfer; back to my hometown. My entire family including my ailing mother was eagerly waiting that I should keep myself confined to the office and home as I had returned almost after a decade.

But destiny was something different. After joining the office for a few days, my Bohemian nature started irritating me. I was desperate for a tour abroad. Since it was full monsoon, the choice was limited. 

One Sunday morning while going through the newspaper, I came across an article stating that the great migration which took place in forests of Africa had already started and the same would continue till the middle of September.

Without waiting for a moment, I called up one of my friends, who was my travel partner on many of my trips. I asked whether he would accompany me to witness the great migration of Africa. The confirmation was received within a few minutes with the condition that he did not have any idea of such a place so I would have to chalk out the entire plan.

Planning the trip

My second thought was about funds. Since, I had received transfer benefits from my organization, a couple of weeks back, and the fund was enough to take care of my travel expenditure. The third issue was the booking of air tickets and the agency who would take responsibility for our trip to Masai Mara. The visa was not an issue as I knew that Kenya was accepting Visa on Arrival for Indian passport holders on payment of $  50 per person.

I called up one of my childhood friends posted on a long term basis at Nairobi and sought his help to search for a decent and cheapest possible package tour agency to Masaimara from Nairobi. Within a couple of days, I received positive feedback about both the issues.

After searching for cheap but reliable airlines from Delhi or Mumbai through www.skyscanner.com and www.momondo.com, I found that return tickets in Saudia Airlines were cheapest from Delhi to Delhi. The next step was the booking of train tickets from Howrah to Delhi and back by Rajdhani Express.

In the meantime, a quotation from the tour package agency was received with the request to book a slot at the earliest as it was peak tourist season. Without giving a second thought, confirming the reliability of the agency, I transferred the requisite advance to Wild Trek Safar Tours, Nairobi as recommended by my friend. Simultaneously, air tickets and railway tickets were also booked. The booking of the hotel at Nairobi was done through my favourite website www.booking.com for a period of one day only as the slot allotted to us for the visit of Masaimara was on the next day after reaching Nairobi.

Journey Starts

We started our journey from Howrah by Rajdhani Express reaching New Delhi on the next morning at around 11.00 hours and our flight was at around 03.00 hours the next morning. Unfortunately, our train was very late and we reached New Delhi at around 15.00 hours in the afternoon. We had little option but to hire a hotel adjacent to the railway station, followed by freshening up, heavy lunch, and a good sleep till around 22.00 hours at night to utilize the charges paid to the hotel.

After waking up from sleep at around 22.00 hours at night, with no appetite we packed our luggage and moved to T-3 of IGI Airport. After completion of all immigration formalities, we entered the waiting area, took shelter on a sofa just outside the designated boarding gate. By that time, both of us started feeling hungry. We had a moderate stock of biscuits, cake, and dry fruits in our handbag. We started utilizing the same with the expectation that a heavy breakfast would be served in flight, which would take care of the remaining hunger.

The flight from Delhi to Sharjah was as per the schedule and after eagerly waiting for some good snacks or dinner or breakfast, by whatever name it might be called, it was informed that the flight was a low-cost airline and no food would be served. To add to the misery, no inflight service would be available except drinking water. We were totally in a soup. Hunger increased many folds. Having abused the airlines silently and feeling hopeless, we took naps at intervals. Though we had some snacks with us, we were not sure about the future and thus kept them for our emergency. After around four hours, we found ourselves at Sharjah Airport. We transferred to the waiting area for our connecting flight to Nairobi which was scheduled after a gap of a few hours.

Though there were a few snacks shops, the cafeteria in the lounge they were not ready to accept USD and we could not trace a money exchange counter near to our waiting area. Without any option, we had to finish the balance food of our stock.

Our next flight to Nairobi was smooth. Since the inflight service accepted USD, we could somehow manage to have snacks but the choice was very limited.

Having reached Nairobi, completing immigration formalities, exchanging a few USD, we came out of the airport arena and took a prepaid taxi to our designated hotel.

After checking in, we found that the National Museum of Nairobi was at a stone throw distance from our hotel. We did not miss the opportunity and made a visit to the museum. The museum dealt mostly with animals of Africa as also different ethnic tribes with their culture and heritage.

Having returned, we had dinner and went to sleep as we got a call that our vehicle to Masai Mara would pick us up exactly at 07.00 hrs in the morning.

Second-Day

The vehicle was at the gate of the hotel exactly at 07.00 hrs waiting for us. Having consumed a good breakfast and with our luggage, we started for around six hours a journey to Masai Mara. The distance was about 275 km. After crossing the city, the road became very smooth and almost straight. The same road led to Mombasa and Uganda. Our first stop was at Great Rift Valley wherefrom the Savanna grassland started. Since our target was to see animals in their natural environment, our first sightseeing started there itself with a baboon sitting on the branch of a tree. There were animals far away in the open fields but very difficult to identify through naked eyes. It was totally a panoramic view of the grassland. There were few curios and snack shops on the viewpoint itself. After having the view for around half an hour, we started our journey to the main park.

We had another halt for few minutes for refueling at a place called Narok which seemed to be a small town outside the main park. There, we could see a few Masai people but not in their traditional dresses. After leaving Narok the buffer area of the forest started and we started finding zebras, gazelles, wildebeest, and few other docile animals grazing on the open fields. Unlike Indian forests full of trees and bushes, the buffer area of the park was more of an open field, which helped to locate the animals easily.

We reached the gate of the national park around lunchtime. After completion of formalities, went straight to Mara Centrim Camp, the place of our residential accommodation for a couple of days.

We termed Masai Mara as a forest, but it was actually grassland spread over around 1500 sq km covering Kenya and Tanzania. The Masai tribes were original inhabitants of the area and were dependent upon the hunting of wild animals. Later on, it was understood that the wildlife of the grassland could fetch foreign currency and give a boost to their economy; they became part of the conservation.          

The lunch was served and we checked in our room, which was a sophisticated tent with washroom facilities inside and a balcony outside our room. All the rooms of the camp were little apart from each other and a walking trail connected with them that finally led to the office and dining room. There was also a small swimming pool in the entire fenced arena but the temperature did not tempt us to enjoy the ambiance.

As pre-decided, we started our journey to the main park after lunch and it seemed that we were in a natural zoo, where carnivorous and herbivorous animals resided in the same cage. Whenever we moved our eyes at a 360-degree angle, we could witness wildebeest, gazelles, and zebras all around as if they were domesticated. They were waiting for great migration to the other side of Mara River. But we were keener to see the great migration for which we had come at the peak season. The migration took place between July and September every year where the wildebeest and zebras crossed the river in search of green fields.

Our vehicle was fitted with a wireless system and our driver Lawrence was continuously on a conversation in the Swahili language which could not be understood. Every time we asked him about the location of migration the reply was “Wait, wait”. So we had no other alternative but to wait.

The vehicle was moving in one direction. Based on information in wireless, suddenly the driver took a 180-degree turn and moved in another direction in the fastest possible speed. Ultimately, we reached a location where a pride of lion with cubs was resting below a tree. The elder ones were enjoying a recently hunted zebra and the cubs were engrossed in playing pranks with each other.

It was very difficult to predict the sighting of animals. There were few hundreds of vehicles moving in the park and based on information received from one vehicle, the others were moving towards the direction. On return, we could see a cheetah, the fastest animal resting under a tree. Few mongooses were disturbing it, but a sudden howl made the mongooses run away to a considerable distance.

The smell of a carcass of wildebeest drew our attention where we found few wild boars, vultures,  a bird  called  “bush  stock  mara”  were  sharing  the  balance  leftover  of  the carcass.  A herd of wild elephants with few babies crossed the road without disturbing us but keeping a keen watch so that they were not disturbed by us.  Lawrence told us that  a single elephant was more dangerous than a herd of fifty.

A sudden call in the wireless system forced our driver to speed up the vehicle at more than 100 km per hour and soon we reached on the bank of Mara River. By that time, many other vehicles had also assembled on the bank and we were going to witness the event of the year; the Great Migration. Though the water of the river was not deep, current prevailed which was the main hurdle for the animals to cross the river. In addition to the same, herds of crocodiles on one side and hippopotamus on the other side were waiting for their prey. The entire area became dusty on account of the movement of animals and through the cloud of dust, we could see animals jumping on the river, trying to swim across, and struggling to remain on the track battling against the water current.

One of the wildebeest lost its track and could swim to the bank which was cordoned by crocodiles and hippopotamus. The poor fellow was trying to jump on the steep side to reach the herd but failed to climb the wall. The other members of the herd were eagerly waiting on the higher grassland for the animal to be rescued. Gradually the cordon of hunters was approaching nearer and the animal was desperate to save its life. At last with all its effort, the animal jumped and could somehow reach the top of the wall and thus saved its life. It was a live show for everybody and when the animal got into the safe position all the tourists started clapping.

The entire river and its bed were full of carcasses of wildebeests and zebras which turned to be the food of hippopotamuses, crocodiles, mongooses, vultures, etc.

Third-Day

It was decided that we should not return for lunch to the camp and packed lunch was carried by us to avoid wastage of time. Our expedition started in the morning at around 09.00 hrs to be continued for the whole day. Our route was on the other side as we had already witnessed great migration on the first day itself. On the way, we found pride of lions, elephant herds, gazelles, Thompson gazelles, herds of baboons, giraffes. But we started searching for rhinoceros which we could not locate in the marshy areas of the forests. On the way, we witnessed a group of three cape buffalos chasing a lioness and forcing it to flee away from the spot. Actually, the lioness had targeted a calf of the group but failed to capture its prey. 

It looked like a wildlife movie when we saw a group of hyena chased a herd of wildebeest for detaching a calf from the herd. Our vehicle followed the chasing group of hyena and found they had succeeded to separate the calf and ultimately killed it. The rest of the members of wildebeest remained as dumb spectators for a while and then moved on towards greener pastures as if it was a normal cycle of their lives.  

Since that was the last day of our tour in Masai Mara, we enjoyed the mesmerizing scenery of the forest with a change in temperature and environment due to heavy shower for a while. The rain approaching from the horizon, drenching us and then moving to the other side was a rare experience which we rarely found in urban lives.

Though we could witness the animal movie on the second day with the same spirit, we could not find a single rhinoceros despite our driver made a frantic search in the marshy areas of the forest.

Our driver again took us to the spot where migration took place on the previous day. The situation was cool with crocodiles and hippopotamuses were basking on the river bed under the cloudy sky. We could not believe the hustle-bustle and movement of animals that occurred on the previous day, was no more. It was learnt that migration was not a regular feature. As and when the animals assemble on the bank of the river, the pressure could not be withstood by the animals waiting on the extreme corner of the bank of the river and they were forced to jump in the river to create space for groups waiting to cross the river. It was not just one location, but there were many locations where the animals crossed the river.  

The overcast sky and prediction of a thunderstorm with heavy rain and gusty wind forced us to retreat and proceed to our camp. The park management was authorized to issue necessary instructions that the tour operators were obliged to adhere to.

Conclusion

Though our appetite for seeing animals in their natural habitat did not fulfill but whatever we saw and experienced had been a lifetime achievement for us. It was also felt that what we enjoyed was not a static feature and the next set of visitors might have some new experiences share.

The next morning we left for Lake Elementitia with the hope to come back to Masai Mara again and might be to gain new experience may be in some other form.  

 

 Photo Courtesy: Kushal Ganguli