Safari Insights

It is getting more and more difficult to access a working wifi. I am going to try and document it in chronological order. So lets begin from last week, Thursday 6/20 and Friday 6/21, my safari trip to Samburu. Samburu is not the largest safari park, but it was decent. The best one to visit if you ever want to come is Masai Mara (south of Nairobi).

Above is the buffet lunch we had when we arrived at the Ashnil Resort (snapping a shot with my roommate M1-->M2 student)

So I did not get to see all of the Big 5 animals (lion, african elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, and leopard). But I did see tons of elephant herds, many giraffes on the second day, and one leopard on the first day. The leopard sighting was more on someone's pro-camera display screen because by the time our driver spotted the leopard in the tree, it had already jumped down and walked away (keep in mind this is several kilometers away, over a patch of tall grasses). Leopards are smart cats that like to hide and use their spots as a disguise. I was considered lucky to have somewhat caught a sighting of a leopard because our PI that has been on 9 safaris only spotted leopards twice. 

<< (these trees are everywhere. it reminds me of binary functions for you engineers)

There was one animal that was special story attached to it. They are called dik-dik. You have to imagine a small version of Bambi, almost rabbit height. They are like a fairy tale couple because you will also find them in pairs. The pair is said to live forever together and if one passes away, the other will starve to death. It sounds quite romantic until we spotted a three-some. Who would have ever thought a love triangle among these eternal couple. 

I realize on a safari, you need to be patient. The first drive, everyone had the most gamed attitude on, standing up, looking in all directions, binoculars and cameras on the standby despite the whole bumpy, rocky road our vans had to drive through. But on the second day (our third drive) we all got tired of seeing elephants and antelopes (they have become the usual). We were all probably very tired because  we had to go out at 6:30am to catch the morning animals. Our PI was serious about safari. Both mornings we had to be ready by 6am for morning tea otherwise they are leaving without us. Serious business. 

 

The resort was a beautiful, famous place despite the dysfunctional wifi. I got to stay in a hut/tent that had screen walls that looks out to the outside. We had many white and black mask monkeys that would surround our hut daily and eat/climb up on our deck and on top of our tent. I was approached a monkey outside, busily eating away and I comment on cute "she" looked. But the monkey got scared of my presence and walked away. I was actually incorrect to call the monkey a she because the monkey obviously had testes (huge ones!) and they were turquoise! Too bad I didn't get a good picture of them because they kept getting scared of us walking up to them.

Our driver, Moses, was the best tour guide/driver ever (hence I stayed in his van throughout my 5 safari drives over the course of 2 & 1/2 day). He is the one that I give credit to for all these stories/facts about animals I will share with you in the following posts. There are two stories I remember: elephants and ostrich. I believe I want to leave room for pictures on this post, so I'll post a separate one dedicated to the stories from Moses.