Keekorok air strip, where I landed on my flight from Nairobi. I was greeted by John, my guide, who was dressed in beautiful Maasai clothing.Driving straight from Keekorok to Basecamp Masai Mara, where I’d be staying, would normally take ~1 hr on the rough dirt road through Masai Mara National Reserve. But there was a lot to see on the way, so it took more like 2 hours, and could have taken more if I hadn’t been meeting friends at 11 a.m. Here is a herd of topis, with Kori budger (the large bird) in front. Topis were some of the most common grazers we saw, but I’d never heard of them before.Curious warthog piglets, with mom in the background.Herd of plains zebras. Note the colt in the foreground.Elans, the largest species of antelope.“Yeah, I’ve got a bird on my head. So what about it?” Cape buffalo with a yellow-billed ox pecker. This is a common mutualism: the bird eats flies and ticks off of the buffalo (and many other grazers), so the bird gets food and the buffalo gets relief from ectoparasites.Cheetah, sitting on an old, eroded termite mound. The cheetah was making chirping and chirring noises. John, my guide, noted that he was calling to his “brothers” – four other males that this one hangs out with. Sure enough, one those emerged just a short distance away after a couple of minutes. Then they headed off together, looking for the others, still chirping and chirring.
Cheetah traffic jam in the Mara. No, we were not alone on our early morning game drive. It reminded me of the whale watching scene in the Pacific Northwest. If you saw a cluster of vehicles somewhere, you knew there would be something interesting. That said, John had such sharp vision and intimate knowledge of the area and the wildlife, that we were often the first (and sometimes only) ones on the scene. (Not this time, though.) Almost all of the info on the animals described in subsequent pictures came from discussions with John.All that and more was what we saw just on the drive to Basecamp from the Keekorok air strip. John dropped me off to check in and have breakfast here at the bridge across the Talek River to Basecamp Masai Mara. It’s connected to a huge fig tree on the other side.My tent by the Talek River. On the opposite side of the river is the official Masai Mara National Reserve, full of all those wild animals. No fences anywhere, so after dark, there were armed (with spears) Maasai warriors that took us to our tents from the dining tent. I was really impressed with the Basecamp philosophy: they hired almost all their help from the local Maasai community, were actively involved with local wildlife conservation, and helped local women start and run a fair trade beading cooperative. It was pricey, but at least the proceeds were going to good ends.In the late morning, friends G & K (who asked to remain anonymous) arrived in their Land Rover to go for a game drive. We loaded up and headed for a hotel (Mara Serena Lodge) on the other side of the Mara River. Our goals: wildlife viewing and an afternoon cappuccino. Once the afternoon thunderstorms and downpour stopped, we could open the roof of the Land Rover for better viewing.Quintessential savanna scenery: lone acacia trees amidst the sweeping plains.Family of impala. One male oversees a harem of 20 to up to 200 (!) females. He spends lots of time and energy keeping the harem together, mating, fending off other males, and defending against predators. It takes so much energy, in fact, that he might keep control of the harem for only a few months before he’s worn out and another male forces him out. But in that time, he has passed on a lot of copies of his genes.A group of male impalas. Males that don’t have harems hang out together in groups. They will eventually challenge the males with harems.My first view of an elephant in the wild, a solo young male.Giraffe family. I’d never known they could have such dark coloration as the adult on the right, but evidently the extent of spot pigmentation is a heritable trait.G, K, & I took a wrong turn and missed the only bridge across the Mara River. Instead, we ended up at Ashnil Mara Camp, where we still got our cappuccino and a cold beer, and watched the hippos in the Mara River.We came across a pride of five sleeping female lions on our way back from Ashnil to Basecamp.That’s actually a yawn, not a roar. Big teeth, though……and, back to sleep. Yes, we felt a bit vulnerable sitting on the roof of the Land Rover. But they weren’t acting very threatening.Ostriches and acacia.Yes, zebras are the size of horses. Yes, ostriches are as big as zebras. Dang, those are large birds!!!
