Kenya 2021 Trip Report
- pscrimshaw
- Mar 27, 2023
- 5 min read
After years of waiting and a global pandemic to plan around, I had finally made it to Nairobi Kenya for my first African safari. I had spent my childhood dreaming of Africa, and Kenya is truly the jewel of the continent for all things wildlife.
The trip began with a quick overnight in Nairobi before our first day of activities. We woke up a tad later than usual just due to sheer exhaustion from travel, but our first stop was to Nairobi National Park, which meant we we didn't even need to leave the city to go on a game drive. I would describe Nairobi National Park as "baby's first safari", meaning that it really does give you a taste of what a safari can offer in terms of game viewing, but game is less plentiful here so don't expect to see the big 5 like you might in some other parks. In fact, Nairobi National Park has no elephants at all!
We managed to see a good amount of general game (zebras, giraffes, impala, etc.), and were even able to get some good iconic shots of ostriches in front of the Nairobi skyline. I had spotted some vultures overhead earlier and when we followed them to where they were flying we stumbled upon a male and female lion enjoying a zebra carcass that they had killed the night before. The grass was too tall to get any good photos, so we left them as they lounged in the afternoon sun and came across a white rhino sleeping in a dirt path before finally making our way out of the park.
Later, we visited the Karen Blixen house for a nice lunch (which included a surprisingly delicious fish) before making our way back to the Rothschild Giraffe Center where we were able to feed some of the giraffes there and learn about the challenges facing this extraordinary and rare subspecies of giraffe.
The next day called for an early wakeup, because we were headed to Amboseli National Park to see what we couldn't see in Nairobi. Elephants!
A 5 hour drive later, we finally entered the long dirt road leading into the park. Here we were treated to some nice sightings of gerenuk, a long necked antelope that is usually found in Kenya's northern frontier region but can also be spotted just along the road into Amboseli.
Elephants are obviously the staple of Amboseli, and not even 5 minutes after passing through the gate did we stumble across a mega herd of almost a hundred elephants (yes we counted). I had only ever seen elephants in zoos before this, and as my favorite animal this was as close to a life changing moment as it gets. Watching the old matriarch leading so many was a site to behold, and then seeing how massive the bull elephants that tailed them really put the scale of Africa into focus for me.
Later that afternoon we went on a game drive that really showed off the wetlands that made Amboseli a paradise for bird lovers. The snow melt from Mt. Kilimanjaro was the life blood for so many animals, ranging from hippos and buffalo to fish eagles and kingfishers. After making our way around the park, we caught word of a pride of lions that had been spotted and raced over there as fast as we could. Big cats tend to be most active in the morning and evening, and these lions provided some excellent photo opportunities with no grass to obstruct them like in Nairobi. Cubs playing with their mother, roaring, and even lions walking right underneath our car. Magic.
The following day was less eventful than our first, but the one highlight was seeing Mt. Kilimanjaro out in clear view which is very rare. As the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, it really does tower over the landscape unlike any other mountain that I have seen before in my life.
After Amboseli, we made our way to Lake Naivasha as an overnight stop on the way to the Mara. We didn't safari here, but instead visited the nearby Hell's Gate National Park, which was the landscape inspiration for some scenes of the Lion King. Hiking the geothermal gorge that snakes through the park was a fascinating experience, even if there weren't too many animals to see.
The grand finale of the trip was finally upon us: the Maasai Mara. This is what everyone imagines when they think of Africa. Wide open plains, big cats, gorgeous sunsets. After checking in to our lodge, we started our first evening game drive with a fantastic sighting of a serval hunting. At first I thought it was a cheetah cub, but I was shocked to see a serval out in the open during the day. Unfortunately it was unsuccessful, but we made our way towards the Talek river where we stumbled upon a female cheetah with two almost fully grown cubs. There were hoards of vehicles around which made the sighting unpleasant, but it was still amazing to see a cheetah considering we had never seen one so far this trip.
We ended the evening with a nice pride of lions calmly enjoying the last rays of sunlight, before making our way back to camp and getting some sunset photos on the way out. As we were almost back to camp though, there was a giant line of cars which made little sense to me. Finally, I spotted a lioness that was actually hunting a herd of zebra running by, but the vehicles clearly gave away her position. The Mara is beautiful, but the vehicles were significantly worse behaved here and it clearly was affecting the wildlife.
Our next morning we woke up extremely early to prepare for our hot air balloon safari. Not for those with fear of heights, but a hot air balloon provides an amazing top down view of the Mara that only an eagle could see. I would even argue that you can't visit the Mara and NOT do it. After we touched down and had breakfast, we headed towards the Mara River to hopefully see a wildebeest crossing as part of the Great Migration. There was a large herd building up, but they didn't seem too inclined to cross for one reason or another. After waiting for a couple hours, we eventually called it a day and made our way back to camp where we stumbled upon a herd of wildebeest running across the plains. It isn't unheard of for them to run randomly, but they seemed a bit odd and erratic to me when finally I saw that two cheetahs were hunting them. The cheetahs just barely missed out on a kill, but it was still exciting to see the action nonetheless.
The following morning was our last game drive, and we went out looking for leopards or black rhinos which had thus far eluded us on this trip. Unfortunately we didn't see much, but seeing the sunrise in the Mara is still a treat no matter what.
Finally, we headed out of the Mara and made our way back to Nairobi for my departing flight back to the United States. Needless to say I caught the safari bug, and I felt like I barely got a taste of what Africa has to offer. I promised myself I would return to Kenya and do it better next time with proper photography gear and an itinerary dedicated just to photography. I had always dreamed of coming to Kenya as a child, and now I can't stop dreaming of when the next time I will be back will be.
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