Upcoming Travel: Wild Kenya

I have always been amazed whenever I saw the great migration on National Geographic/Discovery/Animal Planet or other wildlife television channels. The sheer numbers and the diversity have always bamboozled me. And as I kept seeing more of such wildlife series, my yearning to see this spectacle in real got much stronger and finally that day has dawned as I am headed towards ‘Wild Kenya’ tomorrow.

The ‘Great Migration’, which is often dubbed as the 8th wonder of the world is the special component of my trip. This is when the animals from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania make the annual migration to the greener pastures of Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. The migration season is from July through September and starting October, the animals start the reverse migration to Serengeti. I am spending 4 days at Masai Mara Game Reserve where the action takes place (The Big Five + millions of wildebeest, millions of zebra, hundreds of thousands of gazelle and lots of hungry predators: lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, Nile Crocodile and others). 2 of these days will be located in the center part of the reserve and next to the Mara river to be close to the wildlife frenzy and the other 2 days will be on the eastern part of Mara, which is where most of the camps and lodges are located. I am hoping that I will also be able to take a hot balloon safari over the Maasai Mara and get an aerial view of the spectacle. Though I have not finalized on this hot balloon ride as it is working out quite expensive on an already expensive trip. So I am on a ‘Let’s see’ mode on that.

Apart from the Masai Mara, I am planning to spend 2 days at Lake Nakuru National Park in the Rift Valley, which supposedly has the biggest congregation of flamingos in Africa. It is also famous for the black Rhino.The Great Rift Valley is also known to be the place where mankind evolved from, but I am not exploring that side of the Rift Valley. 2 other days will be spent in the northern part of Kenya in the Samburu National Reserve. Northern Kenya is more drier and desert-like than the rest of the country. Samburu and Buffalo Springs are also known for great game and again a lot of wildlife can be sighted here.

The wildlife component of the Kenya trip lasts 8 days and 13 safaris. In between, I plan to explore the tribal life especially the Masai and the Samburu tribes given that I am going to be located real close to them. And an additional 3 days in Nairobi to explore the fast-growing East African city, sample its special cuisines, a definite visit to the famous Carnivore restaurant even though I am a vegetarian and to may be do some shopping.

A short trip in my standards, but hopefully it will be a sweet one. I am hoping that I will have great experiences and photographs to share when I am back.