7th Oct 09, we flew into Nairobi and headed north to the Lake Naivasha area. We stayed up a hill in a place called Top Camp. The hike up carrying our packs was a killer in the hot African heat, but our perserverance was rewarded with a quiet place, great views and some local inside advice. The next day we set off on bikes at 6:30am to visit our first game park, Hells Gate.
Arriving so early at the park gates meant we had the place and animals to ourselves. We biked along the gravel road as the animals woke, and grazed and started to walk up to the trees for shelter from the hot sun. 
Our 1st giraffe experience
Then Ken tried to stare down a buffalo.... unknown to him, this animal was not just an over sized cow, similar to the ones in India... and this buffalo wasn't about to give in. Luckily I managed convinced Ken to keep moving and leave the animal be....
There were many animals quietly grazing.
The baboons climbed down from the tree as we passed
At the end of the road, we left our bikes and took a walk with a local guide through a valley. He showed us all the plants and told us about their uses in a Maasai tribe. The photo below is a dry river bed through a canyon, which in the wet season is around 4 m in depth. This was the site that Tomb Raider was filmed.
On the way out we met this little creature feasting on the tree leaves
Happy and tired we returned to Top Camp. Our host recommeneded another biking trip the next day. And after such a successful 1st day we decided to take on his suggestions again.
So the following day our bike ride took us past an amazing lake surrounded with flamingoes. There were several wart hogs running around.
As we got closer to the lake we realised those rocks behind the flamingoes were actually hippos.
Jumping back on the bikes we headed further into nowhere. The road turned from tar seal to dirt and then from dirt to sand, and biking became unbearable. We almost gave up as we didnt know how much further our destination would be. Finally we came to the Crater Lake. Exhausted and with sore seats we climbed down the crater to the lake. After a rest and some food we climbed out the over side and round the rim.
Quite a view
Then out of nowhere popped this guy. Quite exciting to be so close to a giraffe in the wild
He didnt seem to worried about us, so I took advantage of the situation with a quick photo shoot.
Then on the way home about 4pm we passed through "Game Corridor".......
Where we saw the origninal zebera crossing....
and plenty of other animals crossing the road to drink at the lake
The next day we headed to the Maasai Mara National Park, a grueling 14 hour trip on a dirt road in local buses. We camped out side Talek Gate just a stones throw across the river from the park.
In the evening we sat and watched various animals grazing and drinking from the apparent safety of our camp. The camp had two Maasai guards with spears who patrolled throughout the night.... for animals, not people.
Then first thing next morning we, with our Maasai guide Moses, headed into the park. Moses was dressed in traditional Maasai clothing, and found all the animals we saw that day himself (unlike many of the other guides who spent the day on their cell phones or radios taking to others about where the animals were)
The photo below shows some typical huts that a lot of Africans, including the Maasi live in. Mud walls and grass thatched roofs, these small communities would often be surrounded with thorn bushes to protect the families and herds from preditors.
The Maasai tribes are farmers, they do not hunt and they do not grow crops. Every day they must take the cattle, goats and sheep to find food. Young boys aged 4 or 5 start with small goat herds and learn the tricks of the trade very early. In the drought seasons many animals die as finding food is very hard.
Early morning, we found some lionesses heading down to the creek for a drink.
The African savana, vast and brown after the dry season.
There was plenty of carcasses lying around, an indication that the the large preditors were doing well in the circle of life.
Here is an Impala
We saw an eagle,
an ostrich
A lilac brested Roller, picking tics of the buffalo's back
In the dry season, this rock is exposed in the river to provide a bridge to watch the hippos
They spent most of the day in the water
Ken then asked Moses if we could see vultures. From up on a hill he saw some dust and action. And on approach we found a pack of vultures feasting on a kill perhaps a day or two old. This one had an amazing feather coat and fluffy pants.
These guys had heaps of character, and great long necks to allow their head to get right down inside the carcass bodys. They kept arriving every few minutes to join in the feast.
Then we saw our first wilderbeasts. The Gnu.
Typical African savana tree
By chance we stopped our vehicle in the path of a group of impalas. Frightened by the situation, the ones in the back group bounced past us at lightning speed to join the front group.
On the right at the base of this tree we found another carcass. Then I spotted another carcass up the tree. Mosos informed us that it would have been a leopard that would have have the strength to pull an animal up a tree.
A close up of the hippo carcass below the tree.
A close up of the remains up the tree.
Next we found some cheetahs. Very dainty, graceful animals.
A close up of this cheetah's foot showed blood on it's paws from the nights action.
The fat bellied lion seeked shade as the morning sun intensified.
Once in the shade, they did as all cats do.... they slept.
Every now and then they sat up, providing good photo opportunities. The open mouth to let the breeze cool them down.
I took the opportunity to photograph the funny looking safari tourist with their 10's of thousands of dollars worth of lenses.
About 20-30 trucks were parked near the river to see the world renowed Wilderbeast River Crossing as part of the migration. You can see a line of wilderbeasts below the trees. After a few minutes our guide said "They arent going to cross now, lets go eat and come back later".
When we came back after lunch only 2 trucks remained. We watched the animals causiously drink at the side of the river.
Then finally after about 30 mins of waiting, one brave zebra started to cross.
Then slowly one by one, more and more animals ventured into the river.
The pace picked up as the Gnu's entered the river.
The more they splashed, the more frightened they became as they panicked across the river.
And exhausted after the short adventure, those across the other side, continued on their migration south.
Soon large herds of gnu were entering the river all at once.
But unfortunately, one gnu met his doom in the river that day. As the hippos watch on and a cheeky zebra nipped across while the croc was busy, the gnu fought desparately for its life.
As we got closer to the lake we realised those rocks behind the flamingoes were actually hippos.
Jumping back on the bikes we headed further into nowhere. The road turned from tar seal to dirt and then from dirt to sand, and biking became unbearable. We almost gave up as we didnt know how much further our destination would be. Finally we came to the Crater Lake. Exhausted and with sore seats we climbed down the crater to the lake. After a rest and some food we climbed out the over side and round the rim.
Quite a view
Then out of nowhere popped this guy. Quite exciting to be so close to a giraffe in the wild
He didnt seem to worried about us, so I took advantage of the situation with a quick photo shoot.
Then on the way home about 4pm we passed through "Game Corridor".......
Where we saw the origninal zebera crossing....
and plenty of other animals crossing the road to drink at the lake
The next day we headed to the Maasai Mara National Park, a grueling 14 hour trip on a dirt road in local buses. We camped out side Talek Gate just a stones throw across the river from the park.
In the evening we sat and watched various animals grazing and drinking from the apparent safety of our camp. The camp had two Maasai guards with spears who patrolled throughout the night.... for animals, not people.
Then first thing next morning we, with our Maasai guide Moses, headed into the park. Moses was dressed in traditional Maasai clothing, and found all the animals we saw that day himself (unlike many of the other guides who spent the day on their cell phones or radios taking to others about where the animals were)
The photo below shows some typical huts that a lot of Africans, including the Maasi live in. Mud walls and grass thatched roofs, these small communities would often be surrounded with thorn bushes to protect the families and herds from preditors.
The Maasai tribes are farmers, they do not hunt and they do not grow crops. Every day they must take the cattle, goats and sheep to find food. Young boys aged 4 or 5 start with small goat herds and learn the tricks of the trade very early. In the drought seasons many animals die as finding food is very hard.
Early morning, we found some lionesses heading down to the creek for a drink.
The African savana, vast and brown after the dry season.
There was plenty of carcasses lying around, an indication that the the large preditors were doing well in the circle of life.
Here is an Impala
We saw an eagle,
an ostrich
A lilac brested Roller, picking tics of the buffalo's back
In the dry season, this rock is exposed in the river to provide a bridge to watch the hippos
They spent most of the day in the water
Ken then asked Moses if we could see vultures. From up on a hill he saw some dust and action. And on approach we found a pack of vultures feasting on a kill perhaps a day or two old. This one had an amazing feather coat and fluffy pants.
These guys had heaps of character, and great long necks to allow their head to get right down inside the carcass bodys. They kept arriving every few minutes to join in the feast.
Then we saw our first wilderbeasts. The Gnu.
Typical African savana tree
By chance we stopped our vehicle in the path of a group of impalas. Frightened by the situation, the ones in the back group bounced past us at lightning speed to join the front group.
On the right at the base of this tree we found another carcass. Then I spotted another carcass up the tree. Mosos informed us that it would have been a leopard that would have have the strength to pull an animal up a tree.
A close up of the hippo carcass below the tree.
A close up of the remains up the tree.
Next we found some cheetahs. Very dainty, graceful animals.
A close up of this cheetah's foot showed blood on it's paws from the nights action.
The fat bellied lion seeked shade as the morning sun intensified.
Once in the shade, they did as all cats do.... they slept.
Every now and then they sat up, providing good photo opportunities. The open mouth to let the breeze cool them down.
I took the opportunity to photograph the funny looking safari tourist with their 10's of thousands of dollars worth of lenses.
About 20-30 trucks were parked near the river to see the world renowed Wilderbeast River Crossing as part of the migration. You can see a line of wilderbeasts below the trees. After a few minutes our guide said "They arent going to cross now, lets go eat and come back later".
When we came back after lunch only 2 trucks remained. We watched the animals causiously drink at the side of the river.
Then finally after about 30 mins of waiting, one brave zebra started to cross.
Then slowly one by one, more and more animals ventured into the river.
The pace picked up as the Gnu's entered the river.
The more they splashed, the more frightened they became as they panicked across the river.
And exhausted after the short adventure, those across the other side, continued on their migration south.
Soon large herds of gnu were entering the river all at once.
But unfortunately, one gnu met his doom in the river that day. As the hippos watch on and a cheeky zebra nipped across while the croc was busy, the gnu fought desparately for its life.
The croc had a large grip of the gnu's rump, and as a result, the only method of killing it was to drown it. This took quite a long time and the gnu wailed like a sick calf during it all. It was quite horrible.
After that excitment we left the river and came across some elephants. So sure footed and massive.
These guys were my favourite.
It was amazing seeing all the animals, zebra, elephants, gnu's etc in such large herds, all just chilling out mingling together.
On the river edge we saw a crew of crocs, basking in the sun.
Then over in the grass we found this sleeping lioness. She looked like a large soft toy.
Not far from the lioness we saw this group of three clubs and an older sister.
The cubs wanted to play, but the older sister (below), had a fat belly and wanted to be left in peace.
The cubs chased her and climbed on her with lots of energy.
"Play with me sis!!"
Then as we started to head for home we saw Mum and baby warthog.
We passed by the lions again, and they hadnt moved from their shady tree.
One last animal to finish off a breath taking day, our guide found a leapard feasting in the bush. Unfortunately I was out of battery in my SLR so we were reduced to a point and shoot with no zoom.
Fortunately, our guide had a hunch, that the mother had cubs in the bush behind us and he thought that once she had finished her share, she would go to her cubs, and hence pass close to our truck. And amazing he was right. No need for the zoom lense, the bottom right of the photo shows the bullbars of our truck. She was super close and droped her kill infront of our truck to snarl at us, before dragging it off into the bush.
Then a final touch to a perfect day, a photo in the setting sun with our amazing Maasai guide Moses.
Perfect
Thanks Kenya, you are amazing
After that excitment we left the river and came across some elephants. So sure footed and massive.
These guys were my favourite.
It was amazing seeing all the animals, zebra, elephants, gnu's etc in such large herds, all just chilling out mingling together.
On the river edge we saw a crew of crocs, basking in the sun.
Then over in the grass we found this sleeping lioness. She looked like a large soft toy.
Not far from the lioness we saw this group of three clubs and an older sister.
The cubs wanted to play, but the older sister (below), had a fat belly and wanted to be left in peace.
The cubs chased her and climbed on her with lots of energy.
"Play with me sis!!"
Then as we started to head for home we saw Mum and baby warthog.
We passed by the lions again, and they hadnt moved from their shady tree.
One last animal to finish off a breath taking day, our guide found a leapard feasting in the bush. Unfortunately I was out of battery in my SLR so we were reduced to a point and shoot with no zoom.
Fortunately, our guide had a hunch, that the mother had cubs in the bush behind us and he thought that once she had finished her share, she would go to her cubs, and hence pass close to our truck. And amazing he was right. No need for the zoom lense, the bottom right of the photo shows the bullbars of our truck. She was super close and droped her kill infront of our truck to snarl at us, before dragging it off into the bush.
Then a final touch to a perfect day, a photo in the setting sun with our amazing Maasai guide Moses.
Perfect
Thanks Kenya, you are amazing