Tsavo Park – March Trip

Another trip back from the coast, and another trip to through Tsavo East.  An earlier start allowed for a great day of animal viewing. 

In the early morning sun, the glossy hair of the gazelles was reflecting brightly.  These two young males were warily grazing.

A waterbuck who already found the tree he would bed down under as the sun heated the day.

A large herd of olive baboons, wandering over the open plains.  The young one catching a ride on mom’s back was quite comical, just looking around and eating while leaning on mom’s tail.

Elephants wandering towards shade and away from us.  Almost every time we come across them, I have about one minute to  shot before they turn and all I get is their rear end.

CDR Fetters and Mark at hippo point.  One of the only places it is safe to walk away from the vehicles. 

Not many hippos this day because the water level was so low.  This one female keep an eye on us while her little one bobbed to the surface every couple of minutes.

Baboons must really hate the water as this herd leapt from rock to rock across the river. 

I loved this croc picture because of the one snarled tooth sticking up, even at 4-5 feet long, it was very intimidating.

The only buffalo we saw that day were on a far hillside and moving quickly.  Some of them were even running and urging the herd on faster.

A single gazelle that caught my eye. 

A lone giraffe that was wandering across the plain.  He, of course, saw us and wandered further up the road to cross.  We upset him by continuing down the road and blocking his path for the better picture.

This last herd cut between the two Prado’s.  We just parked and let them walk by, with the matriarch watching over us and being vocal so that the other would continue to walk quickly by us. 

Kiunga Trip - March

The March trip to Kenya also included my boss, CDR Fetters.  It was going to be a whirlwind tour, showing him as many of the Kenya projects in the least amount of time possible.  The trip started with a run up the coast to Kiunga to evaluate a new project.  This was also with some NAVFAC engineers who came in from Norfolk to provide their assessment and knowledge. 

 

The run up the coast was perfectly smooth in the sunrise. 

That is Jafar, one of the boat operators we use regularly.  

 

We passed the town of Mkokoni early in the morning, the harbor a mix of semi modern sportfishermen and traditional dhows.  

The tide range up on the North Coast is huge, roughly 12 feet, which can also make our transits very tough as entire bays become dry and force us offshore.

Here is CDR Fetters by the sign of one of the projects that completed recently.

A djabia in the town, being considered for a renovation project.

The tidal flat where a project is being considered…. NAVFAC engineers spent hours surveying the site to get every measurement and fact necessary… since they won’t be back to this location and needed to get all information.

On the way back to the KNAV base we stopped at another current project, a school that was renovated.  The classrooms are now being used, but being taken care of well.

The final run back to the KNAV pier was across a beautiful body of water, I thoroughly enjoy visiting this project.  Being on the water makes me almost feel like I am in the Navy again.

In February, BUC Chamberlain and I made a trip over to Nairobi National Park, leaving the hotel very early in the morning and arriving at just after sunrise.  We followed the same path once we entered the park, heading towards the west and skirting along the edge of the forest. 

We initially came across this herd of water buffalo which were moving throughout the brush and trees.  This young one was very curious about us and the truck, venturing out into the road with all the adults grunting and huffing as walked out near us. 

One of the protective adults watching over its young. 

This was the first Oryx I got to see, of course it was deep in the brush and far away, so no clear shots.  Even in this distant shot, you can see how interesting their horns are.

Like the rest of Kenya, zebra are everywhere.

This shot shows how the young’s strips are more tan and white, which works really well in high grass, they blend in and are very camouflaged. 

Finally got to see a lion.  Another driver pointed use in the right direction and after heading down a road for a bit hanging out of the open window I saw this teenage male wander out into the road after we passed.  We circled around and  started following him.

Though his mouth was open for these shots, he was not being vocal.  He was just panting in the early morning heat. 

He may look large, but in reality for a male he was fairly small.  Our drivers also pointed out that his stomach wasn’t distended so he hadn’t eaten the night before.  This a good shot showing that his mane wasn’t filled out yet. 

After wandering through the grass for about ½ km, he got out onto the road and walked on the smooth dirt vice the high grass.

He kept a steady pace on the road for about 20 minutes, but suddenly stopped and went back to this spot.  He sniffed and rummaged through grass, finally turning and marking the spot, multiple times, from different directions.

During the sniffing, he did get worked up and started making low roars and groans… and panting much harder.

We finally worked out way past him and were finally able to get some shots from the front instead of his rear end. 

He wasn’t really fond of us being in front of him, so he moved to the side and picked up the pace, quickly passing us.   This pose was because he caught wind that there were gazelles ahead.  Every other animal, otherwise known as prey, for the surrounding 2 km knew exactly where he was and did their best to provide about a km of distance between them.

 As he moved past us, I will still hanging out of the Prado’s window taking shots.  He started paying too much attention to me, and starting walking my way, with a very intent ‘you look tasty’ look.  I decided to swing back into the Prado, and close the window, hearing a convincing roar as I did.

As he moved off the road, he was very aware of his surroundings looking around at all the other animals, sometimes even on a far hillside, moving away from him very quickly.

Once he finally got ahead of us we met another car on the same road.  My driver called this a ‘Kenya roadblock’.  The other person stayed out of his car taking pictures longer than I would have, and finally jumped back into his car when the lion moved to right side of the road and wanted to pass on the side of the vehicle where the guy was standing.  The lion even sniffed at the door handles of that vehicle.