Nairobi National Park - March Trip

On a beautiful early morning, the CDR, Mark and I escaped to Nairobi National Park before meetings later that day.  We entered the park before sunrise, and drove deep into the park even before the sun was up.  The animal variety we saw in the morning was truly spectacular. 

 

The mist throughout the park was so beautiful, but was only there because it was nearly 40 degrees. 

This female lion surprised us as it lay next to the road on the left.  Disturbed by our vehicle, she got up with a roar and moved over to a small hill on the right side of the vehicle.  While on this hill, she was very vocal, roaring and calling out with a variety of sounds. 

This is a video of her roaring, and as you can hear in the video we were wondering why she was roaring.  A few seconds later we understood while as a distant lion answered her.

After our first lion encounter we passed over a stream where a few Saddlebills were standing in the water.  They are an absolutely massive bird, standing nearly 4 feet tall.

The sunrise over the park was absolutely amazing.  I captured well over 200 pictures, bracketing and changing composition, these are just the best of them. 

We came across this massive adult male giraffe, wandering just on his own.  Giraffes are normally in a herd, I have seen very few on their own.  You can see the old of this tower by the roughness of his horns.

A herd of Thompson's Gazelle went running by, and we waited to see what was causing them to run, hoping to see Lions, Cheetahs, or Hyenas chasing them, but no such luck.

Another group of giraffes that crossed the road by us, and as the sun made it's way higher, more and more other vehicles entered the park.

We went to a cliff overlook, where we saw an unusual castle like structure within the park, a leftover from the British colonial era and an Eland down in the valley below the cliff.

We came across some more giraffes and got to see a real rare site, giraffes fighting.   Due to the size of these animals, we think they were just some teenagers practice fighting, but the force their necks generate nearly knocked each of these giraffes off their feet as they would slam eachother.

A warthog was running across the field, which the drivers refer to them as 'mini rhinos'.  

The ostrich is a truly impressive animal, due to its size, speed, and the 3-4 inch long middle toe nail that looks something like the claw of a velociraptor.  You can see that they were all calm, until one male was no longer happy with us watching his harem of females.

An Eland, the largest of the gazelles, and is huge, nearly the size of a large cow.  They seem pretty rare as I have only seen 2 in my 3 months in Kenya.

I love the horns on a Hardebeast, for some reason it reminds me of a Dr Suess hairstyle.

A zebra with nearly hypnotic stripes.

One last giraffe as we were heading towards the exit to the park.

We saw another safari vehicle parked and the occupants looking to their left, we looked to the right and saw this huge male lion lounging after a night of feeding.  He was distended and roaring softly.

The other vehicle finally moved away and hiding behind them, a female laying down on the side of the road.

 The female started to make some soft vocal noises, which were answered by some higher pitched roars, and then a cub climbed out of the bushes just behind the female. 

 

 This noise and motion did wake up Dad, but he quickly realized all was good and went back to his nap.

 This sequence of photos is the playtime between Mom and cub that we were able to watch.  Even though the cub is only about the size of a large housecat, it was very aggressive towards its mother.  Who was easily able to beat it back.  It finally grabbed the cub in her mouth and carried it off. 

 

As another safari vehicle pulled up on the far side of the dirt road, the female made it clear she did not like them with a mighty roar and a stare down.  

This again startled the male awake and up, but he quickly fell asleep sitting up and then slumped over.  It must have been a tough night watching his mate catch the kill and steal it away from her to eat his fill before letting her and the cub eat.

This was the final cute shot of the cub who was playing just behind its mother. 

Mark and I took CDR Fetters to our job sites at Teremi and Chwele after our trip through Tsavo.  These two jobs are our best in Kenya, with a very impressive contractor who is doing a great job and holding to a schedule.  Both of these schools are getting large dormitories, one is a boys dorm, the other is a girls dorm. 

 Our first stop was at Teremi, since they were actually pouring the foundation that day.  Anwar, the owner of the construction company (in the white hardhat) brought almost all the workers from the nearby Chwele site to help support the workers from Teremi to complete the pour in one day.  

Its a full production here in Africa, whereas in the states this would be easily accomplished with only a handful of guys, two concrete trucks and a pumper, there are nearly 100 men and women working at breakneck pace to keep the two cement mixers working optimally.

CDR Fetters and Capt Rausch overlooking the progress.

Teams of men kept bringing wheelbarrows of concrete as work leaders directed where to pour it and other try to set the construction joints in place at the right location.

At Chwele, the concrete work was completed the week prior, and work had begun on the walls.  The first layer is always the toughest, but even as we were there, we watched as the second and third rows were quickly laid into place.

Only a handful of workers were at this site, but even in the hour or so we were there, nearly two courses of brick were laid.

The overall condition that this jobsite is maintained at is immaculate.  I have been very happy with this contractor's work and I am happy that he is doing 3 out of the 4 current projects underway in Kenya.