Trip Report Part V (Lake Naivasha, Crescent Island, Masai Mara)

So Friday (6/18) was another early wake-up. I forgot to say yesterday that Lion Hill Lodge also sucked because of the massive amounts of mosquitoes. I mean there had been mosquitoes everywhere we had been so far, but here they were so bad you felt like you would inhale them if you opened your mouth to breathe. Yuck. So while the room had netting around the bed, they were still in the room and whining and made you feel like you were being bitten even when you weren't. Double yuck. Anyway, I was glad we only stayed there one night.
Benjamin had suggested that instead of another game drive at Nakuru that morning that we head to Lake Naivasha to take a boat tour and see hippos. I was kinda bummed as we didn't really get to see that much of Nakuru, but everyone was excited about seeing hippos (I was too, just not as excited as they were) so we all jumped back in Jesus and headed out. One funny thing about Africa is the very random name-brand clothing that you see. This includes things like sports teams, fashion brands, and other name-brand advertising. So anyway, one of the game wardens at the park checkpoint had a porsche jacket on. Ben said that he should have it embroidered to say "My other car is a rhino." (which was even funnier in an English accent of course!) Ahhh Ben made me laugh a lot :)
So it wasn't too long before we reached Lake Naivasha. This was another home of Joy Adamson, but I think she lived there after she wrote Born Free. We were kind of surprised because this lake is pretty hidden, and even walking towards it, we didn't realize how close we were. I am not sure if it has a freshwater spring, or if it has an outlet, but it is a freshwater lake (compared to Nakuru which was not) which means it is a great habitat for thousands of birds, and, of course, hippos! So we walked down to the shore and jumped in a boat with our guide named Paul. I honestly expected to be kind of disappointed with this boat-tour-thingy, but I was really pleasantly surprised! We started off puttering through a very shallow, marshy part of the lake. We saw tons of different kinds of birds including pelicans, ibises, and egrets. Then we came upon a big mass of hippos! There were probably at least 20 of them. They were very fat and cute... although I think we were all a little bit nervous (as you hear about how dangerous they can be). Paul kept us at a good distance, but you still had that little voice in your head that wondered if there was one swimming underwater to tip over our boat! :) Then we headed for the deeper part of the lake and Crescent Island. As we passed part of the shore, Paul yelled to a man on the shore who proceeded to throw a couple of fish at us. When we asked what they were for, Paul said "breakfast!" I was kind of thinking that he meant breakfast for him, but it turns out it was breakfast for the African Fish Eagles!! We saw them high up in the branches of some very tall acacia trees. Paul let out a very high whistle and threw the fish into the lake... and down they came. They were huge and fast and VERY cool. He threw the second one, and a second eagle swooped down... made me glad that I wasn't a fish!! Then we landed on Crescent Island and climbed out of the boat. This island is where part of "Out of Africa" was filmed. When making the movie they brought a bunch of non-predatory animals to the island (giraffes, zebras, impala, wildebeests, etc.) so it is safe to walk around on the island and not worry about getting eaten. It actually felt very Jurassic-Park-ish (thankfully without the being-chased-by-dinosaurs part) to be just walking around with these wild animals. I suppose to Africans it is a lot like how I feel walking around with the deer, elk, and coyotes that live in Estes Park... but it was MUCH more exciting to me when it was zebras and giraffes :) The only dangerous part was the occasional big holes in the ground, which I selflessly discovered for the benefit of the group (aka fell into one of them and twisted my ankle). Oh well :) It's a good thing I can laugh at myself! The giraffes on the island were Masai giraffes, which are different from the reticulated giraffes we had been seeing so far. Where as the reticulated giraffes have a cleaner, more geometric pattern, the Masai giraffes have messier splotches. We had a blast watching them, especially the younger ones who were playing! So after a while it was back to the boat and back to the shore and off to the Masai Mara!
Unfortunately this meant another couple hours of "free African massage" of which we were very tired. However, we entertained ourselves with a hilarious conversation about the differences between American and English swear words and slang. I haven't laughed that much in a very long time :) By the end of the trip my delightful new friends had adopted me as an honorary Englishman and I can't wait to and visit them in London :) So anyway... we finally reached the Masai Mara. When I dream of Africa, this is what I will dream of... it was my absolute favorite place, and I could have stayed there forever. We stopped at the Sarova Mara Tent Camp first, and I have to say that we were all a little wary of having to stay in tents... until we saw their version of a tent!! They were the crème de la crème of tents! A permanent frame and roof was connected to a HUGE canvas tent. The floors were hardwood and the four-poster bed was huge :) The attached bathroom was permanent and made of gorgeous marble and tile. The shower alone was bigger than my whole bathroom at home! It was spectacular :) So after a quick rest it was off to the Mara. Being in love with the trees, I was always watching them as we drove by, and I stopped the van when I spotted some huge birds. After having teased Tim for several days about how EVERY bird (from a stork to a sparrow) was a vulture, I said, "Ok, really NOT kidding this time... aren't those vultures??" And they were! Very creepy and cool :) We saw several herds of gazelles, buffalo, and wildebeest. We were very excited as the annual migration of wildebeests had started early. They do not usually appear on the Mara until July, but there were already hundreds of thousands of them there. This meant a much better chance of spotting lions! Sure enough we came across a lion kill and a lion! He was a young male in pretty rough shape. I think he was probably still trying to hang around his pride and getting beat up for doing so. We named him William (Bill) and watched him for a while before moving on to more zebras and wildebeests. Finally as the sun was setting we found a herd of elephants, and watching them interact was a perfect way to end the day. We drove back to the lodge in a hurry as my fellow Englishmen were very excited to watch the English football (soccer) match that evening. Jessica, Jordan, and I went to dinner around 7:30ish as we were very hungry and were 2/3 of our way through dinner when our hostess told us that she hadn't realized who we were and that there was a special dinner arranged for us (that sneaky Benjamin!). So we took our drinks and followed her quite a ways away from the main hall to where a private dinner had been set up under the African stars (we saw the southern cross! yay!). It was close to a water hole (on the other side of a fence) and we were told to watch for lions and elephants that often came there in the evening to drink. We were joined by Ben, Kathryn, Tim, and Susan, and while we had already eaten quite a bit, we found a little more room in our tummies and enjoyed another delicious meal and some extremely tasty African wine. Unfortunately, even though Tim did his VERY accurate lion-call, we didn't see any animals... but we did have a wonderful time. Then we all headed back to the bar to cheer on England. Sadly the game ended in a 0-0 tie, but we had enough drinks and laughter to make up for it. My favorite part was when Ben's brother texted him "what a pile of pants!" which became my new favorite English phrase :) We all headed to bed very late, moaning as we had to be back in the lobby at 5am for our balloon flight the next morning... but all the fun was well worth it :) Click on this link to see the pictures!