If You Could Walk With The Animals

Isaiah told us that it would be a long day on the road. He didn't lie. From the arid Sambutu to the green lush area of the rift valley that holds a large number of lakes it took us nearly seven hours. Much of that journey was on rough roads passing through small villages lined with small shacks or little shops for everyday needs. Every day that we drove we saw dozens of villages that looked so much like this one. Some bigger and some smaller. Some had vendors standing in the middle of the road trying sell fruit or water or whatever.

Between the villages and small towns there were herders of goats, cattle, or even camels. They were wearing anything from jeans and t-shirts to traditional tribal robes. Driving along with us were other safari vehicles, trucks and many many motorcycles. Most of the work vehicles were carrying cargo of some type. Even the motorcycles were frequently carrying up to four people or a load of baskets, bags, timber, whatever needed to get down the road.

The lodge at Lake Naivasha was a little bit more commercial thing than where we had been in Samburu, but it was still a nice place. With a tent/cabin furnished with king size and a queen size bed where both had the traditional mosquito net hanging from the four poster beds.

As we were going up to our tent, we saw a number of young people prowling the grounds in search of a post worthy selfie. One of the young tourists chose to approach a pair of vervet monkeys that were trying to get better acquainted, and in so doing he disturbed them and broke that magic moment for those two monkeys. As he was seeking to satisfy his need for a selfie it made me wonder which was more civilized, the vervet monkey or the tourist?

Isaiah was tired from the long drive and was quick to be on to his own quarters for some rest. He recommended that we take a boat safari and go out to Crescent Island since this was one of the few places where you could walk in nature see if the wild animals without fear of predators. After paying our fee and getting our tickets, we went down to find John on one the half dozen boats that were pulled up to the shore. The boats were long and thin, with a small outboard at the back. After asking around a bit we found a John gave him our tickets and he turned us over to Joseph who would be driving the boat and acting as our first guide of this mini safari.

We climbed in, put on our bright orange life jackets, and began to ride through the very shallow waters of Crescent Lake. There were many tree stumps protruding up out of the water with narrow channels between that Joseph knew how to navigate. As we were motoring near the shore Joseph pointed out some of the bird life, including a spoonbill, and a stork that are not the same as we would see in the United States. Shortly after that, he pointed out a small group of hippos, popping their eyes up out of the water, not too far from our boat, which we definitely do not see in the United States.

After passing the pontoon boat moored to the shore marking the location of the Lake Naivasha Country Club we spotted a few fishermen. That was not unusual, but the manner in which they were seated did draw my attention. About fifty meters from the shore they were perched on some of the submerged trees that dotted the outer margins of the lake. Whether on a floating piece of styrofoam or a branch just above the waterline they all seemed settled in for an afternoon of collecting the bounty of the lake. And hopefully not meeting one of those hippos we saw earlier.

Further up the lake we spotted a fish eagle perched in a tree at which point our driver asked if I was ready. Not sure what he was talking about I soon realized that he was going to call the fish eagle down for a morsel as he tossed a bit of fish into the water. The eagle launched from its perch and dove down to grab it out of the water. I was moderately ready and managed to get a few good shots, including one with his talons stretched out before him ready to grab the fish from the water. I was very happy with that and several of the other shots.

A bit after that exciting sighting Joseph pushed the boat ashore near another small group of boats, and we were assisted out onto the land where we were now turned over to James. He was a tall man dressed in all green, and he was going to show us around. He said this is where we could walk among the wild animals. There was a water buck and zebras, and he said further on there would be giraffes. After walking for about 10 minutes James waved back at the people along the water. He quickly left us and hurried back that way.

Meanwhile, about 40 Chinese tourists came up and started to harass the zebras that had been calmly grazing near us. The calm stroll among them giving me, incredible opportunities to get close-up shots of their faces as the zebras checked us out and as they were grazing. I was quite disappointed at their behavior. The tourist not the zebras.

James returned to us and said that we had been put off in the wrong location. We had been dropped along the shore and that we should instead be taken to the Crescent Island, which was a few minutes away.

We got back into the boat with Joseph, and were taken the short distance to Crescent Island. Where once again we were put ashore, and given a limited amount of time to find our way back to the boats before it got dark. Dusty and I were introduced to a young guide/ranger named Issac to accompany our stroll on the island. Here we were introduced at a very close distance to a giraffe that was significantly pregnant, but still had several months left of the 11 months of gestation before it would deliver its baby. Further along the trail Issac gave Dusty a handful of greens to feed a group of ostrich that were nearby.

After feeding the ostrich we walked a little further down the trail through a gate finding ourselves looking at a group of Impala. There was a harem of females, one buck, and a group of probably seven or eight very young impala laying on the ground.

Lovebirds scattered at our approach, and we were disappointed to not be able to get a good picture of the group of them until I saw they had landed about 100 m in front of us and I tried to approach them. First I got my obligatory insurance of shots from a distance so that you could at least identify them in a picture. To our good fortune they took off again and flew back towards us to land in a tree just above us on the trail and I got a few closer shots.

We had to cross over the center of the island in order to join up with our boat to return to the lodge. In the process of crossing through this wild brush in east Africa, we found that our shoes were in embedded with hundreds of thorns that, had we been barefoot, would have shredded our feet. (We may have watched too many episodes of Naked and Afraid)

When we got to the boat loading area we saw about a dozen other tourists waiting to be picked up but no boats were there yet. As we were waiting, we chatted with Isaac and he said not to worry. If our boat did not return he would stay with us overnight if needed, and would bring a buffet for us to eat on the island and sleep under the stars. This was actually starting to sound pretty good. Soon two boats did arrive and took the people who were waiting before us away, but there was no one there for us. After a couple of phone calls a boat was sent for us. It was not our original guide now this one was Steve and he returned us across the lake back to the lodge where we would prepare for our dinner.