Spotting the Big Five and more in Kenya

Ginger Dunn

The picture many have of Africa, that of the golden savanna dotted

with wild game and studded with flat-topped umbrella acacia trees, is

actually the landscape of Kenya. This is the land of the classic

safari. The animals roaming freely and abundantly is a scene truly

right out of National Geographic.

The safari goal is to see the Big Five: lion, elephant, water

buffalo, rhino and leopard. We began at Mount Kenya, the second

highest mountain in Africa. It stands on the equator, yet its peak is

covered in snow.

We stayed at a “treetops” mountain lodge overlooking a waterhole

surrounded by dense rainforest. Many animals roam in and out all

night, and we were serenaded by trumpeting elephants.

The next drive was toward the Great Rift Valley and Lake Nakuru

National Park. The shallow soda lake boasts the greatest spectacle of

thousands of pink flamingos. We finished at a safari tent camp in

Masai Mara, Kenya’s most popular game reserve. The Mara is the

northern Serengeti Plain and shares migration with neighboring

Tanzania.

We visited the Masai, the best known African tribe, with its

warrior caste and distinctive blood red shoulder cloaks. They live in

huts made of cow dung and sticks. Although they continue many of

their tribal rituals, they are becoming more Westernized. But they

remain one of the greatest nomadic tribes of the modern world.

Seeing the Big Five, plus scores of zebra, giraffe, hyena, hippo

and so much more wild game, was easy, but travel in the land rover

was rough. The roads are the worst encountered anywhere. We traveled

long distances between stays, but were always greeted at the door

with cold drinks, hot towels and big smiles.

Every day was truly an adventure, with flat tires, being stuck in

the mud and a burned out transmission, but it was always “hakuna

matata” (no worries), and the adventure continued in style.

The food was delicious and plentiful. Even a bush breakfast out of

the land rover was served with a tablecloth and china. A hot water

bottle was tucked in your bed to soothe the rough day of travel.

“Jambo” is Swahili for hello. The Kenyans are some of the

friendliest people in the world and always greet you in passing. Even

the people out tending their cattle and goats and fetching water and

sticks and the children by the road would wave and shout out “Jambo.”

The people outside the city exist on small, five-acre farms with

no electricity or plumbing. After independence from Britain, Kenya

has been under a corrupt government for the past 20 years. So

although the land is rich with coffee, tea and pineapple plantations,

the people are very poor. But Kenya just elected a new president, and

optimism runs high.

My final stop in Nairobi was the memorial park built at the site

of the 1998 American Embassy bombing. A handful of Americans and more

than 200 innocent Kenyans died as a result of this terrorist act, yet

this largely Christian country harbors no prejudice.

I went on this trip to see the beautiful animals, but was equally

impressed with the beautiful people.

* GINGER DUNN is a Newport Beach resident.

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