KENY SAFARI TOUR - LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK

We moved from Masai Mara to Lake Nakuru National Park. It took us 5 hours + going through the rough country road to arrive at our accommodation, the Sunbird lodge, located by the side of Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

Our accommodation was a single en-suite bungalow unit.

The room was spacious and mosquito proof - well fitted with materials and colours in the African touch.

The sofa bed.

The spacious veranda with my daughter relaxing in the hammock.

Superb view of Lake Elmenteita from our unit.

We stayed in the lodge for the rest of the afternoon. I ventured into the surrounding area for bird watching. 

Honestly, I know nothing about birds but it was fun taking pictures of these beautiful ones.  

Further down the valley I found some cute animals which looked like "Guinea pigs", roaming in the rocks surface of the cliff.

I showed the pictures to the lodge reception staff and was told that these were "rock Hyraxes", commonly found in East Africa. They lived in rocky outcrops and feed on herbs, grasses, fruit and leaves, along with bird's eggs, insects and small lizards.

 View from the restaurant.

 

Great service and superb food at Sunbird Lodge.

I was surprised to find this accommodation with a great room, great food, excellent views, outstanding service and very friendly staff.  

KENYA SAFARI TOUR - MASAI MARA - Last Day.

The leopard and the cheetah were nowhere around Masai Mara. We had not seen them as we could be at the wrong place and at the wrong time. On this final Mara game drive, we saw another pride of lions. Still, the big male was missing!

 Very cute lion cubs.

 No lion king but there was this male cub.

 We moved on and found a very big herd of Buffaloes.

   They just relaxed in the sun.

 The young ones were always under the care of the big ones 

 

 They looked like our water buffaloes but they were definitely bigger.

 

 A giraffe with her baby.

This Marabou Stork was toying with it's catch before swallowing it.

 We are lucky to spot this jackal.

I was disappointed that we could not see the leopard or a cheetah in our 4 days game drives at Masai Mara. Others staying in the same camp were lucky but not us. Overall, we did see what we came for. As we would be moving to Lake Nakuru National park, the chances of seeing leopard and cheetah remanded good according to our driver.      

KENYA SAFARI TOUR - MASAI MARA DAY 3

Finally, we saw a small pride of lions on the 3rd day of our game drive. There was only a mother with 5 cubs. The male lion was nowhere in sight. 

 We spotted the lioness as she was walking towards a bush.

 She went straight to sleep with 2 cubs.

20 meters away in the open was a cub enjoying a wildebeest for breakfast. She was most probably the last one to feed.

 Later, she joined 2 cubs in another bush.

A close-up of the cub.

 These cubs were probably more than one and a half years old. 

We moved on and found a single wildebeest closed to where the lions were. It could be the next meal for the pride.

A topi antelope nursing her young.

 A zebra mother with her young

 Giraffe has quite a population in Masai Mara. 

African elephants is much bigger than of our Borneo Pygmy elephants!

 

 A very alert Thompson's Gazelle.

 From a distance we noticed a herd of sheep in the lion country.

 

They were looked after by these 2 young boys armed with only sticks. We were told that they had a total of 400 sheep with them. We gave them some mineral water. These boys were really amazing !

 A baboon mother looking for food.

A giant hippo was near the river. This one could easily weigh around 3 tonnes.

 Some of them were relaxing on the bank.

On the way back to our camp, we spotted this colourful " Lilac-breasted Roller" which is a common bird in Kenya's National parks. 

Another day was gone, there was still no leopard. My favourite game animal, the cheetah was missing too!