Through the East African plains..

As a Bengali growing up in Kolkata, one of our favourite stories would be Chander Pahar, by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay. The story of a young boy, Shankar who dares to leave the comforts of his home in Bengal and lands up in the east African grasslands in search of employment and adventure. Needless to say, the vivid description of the east African plains, and various animals in it, fuelled my imagination. Movies such as Hatari became an all time favourite. Africa has always captivated me and hence a trip to this fascinating continent was long due.

Finally, after years of planning and cancelling and planning all over again, I, Moumita, Avik and Kaustav assembled in Mumbai's Terminal 2 on a January evening. A long-cherished dream was gently unfolding 😊😊😊...

All smiles, as we wait to board our Indigo flight from Mumbai to Nairobi at 3 AM!

The flight experience wasn't particularly pleasant...You can imagine a 6 hours flight on wafer thin seats and zero legroom 😒...But finally, at about 6:30 AM Nairobi time, we landed and we were in for a surprise ! The weather was almost chilling with dark clouds, unlike any summer we have ever seen😢...After clearing immigration, we collected our Safaricom SIM Cards and stepped out, where we were greeted by our friend Paul. We had planned to spend a day in Nairobi and check out the city and its vibes. Before that we needed to freshen up a bit and we checked in at the Le Maison Hotel. After some much needed rest and breakfast, we were ready to explore a few spots within Nairobi. First up was the Giraffe Center.

The Giraffe Centre is a mini zoo which houses several species of Giraffes. You can feed them and observe them from close quarters here.

The friendly Giraffes won't mind feeding from your hands, and they are accompanied by a few warthogs who would eat off the floor...

After the Giraffe Centre, we decided to head to an animal orphanage, which provides shelter to several animals. While it was a tad underwhelming, we did enjoy the collection of African snakes, including the fabled Black and Green Mamba. The Zoo also offered a variety of birds and other animals such as the vervet monkey, Baboons, lions, etc.

One of Africa's most venomous and feared reptiles, the Green Mamba !

Our day in Nairobi ended with some lovely coffee and bagels in a cafe, and we wisely decided to skip to our plans of having dinner at the Carnivore Restaurant, as we were super tired.

Coffee and Bagels is a lovely small restaurant, serving various forms of coffee along with freshly baked bagels...Definitely worth a visit after a hectic day in Nairobi

The following morning, we were greeted by our Masai friend, Charles, who had arrived in his enormous Land Cruiser. With that, our East African safari, finally began!

There begins our African Safari - All smiles before we start our journey to Lake Nakuru and onwards to Masai Mara !

Lake Nakuru, for the uninitiated, is a volcanic lake, within the great African Rift Valley. This enormous rift valley stretches all the way from Red Sea to Mozambique !. You can stop over for a lovely view of the rift valley enroute Lake Nakuru.

While the weather wasn't bright, the view of the Great African Rift Valley was truly breathtaking. We also spotted a Rock Hyrax, our first wild animal from Africa 😁

Lake Nakuru is famous for its rich birdlife and the African White Rhino. But before that, we checked into our hotel, the Waterbuck and had some sumptuous lunch comprising of lamb, beef broth fish and boiled veggies.

Some stewed beef and boiled veggies to fill our tummies before the jungle safari 😊

After having a hearty lunch, we were finally within Lake Nakuru !...

On the banks of the huge Lake Nakuru with hundreds of flamingoes and Great White Pelicans for company. Lake Nakuru is definitely worth a visit enroute Masai Mara.

While the number of flamingos has gone down significantly owing to global weather changes, Lake Nakuru still stands as one of the best habitats for flamingos in the World

Lake Nakuru is also famous for its population of Southern White Rhino and stands out as a prominent sanctuary for these critically endangered species.

Our day in Lake Nakuru ended with a beautiful sighting of two massive White Rhinos. Upon returning back to our hotel, we had some lovely dinner and wine. We retired early, since we had to start early next day for Masai Mara.

The next morning, we started on our journey to Masai Mara! After a 5 hours drive, finally we arrived in front of the Sekinani Gate of Masai Mara. Let me share an interesting trivia about Masai Mara - The name Masai Mara means the dotted land of the Masai people. If you gaze into the landscape of Masai Mara, you will see and endless sea of grass, dotted with Acacia trees which look like small dots in the horizon - hence the name Masai Mara.

Sekinani Gate is the most prominent gate of Masai Mara with significant number of hotels and resorts around it.

As we entered the Masai Mara, we were absolutely awestruck by the sheer expanse of the landscape ! It is an ocean of grass, punctuated by Acacia trees in the horizon. As we entered this kingdom of grass, we were greeted by a herd of African elephants with a cute baby, who was constantly being shielded by its mother.

We had decided to stay in Malaika Bush Camp, which is located inside the Masai Mara game reserve. Hence, we had to travel a good 20 km from the Sekinani Gate. As we crossed the herd of elephants, we suddenly spotted a movement in the bushes next to us. As we strained our eyes, there it was...A magnificent Lion!

After a wonderful lion sighting, we finally checked into our beautiful resort, Malaika Bush Camp. This camp is located at the edge of the Mara River and deep inside the forest. You can see and hear the Mara River gushing across and often observe the Hippos enjoying a bath.

This is the lovely view of the Mara River gushing just adjoining the Malaika Bush Camp. Every now and then you can see a Hippo popping its head out or a crocodile gently floating across the river.

However, the skies opened up and it started raining torrentially and hence we decided to rest for the day. Next three days were fully reserved for exploring the plains of Mara. Next day, at the crack of dawn, we were all set to explore the great east African plains. As we left our camp, the radio in our Land Cruiser suddenly crackled and Charles exchanged few words. We knew we were on hot pursuit of something. At a distance we could see a few other cars lined up, and then finally saw the reason for the commotion. A pride of lions was resting and nursing young cubs.

A magnificent lion looks on, as photographers make a beeline to catch a glimpse of him and his family. Masai Mara is a fabulous place to observe these wonderful creatures.

A doting mother nurses her tiny cubs and possibly takes care of the cubs of another female from her own pride.

The next few days were absolutely amazing! We saw tonnes of wild animals and spent amazing time with our Masai friends. Masai Mara offers not just mammals but it is also a birder's paradise. Throughout our trip we were constantly entertained by the enormous bird variety as we spent hours tracking and waiting for big and small birds alike!!..Following photos were taken over the next three days, however, these pictures can barely do justice to what we truly experienced 😊😊..

Often regarded as one of the most dangerous of the big mammals in Africa, the African Cape Buffalo is a mean beast and accounts for several human deaths in Africa.

Lorkogol is a dominant male leopard from Masai Mara. We found him resting under a bush for a long time, when we finally decided to leave him and chase the sunsets.

Cheetahs are a common-enough sight in the Masai Mara. However, we saw one with a fresh kill. The Cheetah was lounging next to it's kill, it's belly way too full and without a care in the world..

What an absolute pleasure to have some wonderful coffee, sausages, pan cakes and juices right in the middle of the savannah.

While we saw plenty of elephants, we yearned to see one big bull elephant. Thankfully we were fortunate enough to see one ambling across the grasslands and gave us a loud grunt...

Masai Mara has a rich avian population, hence do keep a watch out for lovely birds while you are looking for the big mammals. The Secretary Bird is a distinctive large bird that feeds on snakes and look extremely handsome...

Thanks to our friend Charles, we saw this very unique and amazing bird called the Southern ground hornbill which we had been yearning to watch since the trip began..

Bush lunch would comprise of freshly cooked rice, chicken, sautéed veggies. We would polish off our plates after a hectic morning safari.

On the Tanzanian border, while walking down the Mara river, we saw a group of hippos cooling themselves. One of them finally walked out and gave us a mighty yawn .

Photo Credit : Moumita Bhowmick

Sunsets in Masai Mara are magical...While we didn't get good weather for the major part of our trip, we did get one beautiful sunset during our stay.

On our last day at the Mara, we decided to a sundowner with some good wine which was promptly arranged by our camp. We spent a lovely evening with our Masai friends drinking wine and chatting about their lives and the African wilderness.

Finally signing off from Masai Mara with loads of smiles and heart full of wonderful memories with friends and family

Photo Credit : Charles Ashiali

After a long journey back to Nairobi, we decided to have a good dinner at the famous restaurant Carnivore.

Happy faces as we wrap up a fantastic trip to the East African grasslands. This restaurant is a paradise for meat lovers and if you enjoy various kinds of meats, this place is worth a visit

Finally, after a hearty dinner, we checked into our hotel. Our flight back to Mumbai was scheduled early next morning. Thus, ended one of our most cherished trips to Kenya. Hope to catch you all on our next blog😊😊