Catherine at the Safaricom Lewa Marathon 2010

Catherine and her husband, Anthony were in Isiolo this past weekend to attend the 2010 Safaricom Lewa Marathon. It is the only marathon held entirely within a game reserve and the race benefits the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Even though she did not run, Catherine and Anthony came out to support Safaricom and the Conservancy. You can read more about the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy here.

I know people run marathons for many different reasons but but I'm especially fond of this worthy cause. It is so important to protect the wildlife. I can only imagine how awesome it must be to be running alongside such amazing animals! I wonder if part of the motivation to keep going is to outrun the lions! :-)

Please don't forget to stop by and support our fundraising campaign at our Official Website or at our IndieGoGo site.  We need your help!

Lions No Tigers and Bears

Sunday June 1, 2008

Today is the day! I got up at 7 and got the rest of my things packed and all my treated clothing packed in my overnight bag for Masai Mara! I got downstairs on time and went to check out. Unfortunately there were some discrepancies with the bill that took longer than expected to sort out but we did. It turns out that the EXCHANGE rate I had been given during my stay was 58.05-59. On my bill however the rate was calculated at 62.35. It turns out they have a rate for exchange and a rate they use to bill. I don’t get it! For comparison just to jump ahead a few hours, the hotel in Masai Mara uses 56.40! If you figure it out please let ME know!

Anyway it was time to head to Wilson airport to catch my Air Kenya flight. At almost 10am we boarded. There were around 30 people on the flight. When the pilot turned the propellers on we didn’t go anywhere. The pilot came over the intercom and told us that the ground crew spotted a hydraulic leak! We had to disembark and waited for another hour before they were able to board us onto another craft.

Finally we were airborne! I found out that the plane was like a bus and that I would be stop number 3. It was nice to watch out of the window for awhile but next thing I knew it 40 minutes had passed and we were making our first stop. When we arrived at the Mara Serena airstrip, those of us staying at Mara Serena Lodge got off the plane. We headed towards the parking lot and were told to choose a vehicle. I got into one with a nice young couple. There was a man outside with a video camera narrating his film: we are now at the landing strip for Mara Serena, here is our vehicle….” Blah blah blah! He made the entire jeep wait for him to finish. Thankfully, he chose the other van!

Our driver/guide’s name is Dickson. He is from Samburu and has been her for over two years. He is very knowledgeable and we found out that he would be our guide from here on in.

There was NOTHING along the road coming to the hotel/lodge. As we approached the Mara Serena Lodge however, it seemed like paradise! The hotel consists of small cottages built into the side of a mountain. One side overlooks the plains and the other side overlooks the pool and plains. We had lunch and then we were shown to our rooms. My room is SO lovely! It is a hundred times nicer that Panafric and I only wish I had more time here! There is a king size bed, very nice dresser, a beautiful bathroom with a shower and real flushing toilet! The bed has a mosquito net that you pull around when you got to sleep. Then there is a sitting area with two chairs and a table that overlooks a huge window that you can open to reveal the Mara. I saw a herd of elephants and a buffalo just with the naked eye! If you remember earlier in the post meant for yesterday I mentioned that the man who showed me to my room warned me never to leave the window open when not in the room because the baboons are known to come in and snatch things!

We had the afternoon free so I decided to sit by the pool for a bit and see if I could get any color that would show I had been in Africa! It was a lovely view out over the plains and I saw what is known as a Gamma Lizard. He was beautiful and the funniest little guy I hope I can figure out how to post videos on here because you have to see this creature’s mating ritual it is hysterical He bobs his head up and down a bunch of times trying to court the female. Just as in every living creature except man, the female is never as pretty as the male. (looks like superman!)

I relaxed until it was time for our game drive. I was SO excited! This is something I have always wanted to do and here I am! As I entered the lobby I saw Adam and Jennifer who I had shared the ride from the airport with. I asked Dickson, our guide, if it would just be the three of us that if the Indian man with the camcorder was on our vehicle I would not be happy! He said he is not because he had the manifest and we were only waiting for one more man and someone said the video guy was already in his car. We couldn’t find our last person so we headed out to the car, the while thinking “please don’t let him be in our car”. Well, sure enough he was in OUR car! The three of us just looked at each other; we had no choice. We get into the vehicle and the guide starts talking to us and all we can hear is the guy in the back self-narrating another video! We begin our journey to find big game!!!! We stop to see some impalas and Dickson is talking and all of a sudden mr videoman starts narrating: “here we have some impalas, they are….” We couldn’t hear the guide so both Adam and myself tell him we are trying to hear the guide!

We went on to see impalas, different varieties of antelope, hippo, cheetahs. Zebras, buffalo, and LIONS!!!!! We first saw a male who had just gotten his fill from a kill, possibly an Impala. He was gorgeous!!! After a few minutes he just rolled over and plopped down and was sound asleep as evidenced by his rib cage moving up and down rhythmically.

We moved on in search of more animals and all of us hoped for more lions. We finally saw some other vehicles congregated around an area and knew lions had been spotted! When we got there it was an amazing sight! There was a pride of lions that included lionesses and cubs. There were 14 total! They were magnificent!

They were lounging around, sometimes shifting positions, sometimes moving from the rocks to the grass. Again, hopefully I will be able to figure out why I can’t upload videos and be able to because the video is amazing. I even caught one of the lionesses bathing a cub! The game drive was from 4-6:30 and then we headed back and had some tea/cocoa with Dickson.

I went back to my room and changed into long pants and got a jacket to be as safe as possible from the mosquitoes.

Dinner was excellent! The hotel is first class all the way. It is buffet but everything is always cooked perfectly and hot with great selection of fish, meat and salad and deli items. There is a full dessert buffet as well as a coffee/tea bar. The service is also excellent. There are over 100 employees here and capacity of guests is only 120 so there is plenty of service. It’s also cool to see little gecko’s just running up and down the walls and ceiling!

When we were having tea before dinner there was a guitar player who sang with a lovely voice. After dinner there was another singer/guitarist and he had a beautiful voice as well. I went and sat by the fire which overlooked the pool and that is where I am typing my blog. It is so peaceful, the breeze is refreshing and there are stars everywhere. I wish I could stay here for a week!

Game drive starts at 6:30 am and I can’t wait!

Nairobi National Park & Petting the Cheetahs!

OMG! All I can say after today is OMG!!! I am too tired to write everything out tonight but wanted to post some photos from today's amazing excursion! From petting Cheetahs to seeing giraffe up close and personal out in the wild it was an incredible day to say the least!

I hired a driver who was to pick me up at 10:40am and take me to the park for the day. He was called away last minute so sent his brother, Francis. He was a bright, friendly 23 year old with a comfortable, small car (more on the car later!) We arrived at the park at around 11:30am and decided to do the safari walk first. This was similar to a zoo, however the animals are in large habitats surrounded by fencing. After seeing Sneaky the crocodile, we moved on and found Milo the Cheetah. She was walking around and we kept trying to get a better look at her. A guide heard us calling to her and approached us asking if we wanted to see her better. Expecting him to show us a better place to stand, we followed him: right INSIDE the pen! He took my camera and told me to go up to Milo and pet her!!!!!!!!! What an amazing animal and experience!! The cheetah’s coat is very coarse and she was SO gentle! I did not want to leave but there were so many more animals to see!

From there we moved throughout the walk and our guide, Julius, led us through a restricted gate down along the leopard pen. We got right up to the fence but Lipi did not want to come too close; she just laid down and gave us pretty pictures! She was absolutely gorgeous! Julius then led us through a restricted area to get close to the Rhino, Dubai. We met so many animals, most of which had very appropriate names: Hippos Bob and Elizabeth, Buffalo Sarah & Betty, Matthew the Lion, Lila the Wildebeest and an Oryx Antelope named Samburu who was adopted by a Lioness when she was a baby and was raised by her until she was brought to the park!

After the Safari Walk we went to the Animal Orphanage where animals are brought when they can’t fend for themselves out in the wild. Once again a guide approached us (I guess they figured the American was good for tips!) Anyway, Jared was our guide here. He has been a volunteer in the Orphanage for ten years! He knew all of the animals and they knew him! Some of the monkeys were so protective of him that when he held his arm out and told me to touch him, they would go “bananas”!

Here is who we met here:

1. Spot-Nosed monkey named Benin (named after the region he was from), the Warthogs brother & sister Patrick & Patricia, the first Cheetah was 11 mo old-Alice, the other 2 cheetahs-Festus & Sarah, the Cheetah I pet was Sharon; she is SO sweet just like Milo. Then there were the Serval cats that look like miniature cheetahs, the main one was Ali. Then there was Charlie, a majestic lion who is the oldest of all the lions there at 13 yrs old! We met Blue Legs, an ostrich with a love of peanuts. Jared gave me peanuts and had me hold them between my thumb and forefinger for Blue Legs to take. The idea is to make him work a bit hard so you can get a photo snapped. Well, Mr. Blue Legs decided he liked the flap on my watch so kept trying to bite my wrist instead! Boy can an ostrich bite! J

Next we met two young lions who have not yet grown their manes (they don’t come in until about 1 ½ years) Limlas and Romulus, and a lioness named Blondie. They were all just lounging around. (The big cats are SO lazy!) Case in point: Doudi sleeping soundly and comfortably with all four legs up in the air (like my Boomer used to sleep!). Then we have the Buffalo, Sammy and Alima, the Baboon who catches peanuts on command! Jared throws peanuts at her and yells: peanut, peanut, peanut, stone and she will catch the peanut every single time he says “peanut’ without fail and as soon as he says “stone” she lets the peanut fly right by her! It is amazing (you can watch the video if you want!) There were the Patas monkeys and then a pen with 2 different types of monkeys: Varvets where we met Jared and a 1 week old Varvet and a Sykes monkey named Julie who is known as a pickpocket! She will literally go into Jared’s (the guide not the Varvet!) pocket to steal peanuts!

Then we met Gabi, short for Gabriella, an 8 month old lioness who was turned over to the Orphanage after her owner realized that lions do NOT make good pets!

There was a family of Jackals, Jack & Jill and their family, and an African gray parrot who also liked peanuts from your hand! The Crested Crane was very pretty. Finally, we came to the last pen, 2 lions Pavoratti & Yumi, and a lioness named Nabi. The lion handler, David, had just arrived and he had a big slab of meat that he was taking to Gabi (from earlier) but he put the meat down and went to the pen where these three lions were. He called them over like dogs and they all got up and came over to him! They got up on their hind legs and nuzzled him through the fence, with Yumi even giving him kisses!!!!!!!! It was the coolest thing! They were so loving to him. David has raised them and he actually considers himself a lion He said that he has to do that in order to not be afraid of them. If he is afraid they will sense it. If he acts like a lion and considers himself one, they will accept him as one. He doesn’t lose sight of their strength and capabilities though. I will try to post the video when I get home (I need to edit it because it is too long and there is some wasted footage).

After the Orphanage, we went into the game park. At this point it was already 3:45 but it was the perfect time; it is the time when the animals leave where they are and go “home” for the night so they are out and about. It took awhile to find them and we had to drive deep into the park but once we found them, we found them! There were tons of Antelope and Gazelles, Wildebeest. Ostrich and we even found Giraffe!!!!!!!! But I really wanted to find a lion out in the wild and Francis finally spotted one lying in the grass, quite content to be lazy! We drove up and rolled down the windows and she could not have been more than 30 feet away from us! By this time both our cameras had died so I fired up the laptop, stuck it out the window and put the webcam on! That is why it is so hard to see the lion I the photo I posted but it was better than nothing! It was now getting quite dark and I reluctantly agreed to go.

Remember I mentioned that the car Francis brought was small? Well, there is a reason why you take a 4x4 on safari! The “roads” were just bumpy dirt trails and the bumps were sometimes REALLY bad. The car kept hitting something on the bottom! We even had to drive through a deep puddle! I sure hope Francis’s car is ok! I told him he should have his brother get his car looked at to be sure it is ok ;-)

The day was a bit more expensive than I had anticipated but I can honestly say it was well worth every single penny or Kenyan shilling! I can not wait to do the safari to Massai Mara next week! Now meet some of the animals!

Meet Milo the Cheetah










Yes thats ME petting Milo!



Doudi the Lazy Lion















Lipi the Leopard


These monkeys don't have names




Patricia the Warthog (Patrick, her brother, is behind her)

Sharon, the Cheetah, isn't she beautiful!
Yep, thats me again!


Then there is Gabi...only 10 months old and so sweet!


The Giraffe were SOOOOO cool! I first saw them on the horizon, then we got close!

They were just some of the animals that roam free in the game park!
If you look closely you will see the lioness lounging in the grass about 50 feet from our car!