Leopards and Lava and Kingfishers, Oh My! (Last Day of Safari)

Gloomy weather in Tsavo West

Our last day on safari we woke up to very gloomy weather, with fog and rain preventing us from opening the top of the vehicle for most of the early morning game drive. But the weather gave me more of an appreciation for the heat of the day, and also gave us a good view of some different birds washing their feathers in the rain. Unfortunately, when there is not morning sun it is difficult to take beautiful photos of animals because their eyes look dead, without the glint in them that you see in photos from National Geographic. For instance, we got to see a real-life (not fed dinner) leopard during our morning game drive. Without the sun, you can see that this leopard almost looks stuffed, but I can assure you it was real and walking directly toward our vehicle. And look at the size of his paws! This was an absolutely awe-inspiring moment, seeing this beautiful animal in its natural habitat, probably heading to a comfortable resting spot after a night of hunting (or perhaps mating?).

Leopard in Tsavo West

After our leopard sighting, we headed back to the lodge for breakfast, and to collect one of our party, who had stayed in due to exhaustion. We were lucky to see three elephants dusting themselves along the side of the road on our way back. They were fun to watch because we could tell that the adult was ready to leave, but the "children" weren't listening. The adult would start walking into the bush, wait for the young, and then turn around and come back. She did that at least 3 times while we watched.

Elephant dusting themselves in Tsavo West

 The lodge was pretty well empty, presumably most of the guests had already left for the day. After we were packed and ready to go, we made our way to Mzima Springs, where Mombasa, 5 hours away, gets its water. Along the way we stopped briefly at a recent (500 year old) lava flow in the middle of the park. It reminded me very much of Hawaii, except there was far less lava. At this point and for about 2 miles the road turned black, instead of its normal sandy red. In Hawaii, some of the lava flows from 500 years ago are still fairly uninhabited, but it seemed like this one was being taken over by plants already.

Lava flow from a recently active volcano

Once we arrived at Mzima Springs, Bonaya told us that the guides expect a "little something" from the tourists, even though they are paid by the park. This is common in Kenya, and I will write about it in another blog post. Our guide was an older (probably 40-something) very tough-looking man with a rifle. The others thought the rifle was for leopards or other big cats, but I think it was probably for the hippos and crocodiles. The guide told us about some of the trees along the path, particularly the yellow fever tree. When Europeans were first arriving in Africa, they often camped near swamps or rivers for the water source, but they would then come down with malaria very frequently. The originally thought that these trees, with grow near swamps and rivers, were the cause of the disease, but of course this is not true. I am actually surprised (and glad!) that Europeans didn't try to eradicate yellow fever trees!

When we arrived at the first viewing point, we saw about four hippos in the river in the distance, coming up for air once in a while and twitching their ears, which made the water splash around them. It was really fun to watch them, but they were too far to get a decent photo. While we were there, we saw two kingfishers, the giant kingfisher and the pied kingfisher. The pied kingfisher is black and white and blends in well with the branches it sits on. The giant kingfisher landed on a branch directly above us, and we were able to see all the details in its feathers.

Giant kingfisher at Mzima Springs

We then walked up to the next viewing point, which is where the water comes directly out of the Earth. It was really amazing to see the amount of water simply flowing out of rocks, and to know that this spring provides water for all of Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city. All around this area were Vervet monkeys, with a bunch of babies as well. They were very cute, and they were tame enough to sit for a picture, but timid enough to run when you got too close. I hope this means that the guides prevent people from feeding them.

Vervet monkey adult and baby at Mzima Springs

Blacksmith plover in Tsavo West

Some kind of shrike in Tsavo West, likely a European migrant

After we had seen the crocs, hippos, monkeys, and some birds, we were at the end of our safari. The others tipped the guide and we piled back into the vehicle to head to Mombasa. It was a very long ride, about five hours. The 18-wheelers in Kenya go much slower than in the US. Where in the US the trucks are often passing the other vehicles on the road to try to meet deadlines, the ones here in Kenya go about 25-30 MPH. I asked Colin why he thought this may be, and he said that perhaps they are overloaded with cargo. Maybe they also want to lessen the chance of breaking down and not having any services for miles around.

Once we got into Mombasa, I had to be dropped at the matatu station to catch my ride back to Mida Creek for bird ringing that night. Bonaya promptly warned that there are pick-pockets around, and he also had us lock our doors when we got into the city. Yikes! Luckily, I had no trouble getting into a matatu headed for Malindi, and it cost me about 3 dollars for a 2 hour ride. Unfortunately, I missed my stop at Mida Creek and ended up in Gede, where everyone in the matatu was very apologetic and wishing me good luck in getting back to Mida Creek. There were pikis (motobikes) right there, and one took me back to Mida Creek, and went slowly since I requested he not speed down the highway. I got the mzungu rate (white person rate), but I know they could tell I was in a bit of a situation to get where I needed to be. I made it safely, and the driver was very friendly, and then I spent the rest of the night into Friday morning ringing birds at Mida Creek. An epic way to end a three-day safari, staying up all night with shorebirds and an exhausted Colin Jackson!