Masai Mara 2012, Lion Mating

On this safari, we had seen cheetah resting under a bush, a lion resting beside the remains of it prey, and a family of elephant grassing on the plain. The guide turned the car toward the bushes, and stopped it right in front of two lions. He whispered that the lions were on honeymoon. Both lions were lying on the grass. She was completely relax and was probably taking a nap, and he was having the regular lion posture of having its large head up and staring at the distant. He was a big fully mature lion with an enourmous head and long blond manes covering all its neck. We were only less than 4 metres from them, and we were in an open safari car. It would be impossible to do anything if it suddenly attacked us. However, it looked relax and ignored us.

The lioness woke up from her nap, stretched her body, and took a big and long yawn. In less than a minute later, she stood up and walked deeper into the bushes. He got the message and followed her. She walked only for 20 seconds, and couldn't resist the urge any longer, and squatted on the grass on her four legs. He got the signal and mounted her. The act was very quick, and lasted only 6 seconds. She took the lead again and walked farther into the bushes with him following her closely behind.

Late in the afternoon, we were in an open plain with many animals like topis, zebras and gazelles. We suddenly saw a pair of lions in the far distant. They must be on their honeymoon too, but our guide had other plan and continued our trip toward the Mara River to see the crocodile. The lion had a distinct long black manes. The guide knew that the lions would not go very far and he would find them again.

After seeing the crocodile, we turned around and moved inland toward the plain. And soon our guide spotted them in the open plain. He stopped the car only 4 m in front of them The male was a beautiful lion with darker fur. Its upper mane was blond and the lower part was black. It was a gorgeous lion. Not like the other lioness that we had seen  previously, She didn't mind of doing it in front of the many spectators in the safari cars. She woke up from her nap, walked passed him, and started her usual ritual of squatting on her four legs in front of him. And the rest was as usual. She then rolled on the grass satisfactorily, and walked passed beyond our car outside of my view. I was concerned that she might turned around and got too close to the car. But Ching confirmed that the lioness was far away. Somehow, the lion knew that she would come back and he didn't have to follow her. This act repeated again after 3 minutes, and then again after 7 minutes. They were both tired and lied down on the grass, and we felt that it was time to leave them alone.


More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.

Masai Mara 2012, Lion Hunting

We had finished watching the hippos in their pool on the safari this morning, and Rafael seemed driving with no particular destination in mind. We arrived in a hilly plain and saw a safari car stopping high on a hill. Rafael knew by experience that there must be something going on. So he drove toward the car. We saw a family of warthog in a distance being watched by a lioness. And at the other far corner another lioness was watching a buffalo on the top of the ridge. Far behind her was another two or three lioness hiding in the tall grasses. There was a mound at the waist of the hill and another group of lions were watching what was going on.

The buffalo was originally grassing with its back facing us. It turned its head and sensed the danger and started to move. It stopped after a short distant, and turned to look at the direction where the lioness was standing. He then ran quickly away with its head high up. The lions knew that the game was over, and started to move to regroup on the mound. The one watching the warthog decided to stay for its watch.

We didn't see that there was another warthog under the tall grasses. The family of the warthog that were being watched suddenly all looked toward the direction of the watching lioness. They probably made a signal to ran away from the danger, and the warthog close to the lioness made a fatal move, and immediately caught the attention of the lioness. It sprinted and in a second caught the warthog. I heard only the screaming but could not turn my camera fast enough to catch any photo, and the game was over. The other lions on the mound quickly descended on the killing spot, and demanded their share of the meal.

We could only see the heads of the lions all squeezed together. One of them probably got the first chance of the abdomen of the prey, and it needed some fresh air. It pulled out its head and showed its fully bloody face. The small young lions tried hard to climb up the other bigger lions and squeezed their head in. The lioness which had caught the prey had voluntarily stood aside alone and not participated in the grab for foods. Several of the lions were probably each biting on a part of the carcass, and no one wanted to let it go, and they all squatting there for a long time and did not make any move. A few young lions could only licked whatever was left of the grasses. We left when they were still squatting to hold on to their bites.

Our first sighting of a lion was on our first safari on this trip. It was late in the afternoon, and we had just seen a cheetah and its adult offspring resting under a shade in a lonely bush in an open country. Rafael found the lioness under a similar environment. He zero in to the lioness as if he knew the location by GPS. The lioness had finished its meal, and the remains of its prey was lying in a small pile near the root of the bush. The bone had been cracked open and it must had eaten the bone marrow.

An hour later, we saw three lionesses near the carcass of a zebra near a water hole. It could be the kill early in the morning. Two of them were resting, but one was still gnawing the head and neck of the carcass trying to get the last bits of the its meat. A herd of zebras was watching at a distance. There was no vulture disturbing the lioness in having their meals. The guide said that there was very little vultures in the park due to the lack of their resting places.




More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.

Masai Mara 2012, Leopard

We had seen lion, buffalo, elephant and cheetah. When Rafael, the guide and driver in the safari, asked us what did we want to order we all said that we wanted the leopard. After making several stops, Rafael drove the car behind another car next to a bushes. A message was passed in very low voice that there was a leopard under one of the bush. We all strained our neck trying to find it. The first thing that got into my view was a bloody upper quadrant of an animal carcass with its long neck still attached to it. We then saw it was biting the neck of a gazelle.

We watch a little while as it ate its prey. For the time being more safari car had arrived, and the place looked a little too crowd with all the spectators. It opened its large mouth and clenched on the throat of its prey, and started clumsily removing the remaining disintegrated carcass held together by skin. It walked deeper into the bushes, when it reappeared again, it was no longer with the carcass. It must have hide it somewhere for  the next meal.

It was probably seeking a nice shady place to rest after having a big meal. I noticed that it walked with a very peculiar gait that looked like trotting with the diagonal limbs moving forward, but both limbs on one side were raised high above ground and moved close to one another.

It rested on the shade of another bush for a while, and then moved again. The third resting place seemed provided more privacy with a lot of low hanging leaves, but it still didn't satisfy with it, and crossed an open grass land to another larger bushes. There was a massive black object under a shade. And a closer looked turned out to be a big hippo. It was close to noon time, and the sun was really shining hot. The hippo moved deeper into the bushes as we got closer, and we circled the bushes a few more times before we left. We never saw them again.


More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.

Nairobi 2012, Falling Walls

All expensive houses in Nairobi are surrounded by thick and tall walls built of rock blocks. They look solid like the Great Walls in China. The walls are topped with electrical wires to add more protection and to issue warning. Shrubs and vines are planted along the walls to make it more attractive. Gardeners work constantly to prune these plants.


After we were well asleep last night, we were awaken by a sudden large bang and followed by the noisy siren. Fortunately, it didn't last long and soon we were back to sleep again. The next morning, we found out that the whole back walls of our neighbour had fallen down. 


Looking at what remain of the walls, it is apparent that the walls are not built on any foundation at all. The expansion and contraction due to the different in temperature in the day and night have probably weaken the mortar, and the walls were practically sitting on an unstable and weak platform. Any small agitation is sufficient to trigger it to fall.


Therefore, one must not forget to ask the gardener to test the safety of the ladder after it is laid against the wall before he starts climbing it to do the pruning. It is advisable to add a liability statement in the lease in case if the walls fall down and caused damages and injuries to others. And most important of all, don't forget to ask the children not to play near the walls.

Houses in Nairobi are surrounded by stone walls

Stone blocks from the falling walls

There is no sign of foundation of the walls

The whole walls fell all the way to the joining walls

The remain of the walls

The walls are sitting on this surface

Nairobi 2012, Karen Souvenir Shops

2012-2-7

Matatus at the terminal

Scenery of the country side

We joined a group of parents from the International School of Kenya to visit some souvenir shops in Karen by school buses. To avoid the traffic jam, we didn't take the direct route by going through the city, and instead, we drove through the north-west peripheral of the city. Along the road, we saw several markets. The shacks and stalls were really very primitive indicating the poor economic resources of the merchants and people. There were many places selling charcoals which were prohibited by law to be used for cooking. Mangoes were supposed to be in season, but I saw only one stall where the fruits were piling up high on a trailer. We passed a few bus and matatus terminals, and there were many matatus idling in the terminal probably waiting for passengers. We saw the green and hilly country side along the road, but unfortunately, it didn't stimulate any senses of beauty in it. We saw groves of trees and patches of cultivated land, but we didn't see any village with some descent and attractive houses.

Making print in Kamili Design

Our first stop was Kamili Design where we saw a demo on how print was made on cotton fabrics. They had a designer to made new patterns, and produced the master copy on flatbed screen to print on the fabric. They mixed their own dye paste for printing. Before any mass production, they always tested the colour on a small piece of fabric to unsure its quality.

Candle House Shop was our next stop, we saw only a shop displaying their products, but didn't see any manufacturing facilities. There were a pair was small warthogs running on the ground. They had long whiskers on their cheks and they were cute.

Display at Mat Bronze

We then went to Mat Bronze where many bronze sculptures, large and small, on displayed. There was a small workshop where technicians were cleaning and pouring wax into molds in preparation for lost wax casting. I like the large garden there.

Making toy with discarded flip flop in Marula Studios

Marula Studios was a rather unique place in this visit. It purchased discarded flip flop collected on the beaches and garbage dumps, washed and cleaned them, cut the worm out surface to expose the bright colour of the original material, glued them together to form multi-colour layers, and then cut them into shapes for varous products. They also used styrofoam to form the core of a large toy, and then gradually glued and trimmed many layers of flip flop over it to make it into a multi-colour and spongy toy.

At last, we visited The Soulk which was basically a souvenir shop with several displayed rooms run by different vendors. And our last stop was having lunch at Talisman.

More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.

Nairobi 2012, Africa Heritage House

We joined a group of parents from International School of Kenya to visit Africa Heritage House. It is the house of an American art collector Alan Donovan living in Nairobi. The house is located a little south of Mlolongo on the highway to Mombasa, and the location is right at the spot where the northern boundary of Nairobi National Park is at its closest to the highway. It has the unobstructed view of the park. An old photo showed that a large herd of wild animals was almost like in front of the house.

African Heritage House

The house was three stories and has the shape of a massive antique African chair. Its appearance also has some resemblance to the Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali. At the front is a large flat roofed porch, and its top is used as a terrace connected to the master bedroom located in the middle on the second floor. The main house is rectangular with a massive chimney at the middle. On the ground and the second floor, there are a large room in the middle and two smaller rooms on its wing. On the third floor is a large room opens to a large terrace which was the flat roof of the second floor. There is a small courtyard in the middle, and is surrounded by corridors. 


Its exterior is stucco with a colour of natural mud. The colour is light brown under the sun and becomes darker in the shade. The mangrove beams on the ceiling protrude the walls. At one corner of the property is the pool house where large group of guests are entertained. 


The house is filled with African furniture, house fixers, fabrics and art objects collected from across the continent.

More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.

Nairobi 2012, Brown's Cheese Factory

2012-1-26 Brown’s Cheese Factory

We had purchased cheeses produced in Niarobi from the supermarket, and they were quite good. Today, we joined a group of parents from the International  School of Kenya to visit Brown’s Cheese Factory in Limuru. It was not far from the Kiambethu Tea Farm which we had visited previously.

Rear graden

The factory was set up in a few small buildings added to the original farm house back on a ravine filled with tall trees and shrubs. When we arrived, tables had been set up in the garden behind the house for us to have lunch. We saw a big black pig called Bacon mowing the grasses. The owner probably wouldn’t need to have a lawnmower. The owner started by giving us a demonstration of how fast the milk would coagulate with the help of rennet. He poured some milk in a steel pan, and then added some rennet. After half an hour, the milk had turned into jelly and could be cut into cubes like tofu.

The main facilities

Testing the liquid content of the curd

The area was mainly tea farming. The factory purchased their milks from small farmers in the area. Most of the farmer had about 5 cows, and produced about 25 litres of milk a day. They brought the milk back to the factory in containers. We were asked to put on a net over our hair, and to put on a white working uniform for sanitary purpose. First, we were shown the work area where the containers were being washed and cleaned. Next to the area was the main factory. It was about 25x50 ft. The main facilities were 3 big stainless steel tubs where the milks were left to turn into curd. There was a tap at the bottom of the tub to drain the excess liquid. A technician would take sample of the curd to decide if it was ready to be loaded into a cheese presser to squeeze out more liquids out of the curd. The cheese that came out could be turned immediately into mozzarella cheese. For other cheeses, more ingredients were added and the cheeses were put in a mould to let it solidified and formed the hard rind.

Cheese aging room

The adjacent room was the aging room. It was a long 15x50 ft room with 3 row of shelving. The shelving on the wall had 6 shelves, and the one in the aisle had only 4. Cheeses were put on the shelves properly with date marked on the board. Cheeses were stacked not more than two. And some cheeses like giant sausages were hung in the middle shelves. Water was sprayed into the room to keep its high humidity. Mold could form on the rind of the cheeses, and they were wiped clean regularly. Mold was the most important thing to control in the aging room. Most molds would do no harms to the cheese. But the black colour molds was not allowed to appear. They only kept the cheese for several months in the aging room and then put them in the market. The holes in the Swiss cheese were caused by the air produced by the bacteria deliberately mixed in the cheese. The size of the holes was in proportion to the size of the cheese.

Sampling the cheeses

There was a smaller aging room for brie and other cheeses that required more stringent controls. We only saw this room from its glass outside. After the completion of the tour, we were served with some samples of the cheeses produced by the factory.

More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.