A Guest Blog from Ari Katz on His Trip to Africa
I always enjoy seeing photos from friends taken during their vacations.
Ari Katz enjoys traveling just as much as I do. Not long ago, he went on a much anticipated excursion with his mother and took some stunning photos. I encouraged him to share a selection and a few notes on his memorable journey.
I recently graduated from American University. When thinking about something that would be meaningful for me as a recognition of four-years of hard work in school, I knew I wanted to go on safari in Africa – specifically to Kenya and Rwanda. My mother, Debbie, wanted to take me to Africa as her graduation gift to me. We started planning our trip to Africa months in advance and our excitement grew as February 26th, our departure date, became closer and closer.
We decided upon Kenya because we have friends, Karen and John Helmers, who had gone on a similar safari two years before us and told us how amazing Kenya was – from the people to the animals, they said we must go to Kenya. And since Rwanda is home to the famous mountain gorillas, my mother and I both felt our trip would be incomplete without seeing them. After showing some of the pictures I took to Martha, she asked me to share my pictures with all of you.
I hope you enjoy my pictures of the incredible animals we saw while on safari.
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- This is the very first picture I took in Africa. We were picked up by our guide, Kisemei, at our first location, Maasai Mara Lemek Conservancy. The Maasai Mara Lemek Conservancy is about 17,300-acres and is owned by the Maasai tribe. The Maasai tribe takes great pride in their land and the animals that inhabit it. Kisemei is a member of the Maasai tribe and loves his land deeply. Notice how lush and verdant the grass is. They had been experiencing a particularly rainy few months. The rains started in December and last until this month. About now, things will start to dry out and it will look less green.
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- As soon as we began our drive from the airstrip to our lodge, we started seeing animals. This is the matriarch of a medium-sized elephant family. Notice how one tusk is shorter than the other. This is because elephants, like humans, have a dominant side and a non-dominant side. In this case, the matriarch elephant’s dominant side is her right tusk because it is shorter – meaning she uses it more often.
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- Also on the way to our lodge, we saw this tower, the collective noun for a group of giraffes. These giraffes are Masai giraffes – a different species than the towers we saw in our second location in Kenya.
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- Here is a male giraffe from the same tower we saw on the way to our lodge. You can differentiate male and female giraffes by the size of their “horns” on their forehead. Males’ horns will typically be bald on top as a result of fighting with other males – just as this one’s is.
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- Here is my mother listening to Kisemei tell us about a solo male hippopotamus that was residing in a small pond. He had been kicked out of his herd by the dominant males. As you can see, our Land Rover was completely open with no windows or a windshield. At times, it was intimidating to have animals (especially lions) walk feet away from the exposed vehicle, but Kisemei assured us that we were safe and that the animals wanted nothing to do with us if we stayed in the vehicle.
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- This shows how close some of the animals got to our vehicle. None minded us admiring them and some birds even posed for pictures by exhibiting their showy feathers or doing a dance!
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- On our first game drive the evening we arrived in Mara, we saw the first big cats of our trip, a pride of lions. This male lion is one of three brothers, Osidai, Ntui, and Saruni, who rule the pride in Maasai Mara Lemek Conservancy. The three brothers have six lionesses and six cubs in their pride.
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- These are the other two brothers. They were resting after a big thunderstorm.
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- This is a beautiful picture of two of the brothers with their cubs and lionesses. It was such a privilege to be able to see such amazing animals. In the background you can see the third brother lion.
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- This lioness is sitting patiently while her two-week-old cubs play on her. Juvenile male lions are typically allowed to stay with their pride for two years until the patriarch(s) kick them out. Kisemei told us that the excommunicated male lions are called “bachelors” on the Lemek Conservancy.
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- After spending some time watching the lions, we drove a few minutes and found a beautiful herd of elephants. This herd has three calves ranging from two months to a year or two.
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- Here is the youngest calf from that herd nursing from its mother. This calf’s mother has especially beautiful tusks. Tusks begin to emerge at around two or three years of age.
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- We also saw hundreds of wildebeests and plains zebras in the Lewek Conservancy.
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- The next day we went on an early morning game drive – leaving our lodge at 6am to see the sunrise and have a picnic breakfast by a river. The river was full of hippopotamuses, but this mother and her calf were especially cute. Hippopotamuses are very protective over their young and can be very dangerous if you get too close. We kept our distance!
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- Here I am by the river with my amazing camera – the Canon EOS R7. It took such amazing pictures of the wildlife. Even Martha’s granddaughter, Jude, who is quite a talented photographer, said the pictures I took were excellent!
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- Before leaving Mara and heading to our next destination in Kenya, we went to a local market that sells arts and crafts, vegetables, and fruits, but mostly goats, sheep, and cattle. I found these cute baby toys and bought them for my friends Ryan and Rachel, who have a baby boy. In this picture, I am standing with the maker of the toys. I enjoyed meeting her and appreciated her crafts immensely.
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- Similarly to Maasai Mara, we saw lots of animals on the way from the airstrip to the lodge in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. This is a reticulated giraffe, a different species of giraffe than those in Maasai Mara. The reticulated giraffe has very clean lines and defined spots. They were my favorite of the two giraffe species we saw.
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- This is one of my favorite pictures I took on my trip: a mother and baby black-faced monkey. Baby black-faced monkeys hug their mothers, like in the picture, for the first few months of their lives yet they still play with other monkeys and in trees.
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- Lewa Wildlife Conservancy is known for the rhinoceroses that call the park home. The park has both white and black rhinos. The difference between white and black rhinos is not the color but rather the humps that the white rhinos have to support their heavy necks while grazing. Black rhinos, however, do not have this hump. This is a bull white rhino who is a “bachelor.”
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- Here is a beautiful pair of ostriches trotting along the field in the Lewa Conservancy.
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- This is Mount Kenya – the second highest peak in Kenya, after Kilimanjaro. It is 17,000 feet tall and utterly gorgeous.
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- A cheetah! The fastest mammal in the world. We did not think we would see a cheetah (as they are very reclusive and hard to find), but we not only saw one – we saw two! A male and a female. Pictured is the female cheetah. Look how spectacularly she blends in with the tall grass.
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- Some animals, like the male lions in Maasai Mara, are special and are therefore named. Here is Sonya, who is almost 40-years old, and her last calf. Sonya and her calf are black rhinos. Our interaction with Sonya was a bit intense. She stormed after our Land Rover trying to get us away from her calf when we got too close. Luckily, Sonya, her calf, my mother, and I were all safe as our guide, David, skillfully drove away from Sonya.
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- One day in Lewa, we went on a walk in the conservancy. To be safe, we were accompanied by a park ranger. We had a great walk before it got too hot and enjoyed being on the ground with nature.
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- After a wonderful few days in Lewa, it was time for us to head to Rwanda. In this picture, I am with some of the people who made our time in Lewa so special. Especially Nicole, the lodge manager who took us on a scorpion night walk with an blacklight which made the scorpions neon green.
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- In Rwanda, after spending a day in Kigali and going to the genocide museum, the former President’s House, which has been converted into a modern art gallery, and having some wonderful meals, we headed two-hours north to Kinigi to the base of Volcanoes National Park that is the home to the mountain gorillas. In order to see them, however, we needed to hike 4,000 feet to an elevation of 9,000 feet in treacherous conditions and pouring rain. When we got to the top, we saw the Igisha family of gorillas. The Igisha family is currently the largest family of mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park – comprising of 36 gorillas in total. Out of the 36, we saw 16! In this picture is a mother with her baby. These gorillas were truly saved by Dian Fossey who studied them extensively and brought attention to the poaching which was causing the gorillas to go extinct. Fossey was unfortunately killed by poachers in 1985, but her legacy remains both through the gorillas and their population of over 1,000 and through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
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- Here is the base of the volcano we would be climbing. We were divided into groups no greater than 10 to prevent scaring the gorillas. We were accompanied by two tour guides, two gorilla trackers, and porters who helped carry our belongings.
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- For those of you wondering how close we got to the gorillas, look at the shoes on the righthand side of the picture. We were probably five to seven feet away. This is a full-grown silverback male, weighing at roughly 500-pounds. These gorillas are used to people watching them and our guides made sure we did not get too close or make startling movements that could upset the gorillas.
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- Lastly is this adorable picture of two babies playing with one another. It felt like such an honor being able to see these gorgeous and special animals – along with all the animals we saw on our safari. I hope you all enjoyed the photos!
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