Kenya Safari Photos

Photograph by Norie Quintos

The trick to traveling with teens is to go beyond the visual and engage all their senses. (I worked with my outfitter, Micato Safaris, to plan such an itinerary.) Thus in the scrubland of Kenya's Laikipia Plateau, Sabuk Lodge was a hit. Run by Kenyan Verity Williams (that all Africans are black was one preconception busted for the kids), the eight-room ecolodge offers every fun activity and more listed in the popular Dangerous Book for Boys; in fact the book, as well as its counterpart volume for girls, is displayed prominently on the coffee table. In this picture, the kids are fishing with a stick, string, and bread-dough bait in the Ewaso Ng'iro River. Later, they jumped into it.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

Baby elephants are cute. Schoolkids in uniform are even cuter. Put the two together and you've gone over the edge in adorable. Here, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Orphanage outside Nairobi, orphaned animals are lovingly cared for, and when ready, introduced back into the wild.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Michael Danyliw

In Kenya's renowned Masai Mara, the fecund savannah immortalized by many a nature documentary, the big cats that tourists want to see are often hounded and surrounded. We arrived on the scene of a leopard in mid-hunt, entirely encircled by some ten vehicles. Every time the leopard moved, the gaggle of jeeps moved along with it. The leopard's prey, an African hare, eventually slipped between two vans and scampered away. My son got his photo, and so did everyone else who was there, but at what price? The continuing challenge is this: Tourism inspires wildlife protection, but it must be made sustainable.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

Confession: I'd been on safari three times before, and up until this point, I hadn't really seen anything new. I wouldn't say I was blasé, but my kicks were mostly coming from watching my sons experience Kenya for the first time. That is, until I saw the migration, the cyclic movement of millions of animals from the depleted fields of the Serengeti to the rich grasses of the Masai Mara. One moment the wildebeest and zebras were serenely munching on the grass on one side of the Mara River. The next moment—seized by some collective switch of the brain—thousands made a mad dash to the other side. This shot shows the first wave of zebras crossing the river. To me, this near spiritual experience was proof of Something, no? The Almighty, Nature's Majesty, the Circle of Life? The kids weren't equally moved; though they thought it was "cool."

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

On our first day in Nairobi, we visited the community center and school supported by our tour operator, Micato Safaris. The fancy Range Rover pitched and rolled over rutted dirt lanes lined with a random assortment of gummed-together wood-and-thatch and corrugated-metal-and-cement dwellings and storefronts that make up Mukuru, an unregulated district of 600,000 squatters about six miles outside the city. My sons' eyes grew wide in the face of real poverty, so different was it from the kind they consider themselves victims of whenever I deny them a new pair of Nikes. On the other side of the car window, children's smiles—incomprehensively bright—greeted us. There was no denying the discomfort my sons and I felt. But perhaps comfort wasn't the point. The point was to feel, to question, to think, and then perhaps to act. This photo illustrates a bright spot: At the Harambee House, we saw what previous safari clients have been moved to accomplish. Here, slum dwellers' children were offered food and education and training, young adults taught skills—a way out and up.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

Sabuk, in Laikipia, is one of an innovative crop of game lodges established on private reserves that once were exclusively ranch lands. Here, cattle ranchers and villagers and game lodges work in a unique, if sometimes uneasy partnership, with the result being the protection of once-hunted animals. Lodges vary in design and comfort; the languorous lure of this lodge is strong, with its uniquely handcrafted local furniture, open-sided suites overlooking the river, hearty meals served family-style, and quiet library nook. Too bad we only stayed one night.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Michael Danyliw

This yellow-vented bulbul was a noisy visitor to our open-air room at Sabuk lodge, in Laikipia. What fun it was to spot birds we didn't see at home. Kenya plays host to hundreds of endemic and migratory species. Many Kenya guides know their birds, but some are more passionate than others, so if you are a big birder, be sure to inform your operator or lodge, so they can connect you with the appropriate guide.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

The Masai Mara, when seen from the vantage point of a hot-air balloon, is an incomparable, if expensive, experience. From the heightened perspective, the seemingly endless grasslands are dotted with thorn bushes, acacia trees, and gently loping animals—a vision of Eden itself.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

You have to get up very early (around 4 a.m.) to do a balloon ride over the Masai Mara. Then there's the bumpy ride to the launch site, which, depending on where your lodge is located, can take upwards of an hour. But once there, it's hard to fall asleep watching the mechanics of this early form of aviation, particularly as the heated air starts unfolding the colorful cloth and the orb starts to rise. And the bonus: the magical light beloved and sought-after by photographers—that turns the earth (and your photos) clear and golden.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

From the air, look for rocks and logs that, on closer inspection, transform into giraffes, wildebeests, elephants, and hyenas.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

A safari solely focused animals would be woefully incomplete. While it isn't always convenient or easy for short-term travelers to engage people, an attempt to do so is always worthwhile. Kenyan tribal culture is complex, colorful, and diverse and traditional Masai villages such as this one near our lodge, welcome visitors. In this photo, Masai men perform a traditional dance, a quasi-competition over who can jump the highest. Masai women have a song and dance of their own. My sons' epiphany: people who lived in homes made out of cow dung, who made fire by rubbing sticks, and who didn't have iPods weren't necessarily poor or unhappy.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

This serene, tranquil scene belies the often violent struggle of life and death on the Mara. Antelope graze quietly now but run for their lives later. The lion sleeps today but wakes tonight.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.

Photograph by Norie Quintos

Teenagers act as if they've seen it all, and in many ways they have—most have been subjected to a 24-hour, hundred-channel television loop; they have viewed every viral YouTube video that titillates, shocks, saddens, tickles, or pulls heartstrings; they've done everything from fly jets to race cars to shoot bad guys in hyper-real video games; they've seen the wonders of nature in HD-clarity on Planet Earth DVDs.

And yet. Real life trumps virtual reality every single time. And this trip to Kenya blew them away like no Playstation, Xbox, Blu-Ray, Imax, Surround Sound, or new-tech substitute-reality invention ever could. Turns out the travel experience just can't be pixelated.

National Geographic Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos recently returned from a safari in Kenya with her two teenage sons. Read her Intelligent Travel blogs.