Well we finally did it. We trekked to the Maasai Mara and
had an incredible 3 day, 2 night Safari.
14 of us loaded two vans at 7am Friday morning, with Alex (a
good friend of Mwangi and Frances’) driving one and his colleague Steve driving
the other. We started our journey, and before you know it we arrived at the
Maasai Manyatta Tented Camp – where we would be staying for the next two days.
We enjoyed lunch, then a couple hours to rest before our first game drive at
4pm.
At 4 we departed our camp for the famed Maasai Mara – known
as one of the most famous reserves and safari locations in the world. Our lead
driver, Alex, is from that area and is an expert in all things Maasai and
Safari.
We entered the Reserve, and the fun began. We were greeted
by Wildebeests, Impalas, and Thomson’s Gazelles, and as we kept driving saw Giraffes
(including a dead one – it had lion teeth marks all down its neck), buffalo,
elephants, then to what became a laughing matter for the whole day. A lion and
his lioness on their “honey moon”. It is what you can imagine it would be, and
we couldn’t believe we were watching this. We learned some good facts about a
Lion’s mating cycle including that for every cub who makes it beyond 1 year of
age, the lion and lioness would have mated 3000 times. At this point, we headed
back to camp, as it was getting dark. Needless to say we were all struck with
the natural beauty of the Mara, and the completely wild animals (nearly all of
our driving was off road, and the roads that were there were more trails).
Thursday night involved a trip to another lodge to get an ill classmate medical
attention, this Twilight Zone experience will be detailed in another post.
Day two would be our long day on the Mara, we were to leave
camp at 7:30am for a full day, returning
at 4. This day was just as incredible. We saw many things but the highlights
were: a HUGE herd of buffalo, thousands of Zebras, ostrich, warthogs (including
their babies!), lion cubs under a tree, a hyena feeding on a dead animal with
vultures waiting patiently nearby (we also saw vultures feasting on a cow),
another pair of lions, then we stumbled upon two male lions sleeping in the
shade. As our other vehicle drove off, one woke up, looked right as, and
sneezed. It was incredible. By this time it was just about 12:30, which meant
time for lunch. We drove a bit more than found a nice shade tree, and set up
our picnic lunch. Surrounded by zebras and warthogs. This was one of the most
memorable picnics I’ve ever had! We got back on the trail about 45 minutes
later, checked our the lookout to where we could see all of the Mara, then
started heading towards the water. It was at this time our lead guide Alex
spotted the rain clouds getting worse, and closer. We went down the hill, and
were interrupted by Steve spotting two cheetahs sitting in the shade. We
snapped a few pictures, then Alex insisted we leave. It was early, but we
trusted him and didn’t complain. Before you know it were in a complete rain
storm, the roads were flooding as we tried to drive, all the dust turned to mud
making us hydroplane and lose traction at times. Despite this crazy downpour,
and treacherous terrain Alex knew exactly what he was doing and got us out
safely. After a bit of this the rain stopped, and we were able to see a few
more animals before heading back to camp including more giraffes (sitting down
and fighting), and a dead elephant. We saw a few monkeys on our way out, and
then made it back to camp at 4. This is when Alex informed us had we stayed 5
more minutes we would not have made it out, all of the roads flooded and many
became impassable. We enjoyed a nice afternoon tea, many enjoyed a nap, a calm
dinner, then off to bed. Saturday would be our final day on the Mara, with an
early morning drive.
We left camp at 6:30 on Sunday, unsure of the road
conditions. We got a bit into the Mara, found more lions, then the roads were
still muddy and more rain was coming in. We had to exit cutting our last drive,
very short but the sunrise and the rain in the distance with the natural beauty
of the Mara was breathtaking. Standing in the van with the cold morning air
rushing by was an incredible experience. We ate breakfast then ventured back to
Nairobi, encountering heavy rain and hail on our drive.
We made it back safe, but it still hasn’t sunk in what I
just saw.
I know this blog post wasn’t great, and it made our journey
seem so quick (which is exactly how it felt), but the Maasai Mara was
absolutely incredible. The animals were all wild, and the views were constantly
breath taking. I am at a loss for words when trying to describe the scenery, so
I refer you to my photos here.
The animals we saw were….
Baboon
Vervet
Cheetah
Lion
Elephant
Giraffe
Zebra
Hyena
Impala
Gazelle
Hartebeest
Thomsons Gazelle
Topi
Elands
Mongoose
Dwarf Mongoose
Jackal
Vultures
Ostrich
Secretarybird
Hornbill
African Crowned Crane
Eagle
And any more I can’t name/remember!
No comments:
Post a Comment