Masai Mara

After years of playing Wildlife Adventure with my siblings, watching Planet Earth with Stephen, and going on wildlife drives with my parents I've gotten to experience a safari first hand! This was an absolutely incredible experience that I will never forget. My only wish is that I could have shared this experience with my animal loving family. I guess this blog entry will have to suffice.

The day after Christmas six other volunteers and I headed out bright and early for the Masai Mara, a national reserve on the southern border of Kenya and Tanzania. Well, not terribly bright and early as our vehicle had a flat on the way to pick us up. But after a slight delay we were off on a scenic 5-hour journey. We stopped at a lookout point over the Rift Valley and then headed down into the valley where we saw giraffes and zebras just kickin it by the side of the road. As we got closer to our destination the road took a rough turn and the last hour was some pretty bumpy off-roading.

We arrived at the camp in the early afternoon and had a quick lunch so we could get to the park. We rolled in around 4 and left about 6:30pm but I think we saw several hundred animals in that time. We saw so many different animals but the theme of that evening was lions. I truly thought I'd be lucky to catch one lion the entire trip but we must have seen 20 that first night. And they weren't just lying around. We saw lions mating (coitus was brief, but perfunctory), 4 male lions eating a very fresh water buffalo, and a female lion so close I thought we might not make it home that evening.

This leads me to our vehicle and driver. When I first saw our vehicle I was very exciting because it was like an oversized jeep. No windows and the top opens like a convertible so I thought it would be excellent for viewing animals. My suspicion was confirmed when we drove into the park and saw that almost all the other safari vehicles were weak little mini-vans with windows that don't open and a roof that only raises up so you have about a foot of viewing space for your head.

But then we spotted a female lion laying in the grass. Our guide decided we needed a closer look so we drove right up to her and were within 10 meters. As the lion was staring straight into my eyes through the non-window of the car I started to wonder if our vehicle truly was the best design. Fortunately we didn't linger and as we pulled away the driver told us we couldn't stay long because the lioness is the hunter and very dangerous... I considered having an impromptu heart attack but I quickly decided Nick had been doing this a long time and must know what he is doing. Fortunately that worked out for me and I was able to comfort myself with this thought many times during the trip: when he drove through such high standing water I was sure we would drown, when he droved through such sloppy mud I was sure we'd be stuck, and when he drove so fast over the rocks I thought someone would be thrown from the vehicle. He was a very skilled driver and probably missed his calling as a rally driver.

We started heading back to the camp just at dusk and got to watch an absolutely amazing sunset. There is really no way my photos can do justice to the skyscape in the valley. A sunset there is worth the trip in itself.



Camp was also a fun adventure. It's nestled in the forest right next to the park and since there is no fence animals wander in and out at will. We had monkeys in the trees and one afternoon 2 baboons just sauntered through like we weren't even around. We had a night guard (a Masai warrior who carried a spear and a club) and he monitored the animal situation all night. One morning he told us there had been a lion stalking some water buffalo right outside the camp. None of us heard it but we were glad he was around. The camp mostly consisted of big tents. The tents were the type you can walk into and housed 2-3 single beds. Nice but there was one other option for sleeping arrangements and I was all in. About a 3 minute walk from the rest of camp was a tree house! I have wanted to stay/live in a tree house ever since I saw Swiss Family Robinson years ago. It was fabulous! The birds seemed to come alive at night and it was a riot-like noise for awhile. Fortunately there was a little Victorian toilet in the tree house because we were too far from the camp for the night guard to see us flashing for a bathroom escort.


The next day we got to spend the entire day in the park complete with a picnic lunch. I couldn't get over how easy it was to spot most of the animals and how many of them there were. I was also surprised how unfazed they seemed by people. I guess they see people all the time in the park and no one tries to harm them so they don't see us as a threat. This is a bit of a problem but it is illegal in Kenya to kill any wild animals. Unfortunately there are still poachers but not in this park.

We had a hard time getting our driver to stop for zebras, elephants and giraffes because he doesn't consider them worthy of a look since they are so common. We saw baby elephants, baby hyenas, baby lions, and a baby water buffalo that could barely stand up because he had just been born. I saw an elephant drinking so close I could hear it slurping. I saw a hyena running around with a buffalo face and several other things that might gross people out. We also saw a ton of crazy looking birds. They were my surprise favorite because they were so giant and so colorful. And I saw a lizard that was so brightly colored I thought he was a plastic toy! I'll list out all the animals we saw so Conor is happy. Our guide was a naturalist so he new the names of all the animals...I may or may not be spelling them correctly.

Animals: zebra, lion, buffalo, giraffe, waterbuck, bushbuck, hartebeest, vervet monkey, olive baboon, spotted hyena, golden jackal, silver-backed jackal, mongoose, Kirk's dikdik, impala, Thompson's gazelle, cheetah, warthog, hippo, agama lizard, topi, wildebeest, giant millipede.

Birds: secretary bird, crown crane, guineau fowl, hamerkop, black bellied bustard, Butler's eagle, lilac-breasted roller, weaver bird, vulture, hornbill, wattled pluver, red-billed ox pecker, ostrich, crazy looking stork I can't remember the name of.

It goes without saying that we had a fabulous time and were very sad to leave. The last morning we got up early and David took us on a nature walk around the camp. We watched an army of carpenter ants on their way to attack a termite colony, saw the biggest, grossest millipede you'd ever want to see, and learned about the different leaves the Masai use for deodorant, medicine, and cooking.

The drive home was as beautiful as the drive there but with a little more adventure. On the off-road portion we got a puncture. No problem, Nick drove the flat tire up onto a rock and put the spare on. The next town we got to we stopped and he bought a new tire. When we stopped for a picnic lunch Bart noticed another tire was losing air so fast we could here it. So we piled back in the car and drove it to the nearest town. We were here for about an hour while they replaced the tube and it didn't take long before every kid in the town got wind that there were 7 mzungus standing by the side of the road. So we had a lot of questions, some singing, some dancing, some jumping, and a lot of feeling my hair.

Finally we got back on the road and rolled into Nairobi just in time to catch our train to the coast....but that story I'll save for another day. Hope you enjoyed the photos and I'll post more on Facebook soon!