Patience is a virtue – Masai Mara – Sunday, Aug 26

We had high expectations for our last half day in the Mara.  We still hadn’t seen a cheetah or rhino.....and since others at our lodge had seen both the day before, we were determined to make it happen!  Sonia and I spent most of the morning on our feet scouting out the area but the only new find were a few hyenas (cool but not cool enough).  Our driver found a lion eating a kill...which under normal circumstances would be amazing....but we couldn’t be bothered with that today.  We needed to see cheetahs and rhinos!

After an hour or so of looking for the illusive rhino, Sonia and I told Emmanuel we were giving up and wanted to find the cheetahs.  After another hour or so of hardly seeing an animal, everyone was in a dark, depressed state.  The car was completely silent (that’s saying something with 6 New Yorkers in the car).  Poor Emmanuel was stressed because he knew we were very discouraged.  He promised us we would see a cheetah if we kept looking.  Just when we were ready to call it quits, we noticed several cars stopped and Emmanuel assured us it was a Cheetah sighting...and he was right!!!  We saw a mama cheetah with 2 cubs!!  They were adorable.  After we left that sighting, we came across another mama cheetah and a cub.  It was amazing how in a matter of seconds we were filled with complete happiness and joy!  Talk about highs and lows!

After seeing the Cheetahs, we decided to try one more time to see a rhino.  We had a good laugh about how discouraged and grumpy we were and promised Emmanuel we wouldn’t get upset if we didn’t end up seeing a rhino.  He was a good sport and tried his hardest to find a rhino but unfortunately that never happened.  Side note:  we eventually found out that there are only about 20 rhinos in the Mara...so it’s nearly impossible to see them in the Mara.  After finding this out we started calling them fat unicorns.

Also, Milca had decided that she needed to a have a hot breakfast (not the nasty hardboiled egg, cold sausage, and bread breakfasts we had been eating during our game drives) so she opted to go on a game drive with the hotel and then return for breakfast.  At one point during the hotel safari, they took her to see the Cheetahs.  They said, “Oh look, that’s Mikayla.  She’s a friendly Cheetah”......and then Mikayla jumped on the back of a jeep and posed for pictures.  Granted, the picture was stunning...but after hearing this story....I’m convinced that the rhino everyone saw the day before was another “Mikayla”.  Planted and ready to put on a show!

Well, that pretty much wraps up our rookie safari experience.  It was unbelievable, amazing, incredible, and life changing!!!  Let it be known that I WILL RETURN TO THE MARA FOR ANOTHER SAFARI EXPERIENCE SOME DAY!!! 

The Crossing – Masai Mara – Saturday, Aug 25

We were on the road by 6am!  Energy levels were high as we were going to see the wildebeest crossing at the Mara River.  The day started off extremely well as WE (well, most credit goes to Juancho) discovered a LEOPARD!  Leopards are extremely hard to find so it was an incredibly exciting find. The leopard ran across the field and climbed up on a large rock.  We drove right over to the rock and had an awesome view .  Before we knew it, cars were gathering left and right. You quickly learn that if you see a car stopped for more than a couple minutes someone must have discovered something BIG.  Cars filled with professional photographers lined up so we decided to take a picture with me and my little point and shoot camera.  It’s one of my favorite pictures from our trip!  – Side note: people tracked this leopard for at least 3 hours because by the time we came back from seeing the crossing, cars were still lined up watching the leopard walk through the bushes. 

Our next stop was the Mara River!  When we pulled up we were all shocked to see the river full of dead wildebeests.   There had to have been a hundred dead carcasses floating down the river or stuck between rocks.  It was a dreadful sight and at times quite stinky!  Some of the wildebeests had been killed by crocodiles but others were drowned as they were trampled during the stampede across the river. 

Thousands of wildebeests and zebras were gathered at the edge of the river when we arrived.  We were so excited and expected the action to begin immediately.  Little did we know that we would have to wait SEVERAL hours to see a mass crossing.  Looking back, I really don’t blame them for taking their time.  Crossing the river was literally a life and death situation.  The timing and location had to be absolutely perfect in order to survive the crossing.   For hours we watched a few brave wildebeests approach the river, get spooked by a couple of hippos lounging in the river, and then retreat back.  Once in awhile a small group of wildebeests would leap into the water and swim across but inevitably one of them would get scared and retreat...causing all of the other wildebeests in line to do the same thing.  A few minutes later that same group would return to the river and swim back to the other side to rejoin the larger pack....risking their life once again.  Finally, after several hours, the timing was perfect and we saw a mass crossing.  It was a pretty awesome sight to behold even if we didn’t witness a crocodile attack. 

On our way back to the lodge we saw three young lions attempting to hunt a herd of wildebeests and zebras in the rain.  We were sure we would see a kill but once again the lions were discovered before they were close enough to make a run for the herd.  We continued to track the lions after the hunt was over and found that they were part of a larger pride of lions which had already made a kill.  We watched 7 hungry lions devour a wildebeest.  Incredible!!!