First of all, happy birthday to my brother Adam! Sorry I couldn’t call you.....but I was on SAFARI!
We boarded a TINY airplane from the Wilson airport in Nairobi and flew to the Masai Mara National Reserve. We thought it was a straight shot to our landing strip (yes, we basically land in a field in the middle of the Mara) but nope, we flew 45 minutes to one place in the Mara, unloaded passengers, flew 7 minutes to the next strip, unloaded passengers, and then flew 7 minutes to OUR landing strip. Maida and Sonia both got sick on the plane ride so they couldn’t have been happier to get off that plane.
Emmanuel, our driver for the next four days, picked us up at the landing strip and drove us to our tented camp – Mara Intrepids – which was literally a half mile away. We were greeted by a Masai Chief -- Milca questioned his credibility at first but by the end of the trip decided he was a real Chief. Our “tents” were absolutely gorgeous! I seriously could have lived there forever.
After grabbing a quick buffet lunch we loaded into our Land Cruiser for our first afternoon game drive. Within minutes we were seeing animals. It was like Yellowstone on crack. Seriously, there were animals everywhere. Disclaimer...we were touring the Mara during the annual wildebeest migration. Millions of wildebeests lead the migration of animals from the Masai Mara to the Serengeti. It’s the best time of year to see animals and it was truly an incredible experience.
The first thing Sonia told our driver was that all she wanted to see was a kill. The rest of us were on a mission to see the Big 5: rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo, and elephant AND of course giraffes, cheetahs, and wildebeests! By the end of our first game drive we had already see 3 of the Big 5 (lion, buffalo, and elephant).
The most memorable moment of the day was almost getting stuck out in the Mara. We had a hard time climbing a steep hill on the other side of a small river we were crossing and thought we were going to be stuck there all night. Thank goodness for four-wheel drive. We thought we were goners.
We ended the day with a delicious dinner and then climbed into our warm beds thanks to the staff placing hot water bottles in our beds during turn down service. I think they might be on to something with the whole hot water bottle thing....
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