The Lion King – Masai Mara – Friday, Aug 24

Sometimes I feel sorry for people that travel with me.  I am a walking radio and imagine spending hours with me in a land cruiser, in the middle of the Mara, listening to me sing songs from Toto, The Lion King, and of course my own made up songs.  Oh...and don’t worry, Juancho, also known as DJ Kast One, is a famous DJ that plays in clubs around the world.  I’m sure he was in heaven travelling with me!

We woke up to our tent attendant delivering us our own personal wakeup call at 5:45am.  He came to the tent, said “Good Morning”, and came in with hot chocolate, coffee, and tea.  Now that’s a way to wake up!  We were on the road by 6:30am. Milca wanted to get up at 5:45am to sit outside and drink her coffee.  Little did she know how cold and dark it would be at that time of the day.

After the game drive the night before, we all had VERY high expectations for the day.  We saw a ton of animals: zebras, topi, gazelles, wildebeests, elephants, lions, etc.  The highlight of the day was watching two lions hunt a pack of wildebeests and zebras.   It was so exciting watching them move closer and closer to the herd.  Unforunately, they didn’t move fast enough and the herd discovered the lions before they were close enough to attempt a kill.  The wildebeests just turned towards the lions and had a stare down.  Knowing that they were too far away, the lions stood up and walked away.  

 We also saw a bunch of lions eating a kill.  It was pretty gross watching them eat and hearing them rip the wildebeest apart but it was fascinating at the same time.  Survival of the fittest!  No words can really describe the scene.  It was AWESOME!

Safari Time – Masai Mara – Thursday, Aug 23

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....

Hungry, Hungry, Hungry Hippos – Lake Navaisha – Wednesday, Aug 22

On Wednesday we loaded into a van and trekked out to the Great Rift Valley.  This valley stretches from the Dead Sea to Mozambique.  It’s quite an impressive sight.  The drive was a little scary as the roads were all 2 lane roads and everyone is passing each other right and left.  I just tried to look the other way in order to avoid having a heart attack. 

We spent most of the day at Lake Navaisha.  Here we had our first encounter with HIPPOS or as Milca would say “hi pose”.   We rented a little motor boat and cruised around the lake.  The hippos seemed to be in only one area of the lake.  They are cool to see but there isn’t much action.  They just hang out in the water and occasionally yawn.  We stopped at an animal reserve and had a little walking safari.  It was pretty hot out by the time we stopped, so we only saw wildebeests, water bucks, zebras, and birds.  This was a nice little warm up to the safari we would be venturing out on the next day.