Oct 28 - 30 - On Safari in the Masai Mara

After settling into Machakos, we worked very hard for 2 days with our client, the MInistry of Higher Education, Science & Technology. (MoHEST) Then came the reward.... Friday we went on safari!!! 

We drove from Machakos to a National Park called Masai Mara in the south west part of Kenya. It was the inspiration for the Disney movie The Lion King. The trip was looong and the road was pretty rough, but after 9 hours of travel we arrived in our camp just outside the park. The safari company was great - dinner was waiting after they showed us to our tents. 

Now I don't know about you but I love sleeping in a tent in the rain. The sound of the raindrops, and this time coupled with the sounds of the African night. Birds, hyenas, elephants, cows, it was a symphony!

Early Saturday morning we started our safari when we entered into the Masai Mara park. It was immediately apparent that this place is like nowhere else on earth. We saw so many animals and so close up to our van it was incredible. The highlight for day one came about an hour into our drive, when we came around a corner and there was a huge herd of ELEPHANTS!  There must have been about 15 of them. After watching for a few minutes we were thrilled to see that there was a pride of lions (about 8 of them including a large male)

in the brush where the elephants were headed. The elephants were clearly disturbed by the lions and wanted them gone. They stamped, and trumpeted, and crashed around.... it was quite a sight. 





The lions retreated just enough to avoid being trampled but weren't ready to completely give way. After some more noise-making by the elephant family, the lions had enough and moved on! 







We saw so many animals it would be ridiculous to name them all. There is alot of talk in the park about seeing "The Big Five" Elephants, Rhinos, Buffalo, Lions, and Leopards. We saw all but the elusive Rhino. 

We went right up to a pair of cheetah brothers basking in the sun - I felt I could reach out and touch them. 









We also saw the leopard in a tree. I have never seen such camouflage. If you weren't looking for it, you would never have spotted it. We saw literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and we stopped for a walk at the Mara River where the wildebeest cross in the great migration. 

We didn't see any actually trying to make the crossing, but we saw the big fat crocs waiting for them in the river! And I was totally unprepared for the graveyard of bleached white bones along the banks of the river. It was a scary sight to see such a killing field. Here I am standing beside the Mara River with a hippo watching me on the near shore and a croc is on the far shore by the rock. There were several big fat hippos in the water too, staring at us and daring us to swim. No thank you!!! 

 

Later in the day we came across another family of elephants, and they were accompanied by a huge bull elephant. He was almost twice the size of the others. He saw us and slowly moved towards our jeep, snorting and fanning his huge ears. When he came about 25 feet from us, our driver slowly backed our car away from him. He kept coming towards us and we moved again. 
I was trembling and was quite happy to put more space between us. The elephant was very polite about it, but he wanted us to know who was boss and that we needed to give him room. What a day! we headed back to camp and all went to our tents early and slept well. I didn't even hear the elephants walk through camp that night!

On Sunday we went back into the park and saw many more animals. The highlight of Sunday morning was watching a lion family moving down a hill. There were 3 lionesses - two were obviously "experienced" from their scratches and scars, and one was in her prime. A shiver ran through me when she walked right in front of our jeep and looked up at us. Her eyes locked on mine and she silently spoke volumes to me in the few seconds before she moved on. I'll never forget her. She told me that I was just lucky that today she didn't feel like killing me, but she wanted me to know she could.......

Accompanying  the three female lions, were a rough and tumble set of seven cubs. They looked just under a year old, and were practicing their pouncing and rolling over with each other all the way down the hill. Right near us at the bottom of the hill was a fallen tree log. All ten lions stopped and sharpened their claws on the log - all at the same time. When you see those massive paws with inches of sharp, unsheathed nails, you really understand why they are considered royalty. The powerful lioness I was just telling you about took the job of nail-sharpening much more seriously than the others. Whew!  

On our way home, we stopped at a Masai village just outside the park. 

We were given a  nice welcome by singing and then the men sang and held a jumping contest for us. They were so tall and slender, and they could jump like gazelles! We went on a tour of the family's compound and went into a manyatta (small round low hut, made of sticks and held together by cow dung). Our Masai guide gave us lots of information about how his people live, and it was fascinating.  As an example, his father had nine wives and he is one of 38 children. All the Masai in his family either were barefoot or wore sandals made out of tire treads. Ingenious footwear!

On the way back to Machakos, we climbed out of the Great Rift Valley and because the sun was shining, the view took my breath away. 

The origins of man came from here! What a weekend!

Talk to you soon. I have to rest up tonight for a big week with the client.