My safari got off to an interesting start. If I go all the way to the beginning, I booked through this guy Anthony who was recommended to me by someone at work as someone who could give me a nice tour of Nairobi. During that trip, he mentioned that he can also book safaris, so I asked him to give me a quote for 3 days, 2 nights driving safari in the Masai Mara over Labor Day weekend. He came back to me with a price that was unbeatable - over a hundred less than the other quotes I was getting. I paid cash through a transaction that consisted of me meeting him outside the gate of my apartment complex and handing it to him. I asked for a receipt, which of course what I meant was that I wanted a receipt right then, but I was told he would bring one back the next day for me. I never did get a receipt, so on the day of my departure I was wondering if my promised transport would actually show up. I was 90% confident that it would since he was likely to lose all of his CDC business if it didn't, but I couldn't help but wonder. My transport was 15 minutes late (7:45AM), but arrive it did. I was off. Our next stop was at a guest house nearby to pick up two additional people in my group. They were nowhere to be found. The proprietor of the establishment, finally came out and told us that they were still sleeping and had said that they had been told their pick up was at 9AM and that they refused to come out until then. You can imagine what I was thinking at this point. My driver/guide (Barry) and I headed to the office to pick up one more person (Esther) and our cook (Mr. Matthew) before heading back to get them. They were sitting outside waiting when we arrived. They (Aron and Jerrin) were really nice about the whole mix up, which was not what I was expecting given the earlier message we had received. I immediately forgave them. Besides, I was about to spend a lot of time with them over the next couple of days, so holding a grudge would have just ruined my experience. We were chatting about the whole ordeal earlier and it turns out that they had told the proprietor that they could be ready in 10-15 minutes if we could wait and she had told them that we were refusing to wait for them! That was totally not true. I'm sure that had she relayed what they had actually told her, we would have waited. I have no idea what her motivations for creating all of that drama were.
By about 9:30 we were on the road headed to the Masai Mara. Shortly after getting out of Nairobi, we stopped at an overlook.
Me at the overlook
I took several photos out of the van window along the way.
Mt. Longonot - I'm hoping to climb this in a couple of weeks.
Our first stop once we arrived, was at Esther and my campsite. Aron and Jerrin were staying at a lodge inside the park. We dropped off our things (and Mr. Matthew) and headed back out for an afternoon game ride. Sunday was a full day game ride, about 10 hours including a break for lunch, and then we had an early morning game ride before heading back to Nairobi on Monday. It was so incredible. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was not to be as close to the wildlife as we were. Driving into the Masai Mara reminded me a bit of driving into the National Parks in States. In both, the scenery dramatically changes as soon as you pass through the gates. In the national parks in the States, you are met by amazing scenery and geological wonders. In the Masai Mara, you are immediately surrounded by by wildebeast and antelopes. I saw nearly everything I had hoped to see while there. The only things we missed out on were cheetahs and rhinos. I will see rhinos when I go to Lake Nakuru, and I am hoping to take another safari in another part of Kenya before I leave to get another stab at seeing cheetahs. I think the most amazing thing during the trip was our first lion siting. We came upon a male lion sleeping in the grass near the road. We ultimately we parked right next to him. We were literally hanging over the edge of the van looking down at him. It was so incredible. Since I saw so many animals and took so many photos, I've pulled out some of the best ones and grouped them by animal instead of going through things chronologically like I usually do.
Gate to the Masai Mara National Reserve
Our van with the top popped for maximum wildlife viewing. That's Esther in the window.
Jerrin and Aron
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The Mara River
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Sunrise on Monday morning
Views of the Masai Mara - the sky and clouds were pretty amazing too.
Birds (only a fraction of them) of the Masai Mara
Secretary bird
Baby wart hogs! Mom and dad might be ugly, but the babies are really cute.
Gazelles and antelope
Topi
Zebras
Buffalo
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It turns out there was another right around the corner from us. There was a female too, but while the guys didn't care that we were around, she did and headed into the bushes.
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Playing
Here comes dad
A lion couple feasting on a wildebeast - it's a good thing there are so many because they sure do get eaten by lions a lot.
Cubs munching on a wildebeast - you can just see a horn and a hoof
Listen closely (don't watch if you're squeamish)
Another lion pride - mom with cubs
Me, Sumare, and Esther
1 comment:
This was in deed a great Safari of my time.I am also happy to have met you because you were a great company .I will miss the "Garlian source " if i never bring myself to making one that tastes like Mr. Mathew's.
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