The Masai

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Hey!

So much has happened since my last blog I don't really know where to start! From Nakuru we visited the Masai Mara National Park where we saw a wild cheetah, lions and loads of other animals. We also visited a Maasai village which was amazing.....the people live in little mud huts and wear bright red shawls and carry spears. It sounds crazy but they were really nice and made us feel welcome. They even spoke pretty good english which was really helpful when we were trying to understand their traditions. For example, for a boy to become a man he has to kill a lion and survive for a couple of months on his own. Due to National Parks the lion killing part has been restricted but they still have to go and live alone for a period of time. Just slightly different to English culture! They did some traditional dancing for us which we had to join in....I have a video of this which youwill have to see.

After the Mara and seeing the wildebeast on their migration (literally millions of them!) we headed to the Serengeti and over to Tanzania. We didnt see much on our first day in the Serengeti but the nd day we saw lots of lions including 3 males walking together. Their manes look very impressive. We also saw a leopard in a tree which means that we have now seen all the big 5 animals in Africa....Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Leopard and Lion. It so much better seeing them in the wild than in any kind of zoo.

After this we headed to the Ngorongoro Crater which is a crater formed by the collapse of a volcano millions of years ago. It is pretty much cut off from the rest of the savannah because of the steep sides of the crater meaning that not many animals go in or out. We got there pretty early in the morning - the best time for wildlife viewing, and saw so many animals. The best part was when a male lion came right up close to our little safari van. It was so close I could have touched it if I had wanted to...which i didn't! Lions can be pretty nasty animals and I definitely dont want to get on the wrong side of one!

Since then we have been in Arusha, where I am now and will be heading to Zanzibar on Tuesday. I have added even more pictures onto my photoalbum http://nicolasbigadventures.myphotoalbum.com There is one of me with some kids from a local school who were the loveliest kids I have ever met....they were so happy and pleased to see us which I think you get an idea about from the picture. Will put a more detailed blog up on zanzibar. Hope everyone is ok and thanks for you messages, I read them all so keep them coming!xxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[ria]

hey there
....can you bring me back a lion please :D