Safari = journey

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It really is magical seeing animals in the wild; as summed up so well in the Lion King lyrics, so beautifully sung by Susannah and Eezy:

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

Chorus:

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

We started in Lake Nakuru and went off on a morning drive standing up in our safari minibus van to try and spot the animals in the distance. Baboons by the hundreds, water buffalo, a lone giraffe, beautiful colourful birds, rhinos just lazin in the morning sun, brightly coloured lizards, ostriches, impala and gazelle (which are apparently very different i was told when i naively asked the difference between them!), a cute little warthog just running running running, heaps of zebra and their backsides, thousands of flamingo just standing in the lake and then hundreds of flamingo flying when a hyena went in for the kill and grabbed one. We even saw a little dung beetle moving his big lump of dung- geez they are strong!

Interestingly which i never knew, rhinos are not black or white, they are black or wide mouthed and it's just the brits that call them white.

With limited time on our whirlwind tour of kenya we headed to the Masai Mara National Park that same day which was a long drive but always interesting driving through the countryside and through villages passing stalls, people walking along the roadside seemingly walking nowhere, kids waving energetically at the mzungu, herdsmen and their cattle, and unique to kenya - endless donkeys towing stuff.

Serengeti means savannah to the masai people but in order to distinguish between the two parks which are back to back, the masai mara gets its name from the river running through it.

We stayed in an ensuite tented camp and headed out the next morning into the big expanse that is the masai mara NP. To our surprise the wildebeest migration had started and as far as the eye could see there were wildebeest covering the hills just hanging out and then occasionally you'd see a long line of them running in single file to cover a bit of distance.

We were lucky to see all the big 5, elephant (which eat 600lb a day and drink 40 gallons of water, they have 6 sets of teeth, live for 20 years, only sleep for 1hr in every 24....they just eat eat eat - the bigger the elephant the older, and did you know a baby can walk 5 milesthe day they are born!), buffalo, lions and lioness' with their kill and cubs, and even a cheetah which we zoomed right over the other side of the park to see - all of a sudden our driver heard something on the radio and took off without any explanation and we had to hold on tight!). The last of the big 5 being the rhino which we saw in the Lake Nakuru.

Giraffe are fascinating creatures, walking with 2 left then 2 right legs to help keep them balance. Vultures are horrid things and look so evil hovering over a kill and even more so when they tuck in to it. Down by the river we saw a group of hippos and an interesting rock looking thing in the middle of the river which turned out to be a dead hippo, bloated to the size of who knows what with its feet in the air - not nice. Many cicadas decided to jumpin our vehicle too - so we tried hard not to annoy themso as to keep our hearing for a few more years! I hadn't realised how huge they can be.

What a day there really is.....more to see than can ever be seen, More to do than can ever be done!

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