Masai Mara

Thanks Grace...
...glad you liked the blog...we did the Kenya safaris with a company called G Adventures (also stayed with them for safaris in Tanzania and the Kilimanjaro climb which I will be doing future blogs on...). They are a Canadian based company that we have used before (Peru and Tibet) and have been really happy with them...it's mid-range traveling, no fancy hotels and in this case we camped the entire time (with the exception of transit hotels at the beginning of each week), but the costs reflect this, they are really well organized and I like the fact that they use local people as the guides/porters etc., and invest back into the communities via several initiatives... I don't think you can do the parks we did on your own, and even if you could the driver and guide's knowledge of the parks was invaluable in that they seemed to know where most of the animals would be...Kili climb I know you can't do on your own.. Our last week we went to Zanzibar, again eventually a blog will be done about that, and that portion we did on our own, pretty straightforward... Hope that answers your questions, if not please ping me again and I will let you know what I know...hugs back from Canada!

Absolutely...
I have to agree, they weren't one of the animals I was busting to see when I went but up close and in the wild they are beautiful...zebras caught me off guard as well, their markings seen up close are magnificent...

Lucky indeed...
Cheetahs were big on my list, spent about half an hour with these two which was magical...still can't believe how close we got to not only these cheetahs but pretty much all the rest of the animals as well...I would say October is a good time, the foliage is pretty brown as it waits for the rainy season, but easier to spot the animals...I'm sure anytime is good but can vouch for October...food overall was really good, we had cooks on our tours that prepared simple but delicious meals: always a soup to start (typically a vegetable of some sort), lots of rice, beans, etc but some chicken and Kenya dude prepared some ground beef meatballs and samosas that were amazing...please ping me with any questions, always appreciate your comments and glad to help where I can...

Thanks Tat...
...in my unofficial poll the hippos seem to be leading favourites of the animals...