"It's The Circle Of Life"....

---

I had been in Kenya for about 3 days now and had already been blessed by Lake Nakuru and already seen 4 of the Big Five and yet was still hungry for more. Not knowing what was around the corner gave me a sense of adventure and wonder. And boy, did I have no idea what was coming in the Masai Mara.

We had been booked for a hot air balloon ride on our first morning in the Mara after a long journey to the Mara from Lake Naivaisha the day before. We reluctantly woke up at about 5:00 hoping that the ride would be worth the early start (and the $425 dollars). Getting to the lodge that ran the balloon rides we were delayed for about 45minutes while everyone paid and got organised and we couldn't help but feel like we should have slept in.

Finally when we reached the balloons we were told that since it was quite a windy day we would have to climb into the basket sideways so that when the balloon was upright; by this stage the flight had a lot of ground to cover for us to be pleased...

Once we got in the air though, all the mucking around was quickly forgotten as the sun started to begin rising once we reached the air - although it was a bit of a cloudy morning it was my first 'real' African sunrise and I was already impressed.

Our British guide was fabulous and considering he wasn't a local knew everything we needed to know of the sites we were seeing - he was able to point out the habitats of the Mara, including the major rivers and was able to recognise creatures from the air that looked like nothing more than a few random dots here and there. The ride gave us an impression of the sheer size and magnitude of the Mara and since we were there for the wildebeest migration also helped us to understand the multitude of wildebeest crossing into the Mara, however, we had expected to be able to see the animals more clearly, however we were mostly too high up for any of this.

The hour in the air flew quickly and before we knew it we had been shown all the borders of the Mara (and seen the Serengeti in the distance) and we were coming in for a landing...

We had to lay backwards in the baskets again and we only experienced a bit of a jolt when we first hit the ground. After allowing the balloon to deflate (and a bit of a photo session) we were picked up by a 4WD vehicle that was to take us to our champagne breakfast on the Mara. But what we found along the way was what made the ride truly worth it all.

About halfway through our journey the driver said that there was a lion on the side of the road coming up - we PLEADED with him to stop as the lions we saw in Nakuru whilst beautiful and cool - weren't as close as this lion was. When we got closer, we saw that it was in fact a male lion eating a kill. With no females in sight, (and considering he'd only started to eat) the driver thought he had probably made the kill himself and it was incredible how close he allowed us while he just munched - we could even hear the crunching of his teeth against the bone. For the time we were there we were blessed to witness him completely eat one leg. The driver noticed that he was careful to stay away from the stomach lining and said this was another sign he had made the kill himself - as the stomach lining contains smells which would attract hyenas to the kill. We only left after another vehicle had discovered the lion and started to invade his space; forcing the animal to drag his kill to a more private spot; just goes to show how stupid some drivers can be - all the tourists in that vehicle missed out because he had to push things (plus it was already only 3 or 4 metres away - what more do they want?).

By this time we were all professing that that alone was worth the $425... and we were back on the road. About 300metres or so from the lion we discovered something else was left us with a lasting impression; a baby Thomson's gazelle that the driver believed was about 30minutes old - hiding vulnerably in the grass - it's mother a few metres away trying not to draw attention to it. Our driver joked that if the lion found it - it would take it for dessert. And this is when this understanding of the "circle of life" started to kick in ---> the life of one animal sometimes has to be taken for the life of another. I was unsure how I felt, I had developed a connection with both the lion and the gazelle.

One more treat along the road allowed us to see the next part of ecosystem as we discovered about 50 or so vultures also eating at another kill... They were eating whatever they could - particulary cool to watch the dictatorship and pecking order even between these birds as they squabbled and fought just to get a small helping of meat. Some were brave and tried to get in before their rank and these were forced away by a more dominant vulture who wasn't yet ready to share - some waited patiently before realising they had a better chance up the road with the lion and flying off to wait for him to finish.

I must admit, when we got to the breakfast we were a little disappointed since there was now no hope of any more wildlife for a while but the breakfast was delicious! After breakfast we were taken back to our camp but not before hearing that there had been a leopard sighting this morning and the driver had a look for us for about 15minutes or so before deciding that the leopard had probably run off...

This morning however left us so hopeful for the rest of our time in the Mara and we could have kept looking for that leopard all day, however, we had a camp to get back to. Upon our return to camp we found out the rest of our group had discovered that very same leopard this morning and had an up-close and intimate encounter with it for several minutes... They even said that it had had a kill up in a tree!

We were determined to go back to that tree....

---