Masai Mara National Park

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Africa- here we go. 9 countries in 9 weeks and one step closer to home. We are starting this journey in Nairobi, Kenya with a few stops along the way before finishing in Cape Town, South Africa.

After sadly saying goodbye to Europe we flew to Nairobi via Cairo and touched down at 3am. Blurry eyed and anxious with anticipation as to what was waiting for us on the other side of the immigration door we were met by Timathy- a Africa Travel Co (our tour company) representive who whisked us off to the campground, and decided to try get some sleep as we ignored the African sun starting to rise over the horizon. After spending the day at different levels of consciousness we arranged for a driver to take us to an elephant and giraffe sanctuary the following morning.

The elephants in the orphanage ranged in age from 9 months to 5 years old and each had a story involving a poacher, floods or disease. We gathered around on the edge of Nairobi National Park with 50 or so other tourists as we waited for the youngest of the orphans to be fed from bottles consisting of human baby formula. The dozen elephants came charging out of the forest set on their bottles, and also had a play with footballs and squirted water out of their trunks. After the cute elephants had had their feed we headed to the giraffe center. I don’t think I will ever get sick of seeing arguably one of nature’s greatest creations move with such grace and calmness through the African wilderness. After hand feeding a couple of giraffes we returned to the campsite to meet our fellow travelers and have our tour briefing.

After the formalities of the tour were out of the way we went about meeting and determing who we would be living in very close quarters with for the next 56 days. A driver, cook and guide will be joining us for the duration of the trip. After spending the first of what would be many long days in the truck we camped on the edge of the Masai Mara National Park in tents and rose early for our first game drive of the trip.

The Masai Mara National Park is the most famous game park in Kenya, home to the big 5 (Elephant, Rino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard) and is famous for the great migration which takes place from the Serengeti, which had started just 72 hours before our arrival. Almost immeditately after entering the park the wildlife came thick and fast in the form of Wilderbeast, Giraffe, Zebra, Elephants, Buffalo, Impala and Thompsons Giselle. Lunch was spent on the banks of the Mara River, along with hippos and crocodiles

After lunch we were lucky enough to witness the great migration- thousands of wilderbeast and zebras running past our truck. 7 hours of driving around later we headed back towards camp, but not before we saw a collection of vechicles that had all gathered around a tree. We drove over and where excited to find a cheetah, its 4 cubs and a fresh kill. We watched the cheetahs for about 30 minutes- the babies were so cute, with little mohawks.

After the game drive we headed to a local Masai village and watched a welcome dance which included the tradtional jumping. Next we seperated into pairs and got shown into a locals hut- Michael and I found ourselves sitting around a family of about 8 in the tinest room. The Masai warrior told us about how the boys; once circumstisted must go out into the wild for 3-5 years to become men. The one who spears a lion gets a free wife as oppossed to having to pay the father cows.

Next we will be heading up to northen Kenya and Uganda to trek with gorillas.

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Comments

[Pamela]

Animals
What a lovely story. The animals must be great to see so close. I too just love the Giraffes. So gracious, arent they. always been my favourite. Enjoy the rest of journey. as you say one step closer to home. Love to both XX