Blogs from Masai Mara NP, Rift Valley Province, Kenya, Africa - page 11

hey all! i pray that you've had an encouraging week! I personally am writing you after a doosie of a week and a half. I've had some spectacular food, a few dances with death, and a brief stroll on the road to the rest of my life, and with all that, I hope to share with you the intimacies of my time here in Kenya and encourage you the way you've been so purposeful in encouraging me. Sadly, I feel like i'm about to embark on a tale that can't be adequately shared in the few lines I've been given on this page. Nevertheless, with your patience and my stammering tongue, by grace I hope to give you a glimpse of the GOD at work over her and paint for you a picture of what its ... read more

Another early breakfast and we headed off to the Mara en route to the Serengetti in Tanzania, the abudance of Zebra, Wilderbeast, Gazelles, Giraffes, Elephants, mongoose, Baboons, Antelope as just unbelievable, Lion food every where you looked. We saw another congregation of vans in the distance and we headed over to have a nose. There were seven female lions all resting in some bushes, we also saw Wilderbeast all marching in a line heading further in to the Mara from the Serengetti, wilderbeast migrating so we headed in front of them to try and get a picture but they all stopped...not because of us, because of the lions. Unfortunately Wilderbeast are attracted to the scent of lions. We headed off to see a herd of Giraffes when we noticed a lone Wilderbeast becoming confused by the ... read more

Big Cat Diary Day started once more with another shout of ‘Jambo’ (hello) from our tent guide and rousing to consciousness via enforced cheerfulness and a couple of mugs of hot chocolate. Just so that you know, the daily routine by now was: game drive - breakfast - mid morning game drive - lunch - collapse and try to force kids into a siesta - afternoon game drive - make self presentable for dinner - dinner - fumble around tent in half darkness getting ready for bed - fall asleep to the sound of bellowing/roaring/trumpeting/clumping/chewing wildlife. Pretty hectic! Anyway, Mandila was bright and ready again so we bounced off into the Mara. The camp guard shouted ‘Jambo’ and saluted at us every time we left or entered the camp - in Mark’s mind he became known ... read more

Arriving and Safari all in one day With a prompt wake-up call, we dashed to get ready and breakfasted for our pick-up to transfer us to Wilson airport. As with the best laid plans, the driver turned up early and put us into a slight panic but we piled aboard and headed into the mechanical melee that is the Nairobi road traffic system. Joseph (our driver) navigated his way past broken down Lorries and inept traffic police (whilst giving succinct political and social commentary), and successfully delivered us to the airport. We boarded the Kenyan Airways RubberBand 500 and flew for 45 minutes to the Mara, and then transferred to a RubberBand 200 for a 5 minutes flight (is that short or what, it took as long to take off and land as the actual flight ... read more

I am sitting in Bankok; crazy, frustrated tourists are rushing around searching the net for a way out of Thailand. Finally, the real adventure begins; I am actually talking about the frustration using the internet in africa as it has not been possible to update the blog until we arrived in Swakopmund, Namibia; north of the Zambezi it is dire! THe real adventure through africa began with a 14hr flight, including a stop over in Doha (the capital of Qatar - first I had heard of it), to Nairobi. Passing through immigration with no hassles we were greeted eagerly by Matthew, a young enthusiastic Masai ready to take us around the city. I think most Kenyan tourists are heavy tippers as our eager beaver driver soon lost interest with the realisation that no $100 tip was ... read more