Blogs from Masai Mara NP, Rift Valley Province, Kenya, Africa - page 8

My second leg of the adventure started when I bid farewell to Edgar on the evening of the 22nd and flew into Masai Mara the following morning. No words can really describe the Masai Mara. It is one of the most beautiful, out of this world places I have ever been. And I don't say that lightly. From the moment you arrive you know this is a special place. It is romantically intoxicating, from the landscape to the literally millions of animals that live there. You get the immediate sense that you have left the human world and entered the animal kingdom. From the smells of the wild, like as though you are on a massive farm, to the smells of fresh and not so fresh kills that litter the plains. You are told to stay ... read more

A personal wake up call at 5:45 (the tents don’t have telephones) to start off the day, along with the sounds of birds chirping, etc. A quick cup of tea and the 3 of us were off for our morning game drive. Today we had Anthony. We thought William had been a good guide, knowing where the rhino was, saving the lion for last, but Anthony was much more talkative and told us more about the park and the animals. Right outside the lodge gate was a herd of elephants. Good morning. We saw a lot of the same animals - zebras, wildebeests, a Hart beast which apparently is hard to get a good shot of because they turn away and show the “backside of Africa” but we got some head shots, some topis, some water ... read more

12th. August : British Airways flight arrived at 9 PM at Jomo Kenyata International Airport, Nairobi. I was met by Gibson, a Kikuyu from Cheli and Peacock. Nice man. He drove me to the House of Waine, in Karen district, outside Nairobi for overnight stay. The district is named after Karen Blixen of "Out of Africa" fame. After a few drinks and roast chicken dinner, I retired to bed a bit late, around 11.30 PM. Gibson was to come back in the morning to take me to Wilson Airport to catch flight to Masai Mara. I hit the pillow and just passed out.... read more

Today for once we didn't wake up especially early but we still had to get our stuff ready and set out at the front gate ready for the buses. I stocked up on soda and candy since it was going to be a six hour drive and around nine o'clock we headed out to Masai Mara. We stopped at Nakumat for some snacks and from their drove for four hours and stopped at a curio shop for lunch and they tried to rip me off with an old sword. After awhile we arrived at the Masai Mara camp. We opened up our tents and dropped our stuff in there and headed out to the jeeps for an afternoon game drive. We saw gazelles, lions, cheetahs, thousands of Wildebeest, and many more animals including monkeys. When sunset ... read more

Our game drive at Nakuru had whet our appetite for one of Africa’s most famous parks - the Maasai Mara, which is where we headed next. We all hoped that we would see one of nature’s great spectacles in action - the annual wildebeest migration. We’d heard that the migration had started, so were confident we’d see something at the Mara. On the way to the park itself, we call in at a Maasai village to learn about their way of life and partake in some more tribal bouncing. Even more so than the Pokot tribe we visited at Lake Baringo, the Maasai visit feels like an entirely commercial and somewhat false experience. It is hot, the flies swarm around us and the stench from the cow manure - which forms the floor of the village ... read more