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Published: June 10th 2017
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Geo: -1.48848, 35.0464
We woke early and started our drive into the Maasai Mara Reserve. William remained with us as our guide. This is a different geographic landscape, with more tall grass, rivers, vegetation, and hills. We had not been in the Reserve long before we spotted our first elephants. William navigated the Land Cruiser incredibly close. It does make you a little nervous when you know those animals could crush you with one move.
Then, it was the thousands of Cape buffalo, wildebeest, and zebras......and finally....lions. Our first encounter was with a mother and 3 one year-old cubs. Then, a male and female later on but both were just sleeping under a tree. We also saw dozens of hippos along the banks and in the rivers, and many more groups of elephants.
We arrived at the "Mobile Camp" and were the only guests (5 of us and a staff of 6 that took care for us). Each tent included an RV/marine type toilet in a separate room, a bucket shower that the staff filled with warm water, a wash basin, and an extremely comfortable bed. There was a generator that provided electric lights in the tents for a few hours each night. Definitely
not roughing it. There was a separate dining/lounging tent with bar, AC charging station, and library/games.
After a great lunch, a little relaxation, and a hilarious game of volleyball with the non-English speaking Maasai staff, we headed back out looking for animals. We spotted more hippos and then spent another hour observing a pride of lions with 2 large males, and 6 females. We got to witness the angry mating ritual between one of the males and females. Very entertaining!
We finished the night with a fantastic dinner and night listening to baboons and hippos. Once we settled into our tents at night, we heard more lions and hyenas seemingly right outside of our tent!
The next day we did more of the same. We hit the trails at about 6:15 am. We saw more lions, a hyena feeding on a wildebeest that the lions had killed, crocodiles, and more incredible animals. Around 9:00 am, we came across another pride of lions with 1 male, 2 adult females, and 4-5 cubs. Awesome.
At 9:30, we moved about 500 yards away from the lions and set up a picnic breakfast. It was a little unnerving sitting out looking over your shoulder to make sure
that we did not become breakfast for our earlier entertainment. We assumed our guide and spotter knew what they were doing.
At dinner tonight we found out that William had also been the guide for Angelina, Brad, and their kids, Danny Devito, Jim Carrey, Naomi Campbell, and Keira Knightley. So, I guess he must know what he is doing. Otherwise, he probably would not have been assigned to these clients.
But, before we headed back for dinner, we came across 3 cheetahs lounging under a tree....finally. We have now completed our checklist with the exception of leopards. Rain after our volleyball rematch cut short our evening safari run, so we will probably not see leopards on this trip.....maybe next trip. We did track a young male lion trying to find his pride in the pouring rain, but we lost him once we relocated closer to the neighboring wildebeest in the event that the lion took a detour for dinner.
After our dinner, we sat around the dining tent with the staff, drinking beer and wine, with Sean and Sarah entertaining. The rain had stopped by then and we were serenaded by the sounds of lions, hyenas, and hippos all night.
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