IN THE JUNGLE, THE MIGHTY JUNGLE, THE LION.......POSES FOR PICTURES??

This morning (Wed Dec 29th) we got our earliest wake-up call of the trip, 4:30am.  But it wasn't an ordinary wake-up call; the hotel arranges for someone to come bearing what ever beverage of choice you wish when they come "knocking" on the tent zipper.  So we were awakened with a couple of glasses of iced tea, so it wasn't too horrible.  At 5:15am we left the hotel, and at 6:15am we were taking off over the Masai Mara in a giant hot air balloon heading due west while the sun rose behind us in the east. 

The pilot would take the balloon up about 100 feet, catch the prevailing winds, and then settle into a valley at about 5 feet off the ground just watching all the animals scatter around you.  Then back up we would go to look around at all the giraffe, wildabeest, zebra, antelope, etc, and back down we would go racing along only a few feet above the ground.  Again, my words are pretty inadequate for this one.  Our group had two balloons in the air and the other balloon provided some good perspective for the shots.

We did this for about an hour and then landed in the plains.  We got into the trucks, drove a few miles, and, volia, catered champagne breakfast in the middle of the Masai Mara.  This is a really tough trip, and I know all of you continually feel bad for me.  Thank you for all your concerns; they mean a lot to me.  Cheers!!!

We then headed back to the hotel, and most people headed for a quick nap.  We had lunch, blogged a little bit, and then headed out for a late afternoon game drive.  We were in search of the exotic, and we were not disappointed.  If you'll remember, here in the Masai Mara we drive right up to the animals if we can.  Well, first we came across this pregnant lioness napping in some shade.  Even with 4 trucks looking at her she was quite bored with us.  I did catch her rolling over which made for a nice shot.

Next someone spotted a male nearby which might have been her mate.  He was a grizzled old veteran and we knew this because we drove about 10 feet from him.  With close up shots you could see all the scars on his face and it looked like he was missing parts of his ears.  I caught him in a big yawn, but it looks like a big growl!!!

Not to be undone we saw another male and female wandering in the valley below.  By the time we got down to them there might have been 5 other trucks in the area.  The lions couldn't have cared less.  They slowly got up and just passed right by the windows of our truck.  Two of the women in our truck got a wee bit nervous because we had the windows wide open.  (You can hear one on the video below.)  I swear if you were stupid enough you could have reached out and run your hands through his mane!!!  But no one tried this stunt.  Clara got a ton of video and I put one of the better ones on her, especially the commentary.  I would have put more but I don't have all afternoon to wait for videos to upload; there are more animals to see!!!

Wow is all I can say for this game drive.

Until next time.