HAKUNA MATATA!!

Today (okay, actually yesterday) (Tues Dec 28^th) we left our grand hotel, the Mt Kenya Safari Club, for a short airplane ride to the Masai Mara National Park.  The planes were prop engines and held 12 people in a very tight space.  When we landed in the Masai Mara we loaded into our safari trucks and headed out for a game drive on our way to our next “hotel”.  Immediately after we got into the trucks we were seeing animals.  If you’ll remember from a previous post, here in the Masai Mara the trucks can drive right up to the animals and don’t have to stay on any designated paths or roads.

We spotted some mongoose and monkeys, and then the drivers headed towards the banks of the Mara river.  They then let us do something unusual; we got out of the trucks to get a better look at a mass of hippos wallowing in the river below.  We also spied a crocodile swimming nearby, but the croc was no match for the hippos so he just drifted away. 

We got back in the trucks and headed out for the plains.  One truck had spotted a leopard dragging some type of kill into the wooded area so we headed there.  The leopard had killed a topi (a rather large antelope) and it was lying about 50 ft inside the treeline.  We could see the leopard through the thick bushes, but he was scared off by all of the trucks assembling nearby and wasn’t coming near the kill yet.  Since we had to check into the “hotel” we only stayed a few minutes and off we went.

All along our tour director Eric has been telling us that this was the primo property of the tour, and man he didn’t let us down.  We are staying at the Fairmont Mara Safari Club and words once again can’t describe the setting or the accommodations.  The whole complex is built on the banks of the Mara River, where we can see and hear the hippos float by all day long.  There are monkeys flying thorough the trees above us, and many other critters running along the ground.  Here we don’t even have room keys because we are staying in “tents” which are again situated on the bank of the Mara River.  Clara is a wee bit verklempt over the whole open tent scene, but one look out the front zipper at the Mara River and all of the hippos and even she is sold.

When we checked in, Masaai warriors greeted us upon arrival with this dance:

We had a quick bite for lunch, unpacked our duffel bags, and then headed back out for more animals.  We went back to the scene of the topi kill, but the leopard still was not comfortable enough to come out and start snacking.  So it was on to the giraffes, and they were everywhere, standing, sitting, walking and even trying to bite their tails. 

Next we drove through herds of gazelle, zebra, and other antelope type creatures whose names I forget.  When we got to a certain place on a hill, the trucks all stopped and again we all got out of the vehicles.  We were asked to be very quiet, walked about 100 feet up the hill, and there were 5 white rhino just grazing in the road.  Since these guys are on the endangered species list and almost extinct they are monitored 24 hours a day in the Masai Mara by park rangers.  Because of this the drivers know where they are all the time.  Even so it was breathtaking to be standing 20 feet away from these giants.  A few times the rangers had to move us to safer ground because the rhino are known to charge people just for the hell of it.  I know I say this all the time, but it is just too hard to describe the beauty of the experience. 

Back into the trucks and next up were a herd of the Cape Buffalo, another member of the Big 5.  In this herd there were even some baby buffalo which were about 6-8 months old.  We drove into the middle of the herd, turned off the engine, and just listened to them munch on the grass.  It was the perfect end to the game drive.

Until next time.