Maasai Mara

Moses arrived outside my hotel at 6 AM in his landcruiser. Off we went, into the Maasai Mara, on safari!

Barely 100m past the gate were the first animals – giraffes, zebras and wildebeests.

Soon we saw some gazelles, and a stork.

We drove off on small tracks in search of other animals.

We saw several landcruisers grouped up, and Moses said they’d spotted a lion. They were on the far side of a river and it took us a while to get to them. Thankfully, being cats, they were sleeping and hadn’t moved.

After that we heard that a cheetah had been spotted. It was sleeping in some bushes by a stream. There was no road access there and an extra payment is required to drive off the tracks. We waited for a while in case it came out, but it never did. So we drove off to see some other animals.

We saw a herd of buffalo, one of the “big five” game animals (along with lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos).

After a while we found some hyenas – two cubs with their mother. The cubs were playing around while mum slept in the shade.

Next we went to visit some giraffes.

After the giraffes we went off to see some elephants!

We saw a leopard up a tree, having a wash and then a nap. It’s not very clear in the photo so you’re going to have to take my word for it!

The river Mara is on the far side of the park, and we next went over there to see some crocodiles and hippos.

There was a hippopotamus skull on the grass nearby and Moses got out to manipulate the head and show how the upper and lower tusks align to cut and grind the grass. It was pretty cool.

We then headed over to the Tanzanian border. Here Moses is standing on the border zone, half in Kenya and half in Tanzania.

It was about a 40 kilometre drive back to the park entrance from here, and we passed lots more animals on the way, though no new ones. Back in Sekanani, the town, I spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel.