Our "short" bus ride to Nairobi lasted only 12 hours and luckily the hostel we were staying t was right next door to the bus stop because Nairobi after dark is not the nicest of places. This was the land of Obama, well at least his father who was from a small village in Kenya. We heard lots about it and it felt good to travel as an American again after 8 long years under the Bush...Our hostel was not the nicest but it was cheap and were were tired and sick so not as picky. We had tried to book a safari to the famous Maasi Mara reserve while in Uganda but had no luck finding one we could afford so we decided to try our luck in Kenya.. Just so happens our hostel also booked budget safaris and they had a 3 day one to Maasi Mara leaving the next morning. Jessica really wanted to tour Maasi Mara which is the extension of the Serengheti just on the Kenyan side and much cheaper, so we bit and signed up. We were to leave at 9:30am the next morning for the four our van ride to the park. We would come back on Friday afternoon and spend another day in Nairobi before flying to Addis Ababa.
After a sleepless night we packed our stuff (actually never unpacked) and boarded the van to the awaiting family of Mary, Rosemary, Kerry and Sammy. T hey were from the UK but Mary was Kenyan but had left 30 years earlier and this was her first time back. She was very excited and it was cute to witness her excitement to be back after this long. We took off through the maddening streets of Naoribi, climbing to 8000 feet then descending into the great Rift Valley on our way to the entrance of Maasi Mara park. We arrived late aftrnoon at our tented camp(permenant tents with roofs and showers) just outside the park. There is no fence around the park which is 1500 hectares big so animals can come and go but most stay well within the park. This was also Maasai country so they were around wearing their signature colorful blankets and jewelery with lots of cows around. Our safari "vehicle" for the next two days was a converted Nissan 7 passenger van with a pop top so you could stand up inside and take photos. It seemed to be the vehicle of choise we later learned on our first trip into the park after we got settled in. As we spent our last few hours of daylight driving through the park we saw no less then 15 vans at a time looking for animals. It was the beginning of the rainy season so the grass was green and the landscape was vast and beautiful. We quickly spotted impalas, zebras, wildebeasts, gazelles and other herd animals. Since Jess and I had been on our own safari back in South Africa we knew how to spot. OUr driver/guide was big Mike and he steered our Nissan van through the mud and as we soon learned based on where vans could drive no place was off limits unless there was a sign, a few did exist. We soon followed some vans into a thicket area and spotted about seven lions, mostly cubs and two females. They were bombarded with vans once the word got out and I felt sorry for them that we interrupted their play time. After taking many photos and admiring these powerful yet graceful creatures we moved on and headed back to camp as the sun was fading. Jess and I were still feeling bad so after dinner we headed to bed early while a big thunderstorm brewed. We had another restless night but did have to get up to early as we were not getting an early start.
After breakfast we were off in the van into the park for a full day of animal viewing. The English girls wanted to see elephants and giraffes and by mid-day we had seen plenty. Jess and I had seen both before but seeing them out in the open plains of Maasi Mara was a much better experience because it really feels like Africa, at least the way western whiteys are brought up seeing it on TV, etc.. An hour later we spotted two female lions and cubs on wandering around the road. After many vans stopped to watch we continued on but circled back to witness one of the females actually doing a training hunt with the cubs for some zebra that were in the area. This was what our safari was all about; observing animals in their natural surroundings and doing what they do best---live, play, hunt, etc.. The driver did not stick around to see the end result, we think the ladies did not want to see the kill so he moved on. We were all very fortunate to witness this experience Around lunch we headed to the hippo watering hole, which is actually the river that runs between the two parks. We took photos of them out of the water wallowing in the mud like giant pigs, they looked happy. Then we broke for lunch at the border of the TransMara, which used to be part of Maasi Mara but years ago split because of political reasons and is now a separate park. Apparently we did not pay as part of our package so we could not enter. We then drove to the border with Tanzania in the park then deep into the park after the cheetah, which we had still not seen. It was the only big cat Jess and I had not seen. We drove and drove and then finally circled back towards the entrance at about 5:00pm to call it a day. The views of all the open plains with green/brown grass getting longer was really stunning. I often wondered how many animals we never spotted who were easily camouflaged in the tall grass. Back at camp big Mike said we were leaving early on our last day at 6:30am to catch sunrise when the park opens and hopefully cheetah. We were tired but excited for another shot at spotting the cheetah. We also talked to other vans back at camp who had seen the cheetah so we were a little bummed at our luck.
The next day Jess and I felt a smidge better got up at 5:30am and we were all back in the van by 6:30am to enter the park. It was a beautiful full moon when we awoke and the whole park was lite before the sunrise. We drove into places we had been before looking for the cheetah. Soon we came across a young adult male lion taking in some early morning sunshine. He was awesome to gawk at but after 10 minutes he was tired of us and moved into the bush to find his brother who we briefly saw. In all of our times looking for animals and seeing lots of lions we have never seen a full grown male lion with the orange mane. They are somewhat solitary animals and are much harder to spot. We drive more but were quickly realizing the cheetah would remain elusive for us as we left the park at 9:00am to go pack and depart for Nairobi. I was bummed for not seeing the cheetah but glad that Jess and I had the chance to see a landscape that is beyond words. It has not changed much people started inhabiting the area which makes it that much more special. Words and photos only do partial justice in describing this place.
After a van swtich off at mid-day (the English ladies were going to another location, we were heading back to Nairobi) we got back to Nairobi at 5:00pm to check back into the hostel for some rest and getting ready to leave for Ethopia on Sunday. THe spent Saturday mostly on the internet updating information, photos, etc., and figuring out how to get to the airport. Kenya was a short stop for us but rewarding in the safari we went on and some people we met during our stay. So now we begin to move into northern Africa, things is a changing...See you soon!
