One week late, but still super great! I obviously took like 500 pictures on safari, and Emily took even more, but I won't be posting all of them here! I'll just give you a taste of the amazing time we had!
 |
| Accidentally matching gingers! |
The first day we had a loooong drive on a buuuuuuumpy road all the way up to the Mara. The Masai Mara is on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, and is the other half to the Serengeti. The great migration of wildebeest (and zebras) comes right through the Mara on the way to the Serengeti, but it was the wrong time of year for the migration, and weekdays, so it meant we mostly had the lodge and the vast landscape to ourselves.
 |
| Our dining hall looking out onto the Mara |
When we finally got to the place we were staying it was late afternoon, and instead of a short sunset game drive we got a tour through a nearby Masai village. The men showed us around, did a dance, showed us how they light fire, explained many cultural rites and rituals, and tried to get us to buy souvenirs.
 |
| Village of mud huts from afar |
 |
| Entering the village |
 |
| Dancing and singing |
 |
| Little watoto peeking out at us |
 |
Showing us how to make fire...
While a Masai warrior texts in the background |
The second day was our big game drive day--we got up early and stayed in the park allll day until the sun set (most groups do two separate drives that day but our guide wanted to give us the best chance of seeing animals rather than spending so much time going in and out on the main roads). And see game we did!!! The star of the trip were lions, with a close second place by the elephants.
There were so many elephants! It made my heart happy to know we haven't killed them all off yet. We saw at least ten different large herds (or memories) of multi-generational elephants, and as I said to Emily, "I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing more elephants."
Apparently it's very rare to see any male lions ever, and we saw four our first day! We tracked one male on his morning patrol of his pride lands from a distance, and while far off we loved watching him prowl around. Later in the day we were looking for a tree to eat lunch under and when the guide slammed to a stop under one of the big shade trees we found three ugly mugs enjoying the shade!
Earlier in the day we found an amazing mama lion and her super newly newborn cub--a tiny little fluff muffin barely as tall as the grass! I never got a good pic of more than a blurry fluffy ear, but here is mama lion making sure we don't get too close.
A bit later in the day we ran into a whole pride of lionesses and their ridiculously adorable cubs of various sizes taking an early afternoon nap. I may have taken 100 pictures of these adorable kitties. Giant kitties. With huge teeth and claws. But sooooo cute!
A million other photos and animals and memories, here are a few of them!
 |
| Tortoise! Almost ran this 2-footer over! |
 |
Ostriches move like dancers.
Big scary dancers. |
 |
| Can't get enough of these kneeling pumbas |
 |
| Zebras! and a baby! |
 |
| Cute wily jackals |
 |
| Giraffe on a cliff |
 |
| Crowned crane |
 |
| Buffalo! And birdie! |
 |
| Baboon butt |
 |
Crocodiles
Lady on the left, Mister on the right |
The next morning we got up before sunrise to get into the park to try to catch animals we hadn't seen yet--namely rhinos and leopards!
 |
| Can't beat that African sunrise |
Unfortunately for me ever seeing a leopard in the wild, we ran into some lions soon after sunrise. We drove into a valley and in the distance saw two lions--a male and female pair--sitting in the distance. We got so crazy close to them, and they were so crazy beautiful.
We noticed more and more lions arriving in the valley, and soon found where the action was: the lions had made a kill overnight and there was a raging party going on!
 |
| Lion carcass snack time |
 |
| I can has carcass? |
We saw more than 10 adult lions arriving in and out, and it was just impossible to stop watching. We spent our whole last morning watching them feast and play and pounce and chase and sleep (and shoo away jackals trying to sneak a bite), and while we didn't see any other big animals that day, it was an amazing experience watching these wild lions enjoy themselves.
It was a great trip, and a wonderful way to end my stay in Kenya.
(We will just ignore the part of my Kenyan trip where my flight was cancelled after sitting on the plane for 2.5 hours, forcing me to spend an extra 24 hours in Kenya and having an all around horrible horrible experience while Paul waited alone in Paris waiting for me...yes, we will pretend I immediately left Kenya after the safari and the rest of that was some horrible nightmare...)
Last night in Paris--will try to post some pics from the airport before I leave!
-M
.jpg)
