Full Day Game Drive

Wednesday February 16th.

Slept great in our comfy tent, and had a great hot shower in our ceramic bathroom. We got underway about 8:00 o'clock and set out again for the Masai Mara National Reserve. We were joined by a young British mom and her eight year old son, Leon. He behaved himself pretty well considering he was in a van for the whole day. However, he did get on my nerves occasionally.

The day was mainly overcast and cool. But we had a fabulous day of game viewing. We saw buffalo, topi, elephant, lions, zebras, impala, Thompson gazelles, wildebeest, cheetah, and hartbeast. But there were a couple of extra special animals as well. We saw a male lion who had killed a young buffalo, and had eaten parts of it somewhere. But when we saw him, he was dragging it to a sheltered place to hide it. He was working very hard to drag it and had to stop and take a rest a few times. We were so close, we could hear him huffing and puffing. When we left there, we came across a large group of vultures who were feeding on some leftovers, probably from the lion's kill. As we watched they finished and then flew off looking for where the lion had gone. I had been waiting to see vultures the whole time I've been in Africa and this is the first time, other than once when we saw them at a road kill of a cow. After watching all those nature shows, I thought the skies of Africa were always patrolled by vultures, apparently not!

At one point one of the Japanese girls had to go to the bathroom badly and asked George, our driver, if she could get out. He said no because there were lions around. Sure enough a couple of minutes later we came across a pride of about 10 female lions sleeping. So we watched them for a bit, and then the girl told George she couldn't wait any longer. So George drove us away from there about a kilometre maybe, and found a bush where she could get out and do her business. Weird to think what might be out behind the next bush!

In the afternoon, we arrived at the Mara River. We had a picnic lunch on the ground with giraffe and zebra watching us from not too far away. Then we drove along the bank of the river. This is the river that the migrating wildebeest, impala and zebra have to cross as they make their way from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara. The river full of large crocodiles. The migration was over, but I've seen enough documentaries about this event, that the sounds of the herds and the panic they experience when they try to cross, was almost palatable in the air. I looked at the high banks and envisioned how they are forced down to the river by the thousands behind them and then the mad charge across and having to find a way out and up the bank on the other side. One of nature's biggest dramas. We saw a few large crocs in the river and a lot of hippos.

When we got back to camp we dropped off the mom and Leon and then were escorted by a Masai to the nearby village for yet another tour. This village is fairly large, about 200 people who are all related. There was a 1000 schilling admission fee (about $12). We were guided by the chief's son. We got to go into his house. It was very dark inside, with a room for the two kids, another for his wife and himself, another for the baby goats and a last one for the baby cattle! The village is built in a circle and all their animals are brought into the centre to protect them from wild animals. There is animal droppings everywhere, flies all over the people and in the eyes of the children. The houses are made from wooden sticks covered in cow dung and earth to stop the termites from eating the wood. There was the usual souvenir shop, but this time there wasn't any pressure to buy and they actually escorted us out because it was getting late.

On the way out we had a tour of the community school. The school is actually made of brick and has about 500 students. The kids had gone home, but we got to see the classrooms, meet a few of the teachers and see the lack of materials. One class had 65 kids in it. Apparently an American recently donated a satellite dish and two computers and paid to have two more classrooms built. But so far the technology doesn't work.

After that we had dinner and I backed up and looked at the 300 pictures I took today! Then I sat for a while and talked to Gareth and his wife, who are a Welsh couple about my age that I met yesterday. Now it's bed time again. Great bed, great tent.