Maasai Mara Game Drive No#1

 Joseph and Morris...

 and our range rover.

 My 'glamping' campsite for the next two nights.

 Inhabitant of the river right in front of my tent.

 Grey headed kingfisher.

 A Maasai giraffe.

 A yellow billed stork.

 A tortoise.

 Common or plains zebra.

 A few of the thousands of wildebeest in the area.

 Two of the family of five cheetahs.

The ever dangerous cape buffalo.

Sunday, October 1^st.

Had another great buffet breakfast and then met the last member of our group in the hallway. He is Chris from Vancouver. Looks like I get my own room because he paid the single supplement.

We met Joseph, our guide, and Morris, the driver in the parking lot and we loaded up and left by seven. It was a driving day today as were headed towards our first game park, the Maasai Mara. We stopped twice for convenience breaks, once at the Rift Valley lookout which is where the continent is being torn apart by the tectonic plates, and the second time at a tourist shop just at the end of the paved road. After that we had two and a half hour drive on a bumpy dusty road to get to our lodge.

As we were driving along I noticed Chris was fascinated and awed by what he saw out the window, so I said to him, “a bit different from home, eh?” To which he replied, “the only thing that makes me feel at home is the clouds!”

When we arrived at the Maasai Mara we drove 23 kilometres straight to our lodge past a lot of animals. We had to get there for lunch and we were all hungry. The lodge restaurant is very nice and we had a buffet lunch with lots of variety. After lunch we were taken to our 'tents'. These are permanent tents on a concrete pad and come complete with two beds and a full ceramic washroom attached behind. We are camped right on a high bank of the Talek River. Beautiful accommodation. We spent a bit of time exploring our camp and came across hippos in the river right in front of our tents, and weaver birds. I also found a beautiful grey headed kingfisher.

At 4:00 we met in the parking lot for our first game drive. We saw giraffe, Thompson's gazelles, impalas, wildebeest, guinea fowl, five cheetahs, a couple of elephants, cape buffalo and a lion hiding in the bushes

The safari vans are all connected by radio and when one finds something they announce it and everyone shows up. This happened towards the end of the day, and it was the cheetahs. When we arrived there were already twenty vans there. Joseph and Morris were upset by the way the cats were being boxed in and followed as they started their hunt, and told us they were not going to participate because it interfered with the cats lives. So, here is the problem: they want tourists because of the money we bring to the park and the tourism gives the country a reason to protect the animals and their habitat, but, too many tourists and over zealous drivers who are trying to get their clients as close as possible to the action are upsetting the natural way of things. It is a very delicate balance.

Shortly after that we headed back to camp. We had an hour to get organized for dinner. After dinner we all headed off for bed as Chris has a ballooning flight early and we have a safari starting at 7:30.