Masai Mara

Well what can I say about the Massai Mara - it is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen... a 6 hour drive on TERRIBLE roads, through Kenya to the Massai Mara...a nature/game reserve where Elephants, Lions, Hippos, Giraffes, Black Rhinos, Zebra etc have made their home...

Let me start at the beginning.  We headed to the Massai Mara on Monday morning after stocking up on essentials - water, toilet roll and snacks!! 6 hours later, after meeting up with 6 other people, the 8 of us were driving through the Massai Mara, surrounded by Wilderbeast - who have just started their migration from Tanzania...  We were staying in a campsite, beside a Masai village, with Baboons running around everywhere. Apparently they are 'theives' so we had to keep our passports etc. close to hand!

Africa gets very dark, very quick... and by 6.30pm we needed our night-lights/torches and the mozzie spray  (only 5 bites so far.. not too bad)...

Day 2 - up at 6.30am and off we went (with sandwiches... because we are avoiding uncooked food we are living on banana / jam sandwiches for lunch...!) - after seeing Lions, lioness with 5 cubs, vultures etc.. our truck (an 1982 French Army truck) got wedged into the mud... so the 8 of us got out of the truck and for 3 hours Eoin, Ken (another guy), the driver and our Masai 'animal tracker' were digging out mud.  Our job was to 'watch out for something that looks like a cat but much much bigger... if you see one run into the truck and let us know'!  Three hours later, our driver's ego completely bruised... we were rescued by another tour truck...and our driver had to come back with a tracker to pull the truck out...

Day 3 - up at 6am and off again, spend the morning and evening in the Masai Mara and went off to a Masai village in the afternoon... was very interesting to chat with Masai people - did you know they have many wives and 1 wife is worth 7 cows!!!!!  and then.. the new wife has to build her own house... man oh man!!!  However, apart from the small chat it was really a money-making racket for tourists.. felt quite false and then there was sell, sell, sell, they were trying to get us to buy everything.. from a lion's claw to plates to stools... I understand they have such little money and so need to be a 'tourist' attraction... but it still leaves a sour taste...

Day 4 - up at 6am for a final game drive.  Saw 4 out of the Big Five - Elephants, Black Rhino, Buffalo, Lion - didn't see the Leopard... but we did see the Wilderbeast migration and wow oh wow.... !  Then 6 hours back on the truck back to Nairobi...

An amazing experience, fantastic people, beautiful animals, amazing sun-rises/sun-sets and worth every penny and bump in the road!

Joining up with the truck tomorrow (sat) to head towards Kampala (Uganda) so will be in touch from there... (around 12-13 July) if I can...