Masai Mara - day 1

You guys. We went to the Masai Mara -- Kenya's best National Park, according to everyone -- and it delivered. I have lots of pictures and stories to post, but first, let me start with this National Geographic-quality filming by Nate:

We were invited to join our Italian buddies, Erika and Flavio and their daughters Linda and Tecla, for a two-night Masai Mara trip as part of their last few weeks in Kenya. We rented a nine-passenger van and hired a driver to take us out to the park and do all our game drives. DikDik is a great driver, and his van has a pop-up top so we could stand up for game viewing once we arrived at the park.

DikDik and his van, top popped

We left at 7am on March 24th, and arrived in terrific time at the park gate at 12pm. DikDik said it was the fastest he had ever made that trip -- no traffic, no troubles, and only one potty stop. The drive from Nairobi to the Masai Mara consists of the winding, cliff-clinging drop into the Rift Valley on the Escarpment Road, a smooth drive through the Valley until the town of Narok (some of the farms and landscapes there reminded me of Malian farms), and then a bone-jarring three hours on washboard gravel roads.

My view into the back of the van as we pulled out of ILRI

Silas' view - Erika and Linda

Maasai herders along the very dry and dusty gravel road from Narok

This is how we felt the first time DikDik opened the top and
let the kids stand up as we entered the park

We did a short safari to get from our arrival gate to the Talik Gate, where we were booked in the comfort tents at Aruba Mara Camp. It was immediately obvious that the Mara was so much greener than any landscape we had passed through on our way. It is gorgeous. Our camp was a fairly budget one, but it was great too. We explored, dropped our bags, and had lunch. We discovered that we were the only guests of the camp that day.

Tent #5 at Aruba Mara Camp, our home for 2 nights

The patio over the Talik River where we saw Clyde the Hippo on the far bank

Me and Silas heading to our lunch table

 Then it was time for our first big safari in the Mara. We were impressed. 

Giraffe

Elands

Topi

Wildebeest

Sleepy jackal in the shade

Cape Buffalo blocking the road

Large (ahem) male elephant

Ostrich

Hyena den by the main road

Kids on safari, Nate in Safari hat

A pride of seven snoozing female and adolescent lions

 

Lovely lady lion

Crown cranes flying over Thompson's gazelles and a topi

And all that was on our Friday afternoon excursion. From there, we headed back to our camp and had a lovely dinner (with the restaurant and staff entirely to ourselves), sat by the fire for a while, and then put the kids to bed. 

Reading safari books in the camp's restaurant after dinner

The adults were too excited to sleep and so we met for a nightcap on our tent porch under the flying bats and climbing giant stick bugs. I was quite sure a leopard was going to snatch me off the pitch-black porch (and this was before the Maasai guard told me that they suspected all the usual baboons were not at camp because a leopard was likely nearby). But we survived, with slight hangovers. Ready for day two!