My trip to the Masai Mara did not go exactly as anticipated, there were a few bumps along the road, both literally and figuratively. But what would a trip to Africa be without a few unplanned adventures?!
The drive to the Mara took about 4 hours from Kijabe, about half the time is on “paved” roads and the other half is on dirt roads. The second half of the drive was very cool in that there were lots of Masai villages and camps along the sides of the road. They are very beautiful as you drive by, you see the bright colours of the Masai clothing along the sides of the roads. The homes tended to be very primitive, most were mud huts, some had tin roofs held down with stones, but many were made of mud as well. In the center of each group of houses was a fenced in circle for their animals.
Arriving at our lodge in the Mara was quite a change from life in Kijabe, we were greeted with warm cloths to wash our faces, fresh mango juice and of course tonnes of food on the buffet! I unfortunately got sick the night we arrived so I didn’t get a chance to enjoy much of the food. It also meant I missed two of the four games drives, which was really disappointing. I was thankful that I had gone to Lake Nakuru the weekend before as we had been able to see so many different animals there. The Mara is also such a big game park, so the safari experience was very different from Nakuru, in that we would drive for long periods of time without seeing any animals.
What I did experience in the Mara on one of the game drives I was able to go on, I will likely never forget. It was the first elephant we had seen, he was a large male, all alone eating grass. We were able to get quite close to him and were taking pictures and watching him, when all of sudden he became very agitated and upset. His ears came out and he turned and began to charge our van. To make matters worse, the van would not start as we had been having problems with the battery all day. We all really thought we were going to be trampled to death by an elephant that day. Fortunately he stopped about 6 feet from the van, watched us for a while longer while we cowered on the floor of the van, and then slowly began to walk away. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. And has changed my perspective on elephants entirely. The next day when I was sick, the girls did see more elephants in a heard and had a much more positive experience, I’m sorry I missed that. I was feeling better the last morning, and was able to go on our last game drive. We saw lots of giraffes that morning as the sun rose, it was very beautiful.
The drive to the Mara took about 4 hours from Kijabe, about half the time is on “paved” roads and the other half is on dirt roads. The second half of the drive was very cool in that there were lots of Masai villages and camps along the sides of the road. They are very beautiful as you drive by, you see the bright colours of the Masai clothing along the sides of the roads. The homes tended to be very primitive, most were mud huts, some had tin roofs held down with stones, but many were made of mud as well. In the center of each group of houses was a fenced in circle for their animals.
Arriving at our lodge in the Mara was quite a change from life in Kijabe, we were greeted with warm cloths to wash our faces, fresh mango juice and of course tonnes of food on the buffet! I unfortunately got sick the night we arrived so I didn’t get a chance to enjoy much of the food. It also meant I missed two of the four games drives, which was really disappointing. I was thankful that I had gone to Lake Nakuru the weekend before as we had been able to see so many different animals there. The Mara is also such a big game park, so the safari experience was very different from Nakuru, in that we would drive for long periods of time without seeing any animals.
What I did experience in the Mara on one of the game drives I was able to go on, I will likely never forget. It was the first elephant we had seen, he was a large male, all alone eating grass. We were able to get quite close to him and were taking pictures and watching him, when all of sudden he became very agitated and upset. His ears came out and he turned and began to charge our van. To make matters worse, the van would not start as we had been having problems with the battery all day. We all really thought we were going to be trampled to death by an elephant that day. Fortunately he stopped about 6 feet from the van, watched us for a while longer while we cowered on the floor of the van, and then slowly began to walk away. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. And has changed my perspective on elephants entirely. The next day when I was sick, the girls did see more elephants in a heard and had a much more positive experience, I’m sorry I missed that. I was feeling better the last morning, and was able to go on our last game drive. We saw lots of giraffes that morning as the sun rose, it was very beautiful.
the elephant right before he started after us
I’m now in the not so sunny Zanzibar, with fingers crossed that the weather will improve. It can’t rain for 3 days straight, right?
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