Let's Go On A Safari

June 14

This morning we left Pacific Place and headed to the Massai Mara for our safari! We switched from our bus to a 9 passenger van about halfway there. It was probably a 5 hour drive from where we stayed. The road to the Mara was gravel and took a couple hours. Our things and ourselves definitely got very dusty. On the drive we saw some zebra, gazelle and other animals. But it was nothing compared to what we would see during the rest of the day!

First we stopped at Rock Mountain Permanent Tent Camp where we are staying tonight. This place remind me of army-type tents. Ours has two beds in it, a shower, toilet, plug ins and electricity that works from 7-10 pm (the lights and things are off the rest of the time) and there are some chairs out front.

After lunch we headed to the Mara for our safari! Our van has a top that pops up so we could stand up for pictures and to look at the views. Gazelle were the first animals we saw, and gazelle and impalas were everywhere throughout the day. As tourists, many people asked the driver to stop right away to take pictures of the gazelles we saw as soon as we entered the Mara. Continuing on the drive we saw impalas, zebras, giraffes, female lions, cheetahs, cape buffalo, elephants, wilde beest, warthog, and many many types of birds. 

The giraffes were neat to see. Our driver took us close to one that was eating on a tree and a baby nearby. I've got lots of good pictures! I will definitely post pictures on here, as well as Facebook, when I return (feel free to add me on Facebook to see much more photos that I will not post on here).

The cape buffalo are extremely large and can be very aggressive our driver said. They were typically in herds when we saw them throughout the day.

Zebra typically were also in groups throughout the day. At one point, there was two walking right near our van. They were scared away, but they were still close to our van.

The lions were probably the most difficult to see. We knew where to look because our driver told us, but all I could see at first was the tails through the grass. Our driver was great and took us right up to the lion. She was laying in the tall grass and blended right in to her surroundings. As we began to look around, we could see a few more tails. I'm hoping tomorrow we will be able to see a male lion!

I was also able to get great pictures or the cheetah. Even though I do not have a "professional" camera, it still takes much higher quality photos than many of the larger, supposedly nicer, cameras. I'm looking forward to compiling them all in to a scrapbook!

As the evening sent on, we could see the weather start to change. It began to get cloudy and we could see rain and lightning in the distance. Luckily, we never ran in to to. When we got back to our camp it was thundering for a while, but so far it hasn't amounted to anything.

We were served supper at the camp, along with other guests. Because the electricity is only on from 7-10 pm in our tents, I have been charging my camera so it is ready for our morning safari drive tomorrow. My roommate and I also took showers tonight because we are leaving early in the morning, and it will be too dark to take showers in the morning. 

Laying here tonight I have been able to hear monkeys nearby, crickets, and other sounds of nature. The manager of the place said they have lots of monkeys around and that they like to try to get in to the tents. Because if this, we have locks on our tents that we have to lock every time we come in or leave so we don't have any unexpected visitors!