I went on safari last time I was here and was scared that I'd built up the memory too much and that I'd be disappointed this time. To be honest, we didn't see any elephants and I got no photos of cute little month old lion cubs, but it was an awesome weekend all the same.
Seven of us left on Friday morning for Fairmont Mara Safari Club - Kelly and Emily (both physician assistant students), Mark (a physio and Emily's husband), Seth (an ER doctor), Barbara (a radiologist), Shelley (a CT/USS tech) and myself. After the first few miles of paved road we had a very bumpy ride. (Though we learnt later on in the weekend how much more bumpy it could get...) We got there safely and enjoyed our buffet lunch and settled into our "tents". By tents I mean structures made of canvas with four poster beds in them and a full en-suite. This is the poshest place I've ever been in. And it's amazing. The service matched the aesthetics with the staff knowing each guest by name and tent number. I don't know how they did it. We were wondering whether they'd taken a sneaky photo as we entered the hotel and stuck them up in an office for everyone to study. We were woken in the mornings by a choice of hot chocolate, tea or coffee with biscuits. The yummy hot chocolate definitely made up for getting out of bed so early. Though, to be honest, the game drives actually more than made up for that. When we returned in the evenings the beds were turned down and a hot water bottle (which somehow stayed hot for hours) was in the bed.
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| The entrance to Fairmont Mara Safari Club |
Anyway, I digress. After lunch and a small amount of downtime we went on our first game drive. We saw 2 of the "big five" (lion, rhino, buffalo, elephant, leopard) - 2 rhinos who are the only 2 left in the Masai Mara (there are only 11 in Kenya) and some buffalo. The gamekeepers are well known to the rhinos so we were able to get close to them under close supervision. The skin feels quite leathery.
After consuming our 4-5 course dinner we collapsed onto our soft soft beds, looking forward to the following morning.
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| Yummy steak on the first night |
Our driver, Jeremiah, offered to take us out on a longer drive on Saturday morning (from 6.15-10.50am) complete with packed breakfast. We headed quite a long way out and saw 3 tiny leopard cubs playing on a rock. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a distance from where our vehicle stopped and the zoom on my camera was not good enough to get a good picture, but you can make out a cub in the photos. We also saw a family of lions including lion cubs of various sizes, but they were all hidden in a bush. Of course, on all the trips we saw the usual - zebras, giraffes, antelope (dikdiks, eland, topi, thompson gazelles, impala), warthogs (I seem to remember the word "pumba" better than "warthog" - lol), wildebeest, the occasional hyena etc. We were able to get out of the vehicle to eat our breakfast. What an experience! Eating breakfast in the plains of Africa with zebras in the background. One of my favourite parts.
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| The seven of us after our picnic breakfast |
After the morning safari we lost 2 of our group - Barbara and Shelley. Don't worry, they were not forgotten and left in the middle of the Masai Mara, but they did have to go to Nairobi to get a plane (or 3) home to Florida/Washington. We had a nice amount of time to relax, nap and, in the cases of Emily and myself, to get relaxing massages. That was also one of my highlights. No random relaxing background music was needed as there was the natural background music of the birds around the massage tent. Definitely worth the extra money.
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| The summing pool and surrounding area at the hotel |
In the afternoon we went on another game drive. Every now and then Jeremiah would suddenly start driving off relatively fast without stopping for any of the stuff he normally would do. The first time it was to see a pride of lions. There was 1 male (apparently there will have been another male around somewhere as 2 will protect each other), 2 females and cubs of various sizes, though unfortunately no tiny ones. Lions are my favourite so I was really glad to see these guys. The second time was to see a cheetah. We had to hang around near the cheetah a bit as another car was on its way over and they'd been wanting to see a cheetah. The drivers all talk to each other about what's where. Apparently it's in code so that even visitors who speak Kiswahili don't even know what they're talking about. It was amusing to see all the animals facing the same direction, watching the cheetah's every move. As we were waiting we saw the cheetah heading closer and closer to some antelope. Suddenly it started chasing 2 of them. As far was we could see there was a baby antelope and a mummy antelope. (Yes, they are the proper terms!) It almost got the baby one, but then the mum came and fought it off. I wouldn't have thought that an antelope would beat a cheetah!
The day was completed with another 4 course meal with an extra 5th course of birthday cake for Mark whose birthday it was. The staff came out of the kitchen with a cake and singing. It was great. Kelly and I were singing that first song the rest of the evening.
The final morning had another early morning game drive (6.30-8am) where we searched high and low for elephants, to no avail. We saw elephant dung, trees that elephants had knocked down and even an elephant skull, but no actual elephants. Was still a great feeling to be out in the early morning seeing the Kenyan wildlife.
Sadly, we had to leave later on that morning after taking going to hippo point to see the hippos which had kept us awake overnight - they can be loud!
Anyway, I highly recommend safari in Kenya to all! We had a great time and it struck me again what a creative God we have to come up with such beauty and splendour.
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