masai mara, kenya

"there's always action on the mara.." - Emille

Emille said this quote over and over again and he couldn't have been more accurate. The big cats we'd been waiting to see were abundant here. Within 10 minutes of entering the park we came upon an idyllic scene of a pride of lions sitting peacefully under a tree. We were able to get so close to them that it was a little uncomfortable.

Our camp at Masai Mara was what we had imagined a camp in Africa to be. Our water hearter was a large oil drum over a fire, bathrooms were gleaming white toilets in a tin shack... it was all perfect. The camp was guarded 24 hours a day by 3 Masai guards as there had been problems with hyena and lions coming into camps for snacks.

It was at Masai Mara where we got to see one of the natural wonders of the world: the wildebeest migration. We saw hundreds of thousands (maybe millions?) of wildebeest across the savannah. The lions that accompanied the migration were so over-full they didn't really even bother to eat their kills. And there wasn't just impressive numbers of wildebeest, there were also thousands of zebra and antelope that came as well. It was such an overwhelming sight that we actually couldn't photograph it and gave up to instead just watch and enjoy the sight.

Some other sights at Masai Mara were:

• hippos in the Mara river


• a cheetah hunt (teaching her young cubs to hunt)


• Nile crocodiles in the mud


• a leopard in a tree with his kill (relaxing in an abandoned vulture nest)


• ostriches, elephants, giraffes & flocks of tourists

Again, we were able to visit a local village and were invited to also visit their school. 70 students to a classroom and one teacher... wow.