The Lion King 3D Experience

Big Daddy
Originally uploaded by camandkristin

So- we hit the ground running in Kenya by heading out on safari about 12 hours after landing in Nairobi...

We drove 5 hours south west to get to the Maasai Mara- a national game reserve well known for excellent wildlife viewing and, at this time of year in particular, the migration of 3 million wildebeest. Upon arrival at our camp, we headed out for an evening game drive. 2 hours later we had most of our "wish list" animals checked off the list and began to wonder what exactly we had left to do in our 2 months in Africa... It was really quite unbelievable- over our three drives in the park we saw four of Africa's "Big Five"- the lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino (the only one we missed). And I'm not talking glimpses in the mist, I'm talking lions sitting in the middle of the road causing traffic jams, and hundreds of buffalo staring at us blankly at an arms length. In fairness- the leopard sighting was pretty flukey, and we really only saw his back and tail above the grass as he slinked by, but we were thrilled to see any of the elusive beast!

Other highlights were watching six lion cubs playing and pouncing on the fresh wildebeest kill, elephant families strolling by, thousands of wildebeest sprawled across the hills, fat hippos rolling in the river, and staring contests with long lashed giraffes. We even saw a mother lion grieving her cub, who lay dead beside her after being killed by a male lion who was moving in on the pride. The mother showed scars of the battle on her shoulder as well. It was like watching Animal Planet unfold in real life...

After the safari we headed to a local Maasai village- two of the workers at the camps we've stayed at here come from that village, and it was interesting to have one of them show us around and share stories about his life as a Maasai. We met a few other Maasai warriors who were quite a contrast with their bow and poison tipped arrows, their cut and stretched ears, and their cellphones on their belts :) Perhaps my favorite encounter was when I was stumbling to the bathroom late at night and ran into a spear holding and caped Maasai who was the security detail for the night. Tiny bit shocking when you don't have all your wits about you...

We are now back in Nairobi and we head off on our overland journey tomorrow- 27 days to reach Victoria Falls. We met our travelling companions (10 others) this afternoon and everyone seems great (with one possible exception, but I'm mostly reserving judgement for now... mostly...). It should be an interesting time...

That's it for now-
Until next time...

Kristin and Cam.