Masai Mara, aka Most Amazing Weekend Ever!

This weekend can simply be put as the most amazing experience of my life. Myself and seven other students from my program went to Masai Mara National Reserve, one of the best places to go on safari in the world. The reserve is in the southwest corner of Kenya, and this weekend, it lived up to its expectations.

Friday morning, we left Nairobi in a private matatu and left for “the Mara”. We drove for about an hour, and made a stop to oversee the Great Rift Valley and Mount Longonot. We then drove another couple hours to the last actual town before Masai Mara, Narok. Along the way, we saw zebras, gazelles, giraffes and had to stop because of goats and cows crossing the road.

After eating at a buffet in Narok for lunch, we kept driving, eventually hitting an extremely bumpy road about 30 minutes outside of Narok. Luckily we had 4-wheel drive because after 45 minutes on that road, we had to drive another 45 minutes on another “road” that was the bumpiest road/track of dirt I’ve ever been on in my life. But as we kept driving, we made our way closer to the Mara and got to also see wildebeest!

We stopped at our campsite right outside the reserve to put our things down. We stayed in tents that were raised a couple feet off the ground with an outer roof and two big beds in each. It was nice to have a decent sized bed on safari.
We left our camp and went out for our first safari. We got into the park, and unfortunately, it was raining. We could kind of make out zebras, Thompson’s Gazelles and wildebeests. After a bit of a drive further, we got to see our first lions! We sat and watched two females for a while, and eventually the rain stopped, so we could pop the top off our matatu and take better photos. The females walked literally two or three feet in front of our vehicle!! We watched them for about 20 or 30 minutes.

We drove off and got to see our first of many elephants over the weekend. A group of 16 was walking in the valley we were in, so we got to get about 30 yards from them. After watching them, we drove back to the lions we saw before and a male joined them! We again got very close to all three.

On our way out of the park, we got to see a female cheetah and her baby! They walked through the bush, right in front of our vehicle and stopped about 30 yards from our car. We then made our way back to camp, had some dinner and went to bed.

I woke up early the next morning, at around 6:15 am. I went to go take a shower, and was a bit sketched out by the shower’s cleanliness. Looking past the outside appearances, it was probably the best shower I’ve had since I left home. It was a hot water shower, probably my third since I’ve come to Kenya, and there was actual water pressure! The window in my shower also let me see the sun gradually rising.
We got back into the matatu and went out for our second day. We again got to see wildebeests, zebras, gazelles and a giraffe as we got into the first part of the park. We drove a little ways, and got to see two male lions sleeping in the morning sun. They seemed to not mind too much that we were so close to them while they napped.

We drove a further into the park, saw a lone male elephant, and then a group of ostriches. Our guide then drove us to go see a female lion nursing her baby cubs! It was cool to see, but we left a little sooner than we were expecting.
We were not sure why we left the lions so early, but in the long run, it paid off. Our guide informed us that we could go see a couple cheetahs. We drove over to them, and got to watch them clean themselves and play with each other from about five to ten feet away. They then went to the other side of our vehicle, and what happened next made me feel like my life was “Planet Earth”.

One of the cheetahs had their ears back like they were ready to hunt. Further out in the valley we were in, there was a herd of topi and Thompson’s Gazelle. We hoped that we could watch something happen, and something definitely did. The cheetahs gradually closed ground between themselves and the gazelles, and we moved along with them. After a couple minutes of following them, we saw the first one take off!! We got to see a cheetah run at full speed and go after prey!! We unfortunately did not actually see the first cheetah kill the gazelle as we drove next to the second one, but we did see the first one walk later with the gazelle it killed. Overall, it was amazing. To first off, see a cheetah take off at full speed, have our guide race us to go see the kill, and then see the cheetah carrying the gazelle later was probably the most amazing thing I have seen in nature!

After the cheetahs, we drove back and saw the mother lion with her cubs for a few minutes, and then made the long drive to the Mara River. We stopped at a very nice hotel to use the bathroom quickly and kept driving. We got to see a couple giraffes and then our guide drove us to the border of Kenya and Tanzania. Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Masai Mara run up to each other, so we got to see Tanzania.

We then made our way down to the river to see some more animals. We got out of the vehicle and met a park guide who took us down to the water. We got to see a crocodile and hippos lounging on the banks of the river. In addition, the Mara River is the famous location of where the wildebeest cross into Masai Mara from Serengeti during their migration.

After stopping for lunch on the river, we started making our way back to the gate. On our drive, I stood up in our vehicle as we drove across the savannah. Masai Mara is absolutely beautiful in an entirely unique sense. By the gate, there are large hills and there are more trees on the savannah. This part of the reserve, though, is a mass expanse of plains with the occasional rolling hill. There is a tree or small group of bushes every once in a while, but mostly it is green and golden grass as far as the eye can see. It is land untouched by humans where animals can roam free. It’s absolutely beautiful.

On our way back, we ran into a group baboons, and later elephants. We stayed on the road and watched the elephants eat in tall grass about 15 to 20 feet from our car. They are amazing to see in the wild. They gently move across the earth with their HUGE bodies, picking up chunks of grass and dirt on their way. We even got to see a baby elephant! We stayed and watched them for about 15 minutes.

We kept driving and saw a couple more solitary elephants before running into another group. This was a scary little moment in our safari. We saw some elephants in a tree/bushy area, and so our guide drove us up to go see them. We drove up next to them, and then got surrounded on three sides with a watering hole on the other. One elephant got in front of the vehicle on the road and another got behind. Both stood up like they were going to charge. The one in the front of the vehicle stuck out its ears and started trumpeting. Our guide had to turn his lights on and off and then drive at the elephant so it would not charge us! It was scary, but a fun story either way. We pulled around and watched the group, including a MASSIVE male elephant. We drove back to the road, saw a herd of about over 100 cape buffalo, and then kept driving.

We went back to the two male lions we saw earlier, and this time got about three feet away. They were both napping, so we got some great photos. I did get a bit scared when one of them stood up, but it laid back down, and we were ok. Our guide drove us out of the park, some people in my program went to a local Maasai Village, we went back to the camp, ate and went to bed.

We had an early rise this morning at 5:30 am. We got ready, got in the matatu, and made our way into the park right before the sun rise. We got some great shots and then drove for a while. We saw some similar animals, but closed out our safari experience with a bang. We drove up over this hill and watched a cheetah drink water from a watering hole. It was a peaceful way to end our trip.

Basically, this weekend was amazing. I apologize for the length of my post, but I don’t even feel these descriptions do this weekend justice. I hope you’re all doing well, and to hear from you soon.