The Drive to Massai Mara
Today we left Nairobi and drove 6 hours to the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Maasai Mara is still in Kenya, but it is a very long way way. About half of the way, a man named Evens drove us. He kindly did this because there were points in our drive where the police would stop you to do a car check. It would not have been safe for one of my parents to drive. The police would have been able to bribe almost $50 for each person to pass. And as you might imagine, $50 per person, with 6 people, would be very expensive.
Along the way, we stopped only twice. The first place we stopped at was a big room filled with lots of different nick-nacks. There were rows of wooden carvings, paintings along the high beams, and tables full of elaborate jewelry. We got one chess set which had ornately carved pieces. I was very impressed. We also bought 2 paintings, one was a painting of the Maasai woman, and the other was of a herd of Elephants. Both are very pretty. The rest of the car ride was somewhat smooth. We dropped off Evens at Narok, and dad started to drive. Oh, and I don’t believe I have mentioned that this car is a stick shift car, with a roof that can open, and seats that are like sitting on a far overstuffed couch. Super awesome.
The next 2 and a half hours weren’t very eventful. I watched an amazing movie called Duma, directed by Carroll Ballard. It is one of my new favorites. The humor in it is immense, and the movie is perfect for the whole family. I also watched half of Pele: Birth of a Legend, directed by Jeff Zimbalist, and Michael Zimbalist. It is so amazing.
Arriving at Maasai Mara, and Getting Settled In at Talek Bush Camp.
When we pulled up to the gate at Maasai Mara, all was chaos. We hadn’t gotten our tickets yet, so mom had to get out of the car to go pay for them. While we were being surrounded by Maasai women who wanted us to buy their things. We always answered “No thank you, no thank you” But until we left they kept at it. Finally we drove away, and the smell of fresh rain on a National Reserve filled my senses. The storm clouds were still about the landscape, and the scene was so spectacular.
Imagine a vast plain full of fresh green grass, Zebras and other animals dotting the landscape. The roads are very bumpy, and your car is jolting around so much that you are holding on for dear life. The car you are renting is not in the best of shape, and the engine keeps sputtering. You ask whoever is driving to please pause for a moment so that you can put the roof up. Soon you are bumping along the road with your head sticking out of the top of the car. Soon, you are entering the rain storm, and have to put the roof down.
You are jolting along for another 20 minutes, and your butt is starting to get very sore. Finally, you arrive at the other gate to the Reserve. Your destination is just outside the park, you are so close, you are bouncing up and down in your seat with excitement. The road sellers are pestering you again at this gate, but soon you are through the gates.
Then, you spot it, Talek Bush Camp! Oh joy! You’ve finally arrived after an excruciatingly long car ride. There are people waiting there to help you get your bags to your little villa in the pouring rain. After a while, hot dinner is ready. Steaming tubs of white rice with vegetables, and pork, and hot soup, and so many more delicious food items are waiting for you. You sit down to eat, and enjoy the meal. Soon, it’s getting late and it’s time for bed. You head back to the villa, and fall asleep listening to the Baboons screech outside your window.
The First Morning
First things first. Early wake-up at 5:45 so that we could leave by 6:00-6:15. Though, due to the size of our family and our capability to get out the door on time, we ended up driving out of Talek around 6:30. Sunrises in the Maasai Mara were so beautiful. The sky lights up with all the warm, vibrant colors that you could think of. Pinks, purples, blues, reds, yellows… It was so gorgeous. While driving around, my little brother Bardez spotted a herd of elephants. It was around 7:45, and it was starting to get hot. The elephants were heading to the waterhole! The pack had four baby elephants in it! The
Lion!
While being out on a safari all day, you might get hungry. We had asked the kitchen staff at Talek to pack us a picnic breakfast and lunch. Around 8:00 am this morning; we stopped to eat a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, juice, brown rice cornflakes, almond milk and coconut milk, and mixed fruits. It was pretty glorious. We had chosen a spot by a tall shaded tree with rolling planes on either side of us. There were Zebras all around us, and I spotted a gigantic carcass on the hill across from us. After our adventure with breakfast, we started driving around.
The thing about self-going in these experiences is that you get to find everything, and you have to search for all the cool stuff. And if you find a cool something or other and nobody else is around, you get it all to yourself! In the Maasai Mara, most tourists have guides, and these guides are all on a WhatsApp group chat. When one group finds something cool, they tell all their other buddies, and soon you have a swarm (literally) of cars coming in from all directions to see the extraordinary thing. This is how we saw a cheetah. It was tremendous and very majestic. It weaved its way around the cars constantly and started running. The cheetah didn’t run very fast, but it was cool to see it run! After that sighting, we started driving around some more. One of the best ways that we find incredible animals is by standing up in the car and looking through the roof with our binoculars. This is how we found the male lion! We started racing towards the group of vehicles. Closer, closer, oh wait!
Where there’s a big ditch! Slowly but steadily, dad eased the card in and out of the ditch. Yay! Good job, dad. We all clapped for his heroic achievement. We were one of the late cars, so we had to drive around some of the cars to get a good look at him. And, let me tell you, he was HUGE! He was just lounging on a rock in the middle of a plane. There were about 4 or 5 other cars already there, but we got a decent spot. We had this secluded circle for about 10 minutes; then, the cars started pouring in. As cars started arriving, the lion got up and walked around all the cars. And, he walked RIGHT past our vehicle!! It was amazing.
Lost phone
One thing that’s sad about having a phone is that you can easily misplace it. This is what happened to me. We were waiting at a popular crossing spot for the wildebeest and zebras. We had lunch there, and there was a mini crossing; I had placed my phone on the roof of the car to take a video of the crossing, but when we left, I forgot about it. Dad started driving and we all heard a sound like something falling out of the car. I didn’t know it then, but it was my phone. We moved to another spot along the river where we could at least see the hippos. I couldn’t take a photo because I couldn’t find my phone. Oh well, I’ll find it later… We kept driving, and I just couldn’t find my phone! I started to get worried when I checked all around my seat and couldn’t find it. 5 minutes later, the whole car was in chaos trying to find my phone. Then dad spoke up and said that he heard something fall out of the car when we were at the crossing. By then, tears were streaming down my face. I felt very ashamed that I hadn’t kept a better track of my belongings. And sad that I wouldn’t have my phone to take pictures! We backtracked all the way to the first crossing point and didn’t find the phone. Sad sadness. But we had to move on.
Crocodiles, Oh My!
After the phone disaster, we drove over to the crocodile heaven. Our croc guide told us that there were over 100 croc’s in the river RIGHT HEAR!! I was like, “wow! I definitely don’t want to go swimming now!” I also learned that a crocodile can/will eat a baby hippo. Hippo’s are like overweight pigs with a stubby tail that wags like a dog when it poops. They also make farting and burping sounds to communicate. It was hilarious to listen too. 🙂
After the croc’s we headed back to Talek. It had been a hot day, and we needed to rest. I got some homework done while we waited for dinner to start. We had also been tracking the location of my phone! We had put my phone into lost mode and put a bounty on it.
Tomorrow was a new day. Maybe we would get my phone back!(?)
Baby Lion Cubs!
First things first, we saw a lioness with 2 cubs right in the morning! They were SO cute! It was amazing how close we got to them. They were staying in the shade of a bush. At first we only saw the mama, then the first cub poked its head out, then the other. The cubs were maybe 2 months old. Very new! We waited and took many pictures. After a while, we were ready to go. But then the mama got up, and started walking toward us! And… her cubs followed! They got so close that we could have picked them up and snuggled them to death! We left soon after.
(All of these photos were taken by Zeb, who kindly let me use them on here)
Found the Phone!
As we were driving along, we got a text from the people who had my phone! Go, go, go!! We drove like crazy and looked out for a specific license plate. When we realized that we were getting closer, we also said that there were a lot of other cars around on the area, And we knew that if there were lots of cars around, then there was undoubtedly something cool! It was a leopard!! Leopards are very rare anywhere. But because there are so many cars (About 30 ) that we didn’t get a very good look at it. But we did get my phone! 😀 I was very happy about that. I could take photos now! 😀
After the leopard, we headed abc to the mama lion and her cubs. But they weren’t there. We then went driving around to find something cool again.
Personal Leopard
While we were during our morning, we were scouting the landscape for animals while discussing the place we were agt yesterday with the leopard. Thaen mom said everyone shut up and look. There is a leopard RIGHT there!” All was hushed and the leopard just walked right next to the car. I got some amazing pictures. 🙂
Garden of Eden
While driving through Maasi, we were happy to pass through a place full of animals. And it was lunch and green. It looked like God had put all the prey in his green land into one big field. There were about 30 giraffe’s, 100 zebras, eland, and more! It also smelled like a warm day and hope. :}
Killing of the Zebra
This is a part of my top that I was fine only to see once. We were lucky enough to witness the killing and devouring of a zebra. When we arrived, two hyenas were waiting and watching a zebra with a chuck riped from it’s shoulder and groin. The zebra looked very pale, and it was trying to get away from the highenahs. It would get up, stumble around, and fall back down again. After a while, it started having bloating. Me and kb were confused about why the zebra looked like it was having a rapid pregnancy, but mom told us why and about bloating. Kb asked in a whisper “Ate its insides going to explode everywhere? Because I don’t want to be there when that happens…” That didn’t happen, though when the highenahs did get into the gut sack, it smelled horrid! Watching a predator eat a prey was very sad. About 5 minutes after the highenahs started really getting into it, the vultures and storks started coming in swarms. The storks did not look like kind baby-delivering birds that you see in movies. They looked more like baby-eating birds. Storks have a bald head, and look kinda like turkeys on stilts. And the vultures just looked mean and scary. We left after 45 minutes of watching this animal be torn apart. We came back about 30 minutes later, and the zebra was just bones and the skin on the head. Blegh!
Driving Stick Shift
One of the fantastic things about my parents is that they will let us try new things early. Like driving! Yes, I learned how to drive a stick shift car with a failed speedometer, a gas tank measure that doesn’t work, and extra squeaky brakes. Enjoy! I got the hang of it pretty quickly, though, and it was fun!
Balloon ride
One of the fun things we did in Maasai Mara was a hot air balloon ride! We woke up at 5:15 am and got ready. A lovely lady named Carol picked us up. Her car’s seats were the most comfortable seats I had ever sat in after the trip. It was windy that morning, so we had to wait for the wind to die, but when it did, we were ready to take off. Me, dad and kb were in one section of the baskett. Mom and the boys were above us, and this other group was in the other compartments. The ride was very rough bua little scary. The balloon would go up, then down; up, down; you get the picture. It was fantastic to see the landscape too from above! It was like seeing it from a drones point of view. We saw wildebeests, zebras, elephants, and this cat-like thing that looked like a leopard and something else combined.
The landing was very rough. Bup, bump, skiiiiiid! I got a lot of dust on my fave. But breakfast made up for it. There was a full on buffett and us kids got sparkling apple juice with orange juice. Super good. 🙂
