Maasai Mara safari

Yesterday we went on a safari in the Masai Mara National Reserve. The area spans 1510 square kilometers in the famous Great Rift Valley. We woke up at 6 am to get ready to leave from Nairobi and had to take a 45 minute drive to the place where we would get into the actual safari vehicle. After that, we had a 5 hour drive filled with big bumps that sent us towards the roof of the safari vehicle. I’m glad that we didn’t bring out big backpacks because there was barely any space for our little backpacks. 

We shared the car with 3 other people (they were a family). Every couple of hours we would stop to use the bathroom and grab tiny snacks or souvenirs. On our first stop we got mandazi’s, which is popular here. It is basically fried dough in the shape of a triangle. They are so good especially when they are fresh, warm and greasy. 

For the majority of the drive I was watching shows on my phone or, if I was lucky, I would sleep when we were on a flat road with fewer bumps. My dad was talking with the other people's dad but nothing new about that. When we started getting closer to Masai Mara, we started seeing baboons with bright pink butts that looked like sunburnt lobsters. 

When we finally arrived at Masai Mara we stopped at our lodge first. It was a big tent that I shared with my brother. We unpacked, and had some lunch before we headed out for an afternoon safari.  Here we saw wildebeests, hippos, and a male lion who was sleeping on a rock. That lion didn’t even notice 20 vehicles were around, and people were taking pictures of him constantly.  It’s like people going into your bedroom and taking pictures of you while you were sleeping. 

Next we saw a cheetah or I like to call them Cheetos. He was just relaxing while a bunch of gazelles were walking by him, so you could tell he was tired and probably already had his lunch. We also saw zebras and giraffes (both are really common in Masai Mara). We headed back home after a couple of hours (before sunset), had dinner and charged our phones since there is only power during certain times of the day. 

The next day was a full day of safari. We woke up at about 6:15 am and I was so tired since we went to bed at 10:15 pm. We had some good breakfast, hopped in the truck, and I took a short nap while we went to pick up the other people. What woke me up was when we entered Masai Mara Reserve we had to go through a gate where they took a look at your ID. Here there were many Maasai women trying to sell souvenirs. They were aggressive and would stick their arms inside the vehicle with all of their goods. Once we got past all this, there were about 520 cows walking being led down a path by police.  They had been arrested for illegally grazing in the park. All I saw were walking steaks and hamburgers. 

Once we entered the park we started seeing giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, buffalos, and once we also saw a baby elephant with its mom eating grass. Then some people saw a lion far in the distance. I couldn't even see it even when I was using a 40x zoom on my mom’s phone. 

We continued to drive and saw about 15 male and female lions walking in unison toward an area with bushes. The driver said there’s a stream or little river there so they must be hanging out by that stream getting shade. We couldn’t see them once they entered there.

Next while driving along we went past bushes with a watering hole. We saw a bunch of hippos and even a baby hippo like the famous Moodang. Hippos stay in the water during the day so they don't get sunburnt as their skin is sensitive. They only go onto land in the evenings. Then we saw a bunch of little warhogs and then a buffalo with a bird on its back. These two have a symbiotic relationship where the buffalo allows the bird to eat the ticks on it. 

Afterwards we stopped for lunch with a family of warthogs nearby. For lunch I had a sandwich, 3 muffins, juice, and an apple. When we were done with our apples we gave the cores to the warthogs, and they loved them. We also saw a jackal and a large eagle. A jackal looks like a fox and a coyote had a baby, they are very shy and this jackal ran away quickly.

We continued our safari to a river called Mara River which is a very important river during the great migration. Here thousands of animals cross it to go from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara for better food. There were giant crocodiles and massive hippo families. These hippos are said to weigh 6613 pounds. The crocodiles were bathing on the banks and they were so big and wide it looked like hippos had sat on them. 

After we drove away from the river, we continued on with the safari. We saw four massive female lions walking in the grass. They found a spot under a tree to lounge and groom each other. We were so close, you could hear them purr. We went back to our lodge after that and had dinner and I watched a few shows before going to bed.

 When I woke up I wasn't as tired since I went to bed at 9 pm the night before. This was our last day and we didn’t do a safari but instead went to a Maasai tribal village. They are a semi-nomatic tribe that inhabits South Kenya and Tanzania. They live in houses made out of cow dung and sticks. The homes have low ceilings, a tiny bench room and a tiny bed that up to 10 kids sleep in at one time. The kitchen is small but the house is very warm.  

The married people usually sleep in a bed made of sticks and cowhide on top. The kids start school at 10 years old and end school at 15 where they start wearing red sashes to represent power and strength. After we toured the Masai homes, we went to watch some maasai men start a fire. They took two pieces of wood and started creating friction by rubbing them against another.  Then we headed towards the car and left for another 5 hour drive back.