Day 2 of Our Safari Adventure!

Day 2 of our adventure to the Mara started beautifully sunny, cool at first, then warmed up over the day. We met at the dining room for breakfast where we were treated to a variety of cereals, toast, eggs of our choice, pancakes, omelets, sausage, baked beans, muffins, and tea, coffee, and/or mango juice! :)

After a delicious breakfast we grabbed sunscreen, hats, cameras, and hiking shoes for a "walking safari" to be led by Maasai watchman Alex. (Still not entirely sure when the guy sleeps, as he is on watch duty at night and then can be found during the day as well!)

Alex met us at reception and proceeded to lead us on quite the hike, using no trails, over hills and streams, through forests and grasslands. We came up and over a large hill and found ourselves in a wide open grassy space, edged by trees and bushes, having a small lake on one side. He led us through a herd of cows, who eyed us suspiciously, and past a herd of zebras who were already congregated in the shade under a tree. Suddenly we saw a "periscope" pop up over a tree, and a beautiful, long lashed creature eyed us as we approached. Soon more heads came around trees and bushes as the giraffes watched us. Giraffes aren't really spooked easily and so when a giraffe moves away from you it's at a rather nonchalant speed. Even when they run it's more of a lope and they seem to move in slow motion.

We snapped pictures of munching giraffes and hiked on, soon finding ourselves on the very top of a small mountain. We stood on a long expanse of old, gray asphalt, wondering at its origin as it had no weeds growing through it, and no cracks breaking up the surface. Alex told us it was the runway that was built to bring in all the equipment and people for the filming of the movie Out of Africa.

We also hiked over to the old hotel that was built at the same time for those working on the film. They attempted to use the hotel as a vacation destination after the movie was finished, but a few years later a group of angry Maasai burnt it down. The ruins are still impressive and the view over the Mara is even more impressive. (We found out later that the point that the hotel ruins sit on is home to a leopard. Too bad we didn't get to see him!)

After we returned to our tents we discovered that more than one of us had soaked up a bit of sun. We had worn hats and sunglasses thankfully, but some us had shorter sleeves than others, I had a long sleeve shirt on but rolled the sleeves up to just below my elbows. I thought I had put sunscreen on my arms too, but if I had it was not enough! I had some strange lines going on! Even Josh got a little burnt, which is evidentially very impressive.

After lunch we headed out on the first of two trips into the Mara. Entrance to the national reserve is by 24-hour periods and cost $80US per person, so we obviously wanted to get our money's worth! We got to the park around 3:30pm and stayed until almost dark. (The park closes at dark.) Since we were in the far northwest portion of the park we didn't see too many other people, but those we did see were mostly like us: driving around in over-landers or other four-wheel drive vehicles looking for wildlife. You don't hike, or walk, over even get out of your vehicle in most places in this national park. - You don't know what might be about. They even have signs telling you to not "alight" from you car.

That first afternoon we saw giraffe, elephant, warthog (which I sang about incessantly and probably drove everyone nuts), zebras, gazelle, waterbuck, eland, topi, impala, a few sleepy, well submerged hippos, a myriad of birds, including ostriches, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, two beautiful jackals, and a pile of sleeping lions! And I do mean pile, and I do mean sleeping. It was very obviously kitty nap time and nothing could rouse them, even though we were only 30ft away and talking loudly, they couldn't be bothered. We finally gave up and went on.

One of the most amusing events of the afternoon was the baby elephant! We were driving down a side trail through the savannah when we came upon a large group of elephants. (We were blessed to be here during baby animal time and saw some terribly cute little ones, this baby elephant being one of them!) We stopped, and at 15-20ft away, this little elephant suddenly gets a wild hair, (as my dad would say). He fanned out his ears, and started trumpeting in his little squeaky voice and made a run at the land cruiser! All the while, his mother munched on undisturbed. Of course we just sat there so he gave up rather quickly and decided the better creature to practice his charging on would be the nearby impala, which did respond to his delight.

Check out the photos below. I can't claim them all. They were taken by a conglomeration of Jeremy, Aprille, and myself...