Day Ten

This morning, we started our day very early. We had to be up for 6:00 am breakfast and leave the camp by 6:30 am to start our Safari early to beat the heat. We had breakfast here at Zebra Valley Camp. There were many options: waffles, eggs, cereal, yogurt, fruit and much more! It was all very yummy!

After breakfast we hit the road to get to the preserve. It took us about 15 minutes to reach the gate. While on the way, we saw some hot air balloons in the sky, an excursion to see the Mara in the morning that will set you back about $400 USD. We saw the sun rising over the hills, and it was absolutely beautiful. Once we got to the gate, we had to wait quite a bit, because the Maasai Mara park rangers had to approve the safari tickets. Their computer was down, causing a delay. Security in the Mara is tight to protect the many species in the park, several of which are endangered and prized by poachers. While waiting, some of the women tried to sell us jewelry, keepsakes, and more. Some were able to negotiate good prices to get more souvenirs.

On the safari we saw tons of animals. We took so many photos! We saw four of the Big Five animals of Kenya. Out of these, we saw lions, elephants, a leopard, and buffalo. No rhino unfortunately. Dr. Jalloh left us to go safari with a friend but rejoined us on the way out. We had two Land Rovers that each sat 7 people plus our two skilled drivers, Jacob and Linus. (Though we may be biased, we would say our driver Jacob is the best driver of the two). Linus's group got stuck in the mud at one point, and we had to pull it out. Later another bus got stuck in the mud, and we had to pull it out again! This is the slow season for safari tours, so we had lots of time and few other buses to compete for spots close to the animals.

Some of the highlights of the day were seeing two of the rarest animals on safari: the cheetah and the leopard. Both are so rare and endangered that rangers follow them throughout the day for protection. Apparently some poachers steal the cubs for sale, which is the biggest threat the rangers watch for. 

When any rare animal is spotted, the drivers of all the tours will tell each other what they have found, and everyone speeds to that spot. It will cause huge crowds of vans. Surprisingly, the animals are unbothered by the trucks, and we were able to get pretty close. Everyone was able to see their bucket-list animal, be that the lion, hyena, zebra, baboon, you name it! It was awe inspiring to see all of the famous animals of a Kenyan safari but also some of the weird looking animals like warthogs and storks, who are part of the Ugly Five. We also appreciated all the different flowers and birds we could see around us. The Mara is lush and vibrant.

For lunch we stopped on the Kenya-Tanzania border. There was a stone marker that the drivers helped us onto for a photo opportunity with one foot on each side of the border. (Sylvia was the only one who didn't need a leg up!) Our lunch included packed sandwiches, vegetable samosa, hard boiled eggs, apples. We had to watch out for the mischievous blue vervet monkeys around our lunch spot though who eagerly watched us eat and tried to steal our food. The place we lunched overlooked a river that had a multitude of hippos. (These animals we could not get close to as they are among the most dangerous). Overall, we were very lucky to have the safari experience we did.

The way back was a lot more eventful than we could have expected. We somehow encountered everything we had wanted to see aside from rhinos. Rhinos are VERY rare, because they are shy by nature and an endangered species. (Our guide, Jacob, told us in his whole line of work, he’d only seen them a few times ever.) Usually, if people want to see rhinos, they have to venture much farther out into the Maasai Mara than we did. (We only saw maybe 15-20 percent of the reserve in 9 hours). 

However, we did get lucky enough to see a cheetah. We and 50 other Land Rovers gathered around to look as closely as we could. She was standing up on top some small hills in the area. Although we weren’t able to get very close, some had binoculars for a better view. Melanie got some pictures on her digital camera before it ran out of battery, and were all eager to see how they turned out. The rangers stayed very close to the cheetah and in-between us. Our other driver, Linus , said the rules around poaching or coming in contact with the animals are so strict now that even picking up a bone from an animal long dead and attempting to take it out of the park is a high crime. Unlike some parts of the US and Canada, where First Nations peoples are allowed to continue traditional hunting or fishing practices, even in the case of endangered species, the Maasai are not.

Continuing home, we were able to get much closer to a hyena and a few buffalo, which crossed the road right in front of us! Hyenas are much larger than depicted in animated media (at least as far as the spotted species we saw here in the Maasai Mara go). Those we saw were easily bigger than people. There is a smaller, rarer striped hyena here in the Maasai Mara, but it’s apparently not very active during the daytime (perhaps these are the ones we heard at night yipping and howling for one another at our lodge in Maasai Mara).

Trying to find some shade, we drove towards a large tree, and as we got closer we were surprised to find a pair of lions underneath taking a late afternoon nap. The lions here were unconcerned with our presence, though the male lion did look up for a moment to check us out. They have become used to the presence of humans and the Land Rovers. We stuck around for a while, very close to them, maybe 5-10 feet away, until the lioness suddenly got up and turned towards the male lion. They brushed their heads together, and then the male lion got behind and on top of her… Our tour guide explained that lions will fast for a week at a time and mate up to 40 times a day until the lioness gets pregnant. If anything, this is a testament to how remarkably unconcerned the animals here were with our presence. Truly we were only a few feet away, much to some people’s dismay. But were happy to see lions thriving!

At the end of our safari, we saw huge storm clouds forming on the horizon. It started to rain heavily, which cooled us and the Mara quickly. The raindrops were huge and since things were so flat and sparsely wooded, you could see the rain coming down from far and away. When we finally got back to our lodge (hotel), it had stopped raining, and some of us dispersed to shower and swim in the pool. Dinner was wonderful as usual with lamb and pork (and much more!) available. We are looking forward to visiting the Maasai village tomorrow!