Masai Mara

Kilometers of wilderness is pure heaven. Masai Mara is one of the most famous reserves in the world and I discovered why. We landed there in the middle of migration(also know as the greatest natural show on earth). It meant over a million wildebeest, and many impalas, gazelles, buffaloes, zebra, giraffes and other food items were moving towards Serengeti. The lions and hyenas were fat and happy with the buffet and it was generally an amazing time to watch all animals come out for their versions of snacks.


We reached Masai Mara in the afternoon and after lunch we set off on a game drive. There were multitudes of wildebeest, zebras and deer around. It tool us just an hour to find lions. 1 male and 3 female lazing about without a care. Later we saw a serval cat as well. Vultures were the most common birds around but there were many other less conspicuous birds also. Saw a secretary bird, marabou storks, other carrion birds and so on. The park is closed for safaris at night so we had to get back. The lodge itself was quite lively, with baboons and mongoose running about. Our balcony opened up to a stream so we could see water birds and other animals come down for a drink.



The next day early morning we started out on a balloon safari. While getting to the take off spot on the way were lions feeding, hippo with a baby getting back into water and a hyena running ahead. The balloon safari itself was an hour ride over the plains until the edge of the Kenya border where we could watch herds migrating, hyenas having a pack war, ostriches and giraffes obliviously grazing and a serval cat which seemed really interested in the balloon. On landing we had to drive up to where the breakfast was set for us in the jungle.


After that, we moved towards one of the rivulets of the Mara river. Saw a herd of elephants along the way along with the other herds. A huge crowd of vultures circling promised something interesting near the stream. As we got closer we saw corpses of hundreds of wildebeest dead while crossing the river and carrion birds of all kinds having a feast. Traveling further down, we spotted a herd of wildebeest ready to cross while a lioness waited on the other side. As the wind changed the lioness had to charge too early, it wasn't able to catch any. Lost its cub somewhere as well and kept calling out to it after that. We stopped at our lodge lunch where the food scraps attracted many small birds and a few curious monkeys as well.

In the free time just after lunch, I managed to see a monitor lizard and a few mongoose trying to steal piece of meat from each other. A Masai worked there as a naturalist and he showed me a few birds. We managed to see a lilac breasted plover which was not found in the area and a yellow winged bat which is quite rare as well. In the last game drive we found a cheetah hiding out from the sun and a large number of lions lazing about in different areas. We got back to Nairobi after that and proceeded to South Africa.