Safari to Masai Mara

This weekend we took a trip to the Masai Mara National Reserve, one of Kenya's most famous wildlife areas. It is one of the best places to view African animals since it contains mostly grasslands and rolling hills which makes it easier to see game animals. It is about 4 hours from Kisumu where we are located and it crosses into Tanzania where it becomes the Serengeti National Park.

We rode around in a 4WD safari van with a pop open roof which gave us room to stand up and move around for a good view. We stopped at the airstrip to meet one of our friends from Nairobi and then we set off on our safari. The safari drives are usually in the early morning and late afternoon since the animals are more active at those times. I found that it really didn't matter since we saw animals all day long.

It was nice weather all weekend and there were virtually no crowds as the rainy season is just about to start. This allowed for good game viewing and we were fortunate to see all of the animals except for the leopard. Leopards are nocturnal and difficult to spot in the trees during the day.

This elephant was right next to our van which made our driver nervous since he was chased by the same elephant not long ago. We stopped at the Mara river and were escorted by armed game wardens to look for crocodiles and hippos. You can see the hippos easily but the crocs are hard to see in the next picture. Look closely at the center of the photograph and you will see them lying on the river bank getting some sun.

The next picture is of a warthog kneeling down to eat the grass. It's a little strange to see it walking around like that. We saw cape buffalo, black rhinos, zebras, all kinds of different antelope and gazelles, a cheetah, a pride of lions with cubs, lots of giraffes and herds of elephants.

March 13th was my birthday so I treated myself to a hot air balloon ride. We lifted off in the early morning darkness and watched the sun rise over the grasslands. The ride is very similar to sailing on the ocean- you just glide effortlessly a few feet above the grass without any noise. Really beautiful experience. I took a picture of the shadow cast by our balloon and basket. We flew past some elephant herds causing them to scatter.