Lake Nakuru and the Masaii Mara Part 3

The cheetah getting ready to stalk.


The third day of safari, I have to say, was far less interesting than the first two but for good reason. In general, most of the 'exciting' animals or the ones everyone wants to see hunt at dawn or dusk. This makes seeing them on an all day safari very rare. It was a few hours in before we came upon anything interesting. We spotted a cheetah lounging on a rock and as we slowed down to take some photos noticed an impala in the background. Another kill!!! Or that's at least what we thought. Turns out this time the impala outsmarted the cheetah and escaped into the high brush.

Some of the million wildebeest.


As the day went on we witnessed what many like to claim as the 8th wonder of the world, the wildebeest migration from the Serengeti to the Mara. I'm not lying when I say we say millions of wildebeest. I tried to get some shots of the horizon but its hard to tell. Literally all you see is black dots stretching as far back as you can see. Also learned that wildebeest normally migrate with zebra herds. Now the wildebeest far outnumber the zebra but its crucial for the zebra to be there as we soon found out.


Two of my favorite giraffe pictures

Wildebeest are dumb. There's no nice way of stating it. I relate them to a cow. They follow the rest of the heard even if that includes plunging to their death in a deep gorge. Well later that day a heard was headed straight for said gorge when the zebra suddenly stopped. Did the wildebeest stop no that was until one finally noticed no zebra. The zebra had smelled the lioness that was waiting for the heard just below the ridge. Again we waited it out but alas no kill! Zebra definitely ruined our fun here!


If you look closely you can see the lion in the far right center just waiting for them to cross.

We also came across a family of giraffe. These are the masaii giraffe, named for the land in which the are most found, and are pretty common in Kenya. I got some really great shots and we managed to get pretty close. Next on the list of things to do was to get out of the van. Yes we broke the number one rule of the Mara, do not leave your car. But I figure that if the guide was suggesting we go down to the river to see the hippos and crocs then it was probably fine. Oh and we did have an armed guard, you know no big deal.


A family of hippos sunning. One big yawn.

The hippos were huge and there were so many in the small area that we toured. We only saw two crocs but there are numerous in the river as the wait for the unsuspecting wildebeest to cross. Later that day we took a quick drive to Tanzania and did a little "jumping" in the Serengeti. All while the tour guide and driver struggled to change our flat back tire. Yes I will proudly say that I pointed this out to them. They were like 'oh we should fix that'. Yes please fix the van so we don't get stranded next to lions.



Jumping across the border! The four of us by the River Mara.

We ended the day spotting a rare leopard up in a tree. I tried to get a good shot but he was hidden behind the branches and was feasting on whatever he drug up there with him. That evening we went back to camp and sat around our fire for a bit before feasting on nyama choma.



Lion family has a wildebeest breakfast. Sunrise in the Masaii Mara.

The next day we were up before the sun for a morning safari which we didn't see many animals but got a great sunrise. After that it was back to the camp for breakfast then off to Kisumu. We managed to sweet talk our guide to take us all the way back to Kisumu instead of dropping us off in Nakuru. Even the trip home was an adventure as the driver suddenly cut off the road and into a wheat field. Short cut he says! Needless to say during the hour we were on this said short cut I wonder if we were actually going to make it out ok. Oh and of course we had to stop along the way to pick up the driver's brother. We all shared some questioning looks for sure. But alas the short cut worked and we managed to make it back to Kisumu tired but in one piece. Definitely one of the major highlights of my trip thus far. Not sure what I can do to top this one but you can bet I'm going to try!

Packing up the van for Kisumu. Relaxing after a day safari.