Masai Mara Game Reserve

On Sunday morning, we departed from the Panafric Hotel in Nairobi and traveled down the Great Rift Valley to the Masai Mara Game Reserve. Masai Mara lies in Kenya on the northern border of the Serengeti. Its 702 square miles support more than 2 million wildebeest, 250,000 Thompson’s gazelles, 200,000 zebras, 70,000 impala and a gaggle of cheetahs, lions and leopards as well as 450 bird species and, 57 species of raptors. This reserve is unique in that it is not a national park and thus not managed by a wildlife agency but rather the Masai people who also inhabit the land.

After the long day of travel, we were excited to find our accommodations were permanent tented camps. Before dinner, we challenged the local Masai warriors to a game of soccer. A combination of the altitude, lack of fitness and absence of skill really stacked the cards against our team, not to mention they run like real Kenyans
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The next day we set out just after day break for an all-day game drive. We saw the usual giraffe, zebras, impala and gazelles as well as the three major cats – cheetah, leopard and lion. The two cheetahs were munching on the remains of an impala with a jackal waiting patiently for the scraps (see pictures). Several hawks and vultures also circled overhead awaiting their turn at the carcass. We saw the lions in several different groups but were most excited about watching two females and a host of juveniles walking down the road in front of our truck. In the afternoon we got a tip about a leopard in a tree with its recent kill. We arrived to find the leopard slung over the bottom branch along with its kill that it had hauled into the tree for safe keeping. Unfortunately though, the leopard did a lousy job of securing the kill and we saw the carcass fall out of the tree. The leopard quickly retrieved it and dragged the body to a new perch.

On Tuesday we trekked a few hours north to our campsite near Lake Naivasha. Here we “chill-axed” in the afternoon and enjoyed a leisurely morning. We wandered the local town in search of internet but the connection was down the first time and the electricity was out the next time we stopped in, so back to our overland truck for the trip up to Nakuru and the East Africa Mission Orphanage.