We said goodbye to our Maasai friends and headed for the Maasai Mara National Park. We are close to the busy season so there were a lot of trucks entering the park this morning. A vast grassland that reminds me of the western plains only with abundant wildlife, it is actually part of the Serengeti and home to the famous annual migration in July that everyone has seen on the nature shows where the endless herds of wildebeest and zebra cross the river while crocodiles wait for them. The herds live in the Serengeti until the dry season. Apparently there is about a week of rain showers around this time that signals the grazing animals to begin the trek. Judging from the previous night’s rain, I missed it by about a week. This park was so much bigger than Ol Pajeta, it is hard to describe the 360 degree view, even harder to image that in a few days that same space will be covered in millions of wildebeest, and completely unfathomable that they will have devoured virtually every blade of grass in a few months. We saw some resident small herds of zebra and wildebeest who maintain a symbiotic relationship and one small group that were on the move, but missed the “big show”.

Regardless of the migration timeline, it was a spectacular day with amazing sights. The cheetahs especially did not disappoint! Early on we encountered a family of 5 (four adolescents and the mother) who were just waking up. We stayed and watched them for a long time. They would get up and look like the were about to do something serious, and then flop back down and sleep. At one point, the youths were all running around playing just like you would expect to see a family of house cats. I was lucky enough to catch part of this on video.

There were lots of trucks there to watch them and our driver, Jackson, knew the park rangers who were there to monitor things and they told Jackson that we could come back later when most people have left and they would let us drive in behind them for a spectacular view of them lounging in the bushes later on. I got especially great close views of one of the babies and mama.

In between we saw some lions (a pair mating and then a group of three sleeping in the bushes), a pair of Secretary birds, a male Maasai Ostrich, a group of Hippos, a Silver-backed jackal, Tapi, Hartebeest, a Black kite, and a Bateleur eagle.

The park is so vast that we only saw elephants from a distance today and no giraffe. To add some additional personal adventure. We also got stuck and had to be pulled out by one of the other drivers (apparently this is very common, especially in the Mara where the mud gets really thick). Fortunately, there were no animals around. At one point we tried to push and I got a good load of Maasai Mara mud on my shoe! And then 5 minutes from the entrance on our way out, we had a tire blow out. This seemed even more common today as we passed another vehicle earlier changing a tire. We found out later that the guy who had pulled us out, had two flats and wasn’t carrying any spare tires! It took them quite a while to get help!

We made it late in the afternoon to our camp just outside the park (which was very nice) and had a fantastic late lunch. It rained again and the generator kicked on to keep the power going. We decided not to go back into the park because it was a full and long day. Apparently the rain brought out a nasty little pest on the pathways called a Safari Ant. They have a particularly nasty bite and I had to pick four off my lower legs and ankle every time I walked to the tent or the main lodge. We spent some time relaxing in the lounge and a group of Maasai came and sang and jumped for the small group of guests. I had a great sleep, a really nice hot shower, and another full breakfast the next morning before we departed for our last destination, Lake Naivasha.