Masai Mara....A New Respect for My Mortality

“Really, Dickson (our safari driver) I don’t need to stare in the eyes of a lion, a safe distance will do.” What an adventure! Words cannot describe the Masai Mara, endless green savanna, frosted with zebra, gazelle, impala, warthogs and elephants. Not to mention hippos, cheetahs, lions, giraffe, water buffalo, ostrich, jackals and hyena at your fingertips...and the most brilliant, outlandish birds. Just breathtaking! And as our guide pointed out....the Masai. They always talk about seeing the Big Five (lion, cheetah, rhino, elephant and leopard) and the Masai being the Sixth. They just live out here. You’ll see a lone warrior just walking along.....in this absolutely wild land.

We stayed at the most beautiful safari camp....Amani Mara...the architecture was so unique and the owner a conservationist so the camp and the structures were built ecologically. We could lay in the pool and watch the hippos. The staff were so friendly and we planted three trees before leaving. Gus will have to go back one day and see his fig tree.

Here is a picture of where we ate breakfast one morning (lion pride in the bushes behind me). All was well until our guide said we should head back to the car....quickly....seeing a lion dart out of the bushes. OMG...I grabbed Gus and ran so fast. Then he called us back as the lion had turned and ran away. And it was just one lion after-all. Hmmm....one thing I learned traveling in the Mara is that there is never just one lion. There’s always a pride of lions. 

I think Dickson was playing a joke on us the first day, giving us a glimpse of our mortality. First our jeep got stuck next to a pride of lions, sheer panic....thank God for land rover power and giant tires. Once that frightening experience was over, within the next 10 minutes the jeep’s battery died, again next to the pride of lions. Of course this is when Gus decides to throw a tantrum. The lions had been sleep...then they woke up, one staring right at us. Me panicking again, “Here Gus eat a cookie.” Zach taking pictures. OMG...I never need to see another lion. The safari staff was teasing me later, saying “Katy you don’t like the lions but this is their home.” Me, “oh, I like lions, just from a distance.”

---Katy