Masai Mara - home of the Marsh pride

Thursday, June 13, 2013
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
We flew from Samburu to the famous Masai Mara where the Mara River acts as a choke point for the great migration of wildebeest and zebra going between Kenya and Tanzania. We were staying at the brand new Richard Branson lodge and it was located a fair distance from the airport. The road was new and so it was very bumpy and rocky. Because of a contact that Azeem has, we were lucky enough to be the very first guests ever at the lodge. The staff was excited to have "test" guests and we were happy to provide feedback and suggestions. Unlike our first two camps, this camp was not fenced which provided us with great views of the animals from camp. In order to keep us safe, there were two Masai warriors patrolling the tents 24 hours a day. After our experiences with the Masai guides before, we felt very secure with these men looking after us.


There are many predators in the Masai Mara and it was a treat to see the cats. We had an amazing cheetah encounter one evening just before dusk. We were sitting down to have dinner and our host Liam came running up excitedly and said, "I hate to interrupt your meal, but we just received word that a family of four cheetahs has been spotted a few kilometers away. We thought you might want to hop in the trucks and go have a look."  So off we went and had an amazing experience watching these four cheetahs for almost an hour. We were the only ones around and it was quite a treat.


Another time Liam came running up and told us that a lion had just made a kill about 350 meters from one of the tents. We hopped in the trucks and moments later we were watching a lioness and her cub munch on a freshly killed wildebeest. You could hear the tearing of flesh and crunching of bones. Once again we were the only ones around and it was great.


We learned that the camp was only an hours drive from the Masai Mara National Reserve where the famous Marsh pride of lions live. The Marsh pride was made famous by a BBC series called Big Cat Diary. Finn and Ty have watched the whole series and know the names of many of the cats. Our guide, Dickson, became very excited when he found out that Finn had watched Big Cat Diary and they began chatting about the lions by name. We decided we must make the trip to the National Reserve since we were so close. We were not disappointed and saw a hunting cheetah and a hunting lion. We also saw the Marsh pride at their home in the marsh. And of course there were giraffes, monkeys, baboons, zebra, cape buffalo and all of the other animals around. It was an awesome experience and a great way to end our safari trip.
 

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