Safari day in Masai Mara

Saturday was our only full-day safari of this trip. The other safaris we have planned will be no more than a few hours at a time, but this time we needed to go a long distance to where we could see lions and cheetahs, so we brought box lunches and lots of water, and were out for 11 hours.
Hunting Lions
The first hour of our safari was about getting to a spot far across the reserve where we could see some lions. We drove past some amazing sights (for example, dozens of baboons sitting on rocks above the Mara River in the first rays of sunshine, or an acacia tree on a high ridge surrounded by elephants and adorned with colorful birds), but our guide was rushing to get us to the place where he had been told there were two lionesses with five cubs out where we could see them. So we just kept going on the bumpy roads until we got to our destination.


Crossing the Mara River on our drive to the lions.
I have a pretty strong sense of direction, and have been aware of where we were within the nature reserve up to this point, but I was totally lost when we got to the lions.



After the lions disappeared into the brush, we were one of a dozen safari vehicles circling and trying to find a place to get a glimpse of them. This was our first experience of driving off-road here, and it was extremely bumpy. The two lionesses outsmarted all of us, and after 20 minutes of searching everyone gave up. Nice work, ladies!
Other Wildlife
We then spent an hour or two driving around the area where lions and cheetahs are know to hang out. There is so much wildlife here, and the guides know how to read the way it moves around. In some cases they know there can't be any big cats around because the animals they prey on seem relaxed, and in other cases they know there must be big cats around because of the specific animals that have left an area.









Snapshots from our morning drive.





A herd of topi, two Grey-crowned Cranes, and a Thomson's gazelle, hanging out at location where several hot-air balloons had taken off earlier in the morning.








Cheetahs! These two brothers were born in this area eight years ago, and they like to hunt together. They were snoozing on a little mound, where they could see for miles to watch for prey, and after a while they both yawned, stretched, and got up. They disappeared into the high grass, heading down into the valley to either sleep in a more peaceful spot or find something for lunch.



Our guide told us that during peak season (June to November), there were be a couple hundred safari vehicles here watching those cheetahs.
Our guide talked to several other guides while we were watching the cheetahs, and then he and a couple of his friends led a group into an area where they thought they could find more lions. Eventually we did.







Finding more lions.
The guides all speak fluent English (as well as other languages - our guide Will speaks fluent German and Dutch, too), but they always speak in Swahili when they discuss where animals have been spotted. They don't want to get tourists excited about possibilities that may not materialize. In a similar vein, they don't actually use the Swahili words for the animals, because some tourists will know, for example, that "simba" means they're discussing lions. So they have code words - a hippo is a "pumpkin," a male lion is "bighead," and so on. And the code word for a group of males without any females present is a "Taliban." 😄


Vantage Points
The cheetahs aren't the only ones that like to be on high spots with long views of the surrounding area. They prey animals do that, too, to watch for predators.




Topi love to stand on high spots.
African Buffalos
We slowly drove into a big herd of buffalos to get some closeup views. They didn't seem to mind our presence, but the big males stared at us. Willie said that if we were to step out of the vehicle, they would probably immediately charge. Buffalos are the most dangerous animal in this area, because they are usually aggressive with humans. By contrast, the big cats tend to ignore humans in most cases.






A herd of buffalos. The white birds, by the way, are not eating insects off the buffalos. They're birds that feed on grasshoppers, and they like to stand on the buffalo to have a better view. That's why those birds are usually on a big buffalo, and never stand on the smaller ones.
Lunch under an acacia tree
Willie drove us around for a while to find a spot to have our lunch. He wanted a spot where we have a good view of surrounding areas (for obvious reasons), and we ended up sharing the top of a hill with a herd of topis and a few ostrich, who were likely up there for the same reason we were – to have a few of any big cats that might approach. It was nice to have guard animals stationed on the rocks nearby. As long as they weren't concerned, neither were we.






Our picnic lunch location.
Over lunch, Willie told us a bit more about how the guides communicate about animals they've spotted. They have nicknames for certain spots in the reserve, and he told us the story of a tourist whose Mitsubishi vehicle got stuck in a spot for several hours, and so now all the guides know that spot as "Mitsubishi." We laughed and said it would be cool if we got stuck and could have a spot named after Marsha.
NOTE: in the study of storytelling, this conversation is what's known as foreshadowing.



A few elephants we saw after lunch.



Another code word to know: the guides referred to these lions as being "on honeymoon." Mating lions usually lay in a shady spot for up to 48 hours, having sex periodically, and during this time they're both too exhausted to hunt or eat.

Marsha's Spot
After that, we started the hour drive back to our hotel. But in a low area near Lookout Hill, we ran into a little problem: we got stuck in the mud!

Not good.
We spent the next 45 minutes trying a variety of things, but none of it worked. First Megan, Rhonda, and I stood on the right running board to try to get some traction. Then we tried pushing from behind, but just got sprayed with mud. We found a big stick, and Willie hacked it in half with his machete, but we couldn't get the tires to hold on it.







Who has more fun?
Eventually another vehicle showed up, and after a few attempts he was able to pull our Land Cruiser out. We then headed back to the hotel, all of us covered in mud.


The hotel was a welcome sight at the end of our day!