We woke up early, had breakfast, and were on our way for an all day Safari. Our camp was about 5 minutes from the park gate, so in no time at all we had processed our smart cards, and were through the gate and into the park. Our van, like most vehicles that take tourists on safari, had a pop-up roof, that allowed us to stand in the vehicle, and see out, while still having the roof overhead shielding us from the sun. We began the safari on a main road, eager and unsure of what animals we would all see. John had a CB Radio that was crackling away with other drivers talking back and forth, giving each other intel as to where certain animals were, and as we found out later, where the park rangers were. Not far into the park, paths began to snake away from the main road in every direction. John seemed to be on a mission however, he was on the radio, plotting his course around the maze of roads, he seemed to have a specific destination in mind. Along the way we saw, elephants, impalas, some gazelles, it was very quickly clear to us, that John would be a better guide than when had with our driver Hamisi, when we went through the National Park in Nairobi. John knew every single animal, and was able to tell us all about their life cycle, mating habits, and other interactions within their species. As we would come across animals that were close to the path, he would slow down and stop, and let us get some pictures, but still obviously had a destination in mind. So we continued on, and came to a small stand of brush, where there was one other van, off the road, parked near one bush in particular. We got closer and could see the people in that van looking underneath the bush, so we peered through the branches and then saw why he was in a hurry to get us here. Lying there, nursing three newborn cubs, was a lioness. Wow. Well, wow doesn't really quite describe it. The other van moved out of the way and John pulled in closer so we could try to get some pictures. Unfortunately, the camera kept auto-focusing on the branches, not the lioness and cubs beyond the branches so I wasn't able to quickly get a good picture. As I was trying to flip the camera to manual focus to get a better shot, John pulled out and headed back down the road. At this point there was a line of probably 8 or 9 other vans that had come to see the lion. We found out later from John that there had apparently been park rangers hiding nearby in the bushes, and were on their way closer. You are not allowed to leave the road in the park, and if you do, the penalties can range from a fine, to a temporary or even permanent ban from the park. So John had to quickly get out of the bushes and back on the road as the rangers were coming. So we were back on the paths, cruising around, snapping photos of elephants, taking it all in. But John was back on the radio, he seemed to have a lead on some more animals, as he was again in a set course. We continue on up a hill and come to a lone tree with one other van nearby, and look down in the shade of the tree....two cheetahs, just lazing around in the grass. Again, wow. Here we were able to get much better photos. And as with the lioness, the other vehicles began to arrive so we snapped our photos and continued on. It seemed at this point like John must have some pretty good intel as it seemed we were arriving on scene second, and shortly before a mass of other vehicles.
We continued to drive around searching for animals, taking in the landscape. We stopped on top of a hill at one point and got out to stretch our legs. From there we could see for miles. We could see the Mara river in the distance and beyond the border of Tanzania and Kenya, which also indicates the border of the Maasai Mara and Serengeti. As we drove down from the top of the hill we spotted another cheetah, laying near a small bush, head up, hunting. It had it's eye on a small herd of hartebeest, so we watched and waited, hoping to see it attack. But alas, it was not to be. We stopped a short distance later to have lunch in the shade of a lone tree on the hillside. John had brought bag lunches for all of us, so we sat in the grass, and enjoyed our lunch with herds of various types of antelope and zebras all around. A flock of little birds came to try and steal from our lunches, one of them even took a piece of bread out of my hand. I know, I know, don't feed the wildlife. It was a great setting for a picnic.
After lunch we continued on towards the river. We drove along the bank of the river and spotted a couple crocodiles and LOTS of hippos. We waited for some time, with the hope of seeing one of the hippos come out of the water, but in the heat of the afternoon, the best we were going to get was a couple inches of their backs sticking out of the water.It had taken nearly half the day to make our way all the way out to the river, and it took the other half to make our way back. Joce and I both ended up taking turns have a quick nap as we drove on. We drove on, sometimes circling around small stands of bushes and trees, trying to find some more lions, or a leopard, but no such luck. As we made our way back to the main gate, John heard some more talk of the radio that there were some more lions around. So we turned around and drove slowly and searched. There in the distance we saw another lioness, walking down through some brush and laying down in the shade. As we watched her, we spotted another two lions nearby, laying low. We could get a good view of them with binoculars, but unfortunately didn't have a strong enough zoom on the camera to get any really good pictures. It was a good way to end the day however. We had been driving around the park for probably 8 hours, and were definitely done for the day.
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