Living the Lion King (Masai Mara Safari)

Author: Katrina
Date of Trip: November 2010

My Masai Mara Safari Experience

It’s a whole different thing hearing about how wonderful a place is and being there… and its another thing to experience it, I had quite an experience and this is how my safari rolled out. I woke up at around seven(0600hrs), took a quick shower then had breakfast. At around 0800hrs Timut (my masai tour guide/driver – africa nature trails and safaris) came to fetch me and my safari began… We set off half an hour later and since he has had experience and vast knowledge of over 20 years as a tour guide/driver he knows the wilderness and its amazing since there are no road signs to guide him as is the case in my county. Like the paparazi, hungry to catch that shot that stops any wildlife lovers heart, my camera starts clicking, not so far away are some wildebeests and gazelles grazing peacefully. As we moved further into the interior I started seeing the big cats, my first was a family of cheetahs which were catching some shade under a tree. They weren’t about to make any kill any time soon so we moved on. The next cats I saw was Simba and his pride. This time there was some action as the pride had made a kill, the lion moved towards the catch chasing off the lionesses and its cubs. It then, facing its pride settled down to its share as the others watched just waiting for their turn.

My safari was turning out to be better than I had imagined because further in were the largest land mammals, the elephants (known as Ndovu in Swahili). They were huge, they could easily overturn our vehicle good thing we stayed a good distance back. I was getting hungry and I guess Timut(driver/tour guide) heard my stomach grambling so he drove around looking for a safe spot. He parked the vehicle right under a leafy tree, a couple of metres away was a river with some hippos. He took a basket and laid down a mat where he took out our snacks. Who would have thought that we would be having a snack in the Mara with wild animals almost everywhere. So I helped myself to some delicious sandwiches, my guide signalled across the river and I not sure where he was pointing towards rolled my eyes around then they came to a complete stop…he had spotted a lion. My heart was racing and got pretty uneasy, I looked at Timut and he seemed as calm as ever. I settled down as soon as he told me that it wouldn’t dare come over as it had to face the hippos first. It was getting late and after our snack we started heading for our camp. On our way back I was met with yet another surprise…all day long we had missed this particular cat, the leopard. It is very elusive and shy, if it hadn’t moved we could have missed it for the tree provided a very good camouflage. Am definitely going back next year with africa nature trails and safaris and this time i will go with a bunch of my friends.

In all my safari turned out wild…