Masai Mara Adventure

Last weekend we travelled to the Masai Mara wildlife reserve in Kenya with our flat mates Henrik and Colleen who were leaving.

We worked out that the distance to the park was roughly 600km so thought it should take us about 8 hours. We drove 2 hours on Thursday night then got up at 5 on Friday morning to try to finish the trip before midday. As it turned out our time estimation was wildly optimistic. We ended up arriving at our camp site at 8pm. All up it took us 17 hours! Kenyan roads turned out to be significantly worse than Ugandan ones. Anyway we then spent two days in the Masai Mara which markets itself as the best game park in Africa. It was an absolutely breathtaking experience and we both feel very lucky. The scenery was spectacular- vast plains dotted with Acacia trees. Each afternoon black clouds rolled in and we got half an hour of torrential rain. We saw a huge quantity and range of animals. The tail end of the great Wildebeast migration was passing through the park and we frequently had to stop the car and wait for them as they ran across the road. A highlight was seeing a group of 16 Lions feeding on one unlucky Wildebeast. My favourite deer were the huge and elusive Eland. They looked delicious. Lunch was also exciting- we ate in the middle of a plain with a sentry sitting on the roof of our car to keep an eye out for predators. Helen took some stunning photos which you can have a look at on Facebook if you’re interested and some of which are uploaded here.

Henrik and Colleen carried on from the park to Nairobi and we made the return trip to Kampala. We’ll miss them- it was great having them stay with us over the past month. Anyway if any of you get the opportunity to visit Kenya- make sure you visit the Mara. It won’t disappoint.