Safari in Masai Mara

I just returned from a 3 day safari in Masai Mara National Reserve (on the border of Tanzania) and this was truly one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.  It was so neat to see these animals in their natural habitat where they really just look so much more beautiful and healthy (well minus those unlucky few that were getting chomped on by a lion! haha).  The reserve was also absolutely stunning!  Here is a picture of the reserve in the evening (with some gazelle grazing) followed by an image of the sunrise.

Apart from the beautiful surroundings, we of course saw TONS of animals!  We saw a lot of buffalo (one of the most dangerous wild animals actually!), some elephants, and 3 cheetah brothers lounging underneath a tree.  I was surprised to learn that cheetahs are actually the only large cat that has true success at hunting during the day as a result of the black "tear" lines on their faces that reflect the sunlight so they can see more clearly.  Unfortunately we didn't see a cheetah make a kill, but it was still pretty amazing to be so close to these three!

The animals we probably saw in the most abundance though were the zebras and wildebeest.  They were literally EVERYWHERE.  The beginning of July is actually when the "great migration" begins so we weren't even seeing the bulk of the migration (just a few early starters) but the migration consists of over 1 million wildebeest migrating from the southern Serengeti (in Tanzania) to Masai Mara.  People generally think of this as just a wildebeest migration but about 200,000 zebras also migrate.  In fact, the wildebeest (who are fairly low on the intelligence scale...) migrate by following a path created by the zebra as the zebra graze (so it really should be known as the great zebra migration!).

We also reached the Mara River where during the peak of the migration thousands of wildebeests will be crossing at once (hopefully avoiding all the crocodiles!).  Right now though the river seemed relatively peaceful and was just inhabited by lots of hippos (which you can see behind me).

I was also surprised by the number of lions we saw on the safari (TONS)!  Here is a mom lion and her 3 cubs as well as their dad who had previously snagged a big wildebeest (the cubs were chomping on it earlier).  Definitely a good provider for the family :)

One evening we also had the opportunity to visit a Masai village (the most traditional tribe in Kenya) which was a very neat experience.  The villagers definitely put on a bit of the show (but tourism is a large part of how they make a living now), but it was still really neat to see how they live.  There was basically a circle of mud houses surrounded by prickly brambles and bushes to keep out predators and about 8 families lived in this village.  Some of the women in the village did a dance for us (shown in the picture below) and they were dressed in a beautiful array of bright clothing, beads, etc.  I have to say though, that I feel very fortunate not to be a woman growing up as a Masai seeing as it is a polygamous society (each man has about 5 or 6 wives) and the girls still undergo genital mutilation.  It was somewhat difficult to have conversations with the men in the village since my views on marriage, treatment towards women, etc. were so different, but it was a very enlightening experience.  And overall it was just a very neat culture to be exposed to.  So overall my trip to the Masai Mara was unbelievable to say the least.  Truly an unforgettable experience.