This post is all about the actual Safari!!
Safari was A M A Z I N G!! for four primary reasons:
1: Basecamp aka: a beautiful oasis at the edge of the Masai Mara where very lucky people get to stay. If you are ever looking for a place to go on safari, I cannot recommend this place highly enough!! Check a website about basecamp more details:
Basecamp Details
It's an ecotourist spot, self sufficient, and located literally feet from the Masai Mara National Reserve!! We had animals walking through the camp at night, watched giraffe walk across the field at breakfast and had a baboon hang out in the lounge as we were waiting to head back to Mai Mahiu. Basecamp also supports local Masai people and works to have as minimal impact on their surrounding environment and ecosystem as possible.
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| Arriving at Basecamp, being dorks :) |
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| This riverbed was the only thing separating Basecamp from the Mara... in other words, we may as well been in the park! (photo taken from our deck) |
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| Sara's and my "tent", complete with running water and a brilliant outdoor shower. |
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| Lunch on arrival. OMG the food was gourmet and soooooo good. |
things that still make me laugh about basecamp:
* Instructions as we were checking in went something along the lines of: "Always, always, always lock your tents. That goes double if you have food- protein bars, trail mix, any type of food- keep it hidden in your bag, under your bed, and lock your tent! if you don't, the baboons WILL come in, forage thru your stuff and eat your food"
* After dinner, Sara and I were walked to our tent by one of the Masai guards. we had a flashlight, he had a spear. We were unlocking our tent and herd something GROWL at us- very loud and very close by. I screamed. no, actually, I screamed like a little girl and ran out off the deck and asked for our guide to come back, who did, totally laughing at me! He said one word, a few times- elephant. After getting into our tent, locking up behind us and finding the "emergency whistle", Sara and I calmed down, laughed, then heard another growl outside! After returning my breathing back to normal a second time we laid in the room and listened, and after about 5 minutes of terror, decided that yes, our outside visitor really was an elephant! We could hear as his trunk was wrapping around
foliage
and eating, his random exhales out, and very soft, gentle feet coming down in the bushes. Once we sorted out that it was an elephant, I had to go outside to try and see him!! But it was way too dark to see anything, so we just listened for a while.... as further confirmation that it really was an elephant, we were greeted with a very large pile of elephant poop out on the trail :)
* Breakfast Thursday morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and very yummy
gourmet
food we saw a giraffe walking by, just across the invisible border between Basecamp and Masai Mara.
* We had about an hour or so to relax before getting back into the van for the long trek back to Mai Mahiu. Kris, Sara and I were hanging out in the "safari lounge"- aka a tent near the main entrance to the camp with books and a couple couches. A baboon walked up on the deck and was looking for food- totally uninterested in us (although he may have changed his mind had he known about my stash of zone bars in my bag :)
2: The Masai People
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| Masai women selling jewelryand blankets at the entrance to the park. |
We were able to see Masai people while driving out to the Mara: tending herds, working around their houses and villages. It wasn't until we got to the Mara that I was able to interact with a few Masai women working at Basecamp and it was amazing!! There were about 10 or 12 women working on beading bracelets,
necklaces
and wallets. THANK YOU SARA for wanting to visit with them, as we sat with these women for about 30 minuts and tried to communicate- they were teaching us words in Masai, we were teaching them words in English, and we were all laughing at how horrible our dialects were. One woman took here earring out and put it around my ear (the long beaded dangling kind) and the other women all cracked up laughing at me :) They were all completely taken by Sara and her blonde hair...
The most adorable little monkeys (not baboons, but small grey monkeys) just wandered around, pretty close to the women. Both the Masai women and the monkeys were totally
indifferent
about the other- I thought it was the coolest thing!
3: The Masai Mara is stunning- and we were there during the "great migration". Have you seen the BBC's "Planet Earth"? Well it wasn't like that :) but there were a lot of animals in a very condensed spot, just inside the park. We were able to see all of the "Big 5" except
Black Rhinoceros (the big 5 are: Lions, African Elephants,
Cape Buffalo, Black Rhinoceros and Leopards), plus a ton of other animals.
Besides the animals, the park itself was really beautiful- landscape, horizon, and the sky were unlike anything I've ever seen.
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| Masai Mara Notice |
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| Windmill at the entrance to the reserve. |
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| Sunset over the Masai Mara |
4: The animals were AMAZING!!
We were SO up close and personal to so many different types of animals- the only way to describe it is to show you! Which I will do on my very next post!! :)
