We had a very exciting morning game drive! We saw lots of zebras, an elephant herd with several baby elephants, lions mating, and a big group of hippos!
We enjoyed a very nice breakfast our lovely camp (they have fruit, little pastries, cereals, an egg station, and hot plus excellent coffee). It was another lovely sunny day, but with a cooling breeze. We headed out on our morning game drive at 8 am. We saw lots of zebras first, then an elephant herd in the distance, with several baby elephants. They are so cute! We also saw various antelopes including Thomsons gazelles, Eland, and Topi.
We drove quite a distance up to the lookout in the Maasai Mara. It was really nice to get out of the jeep and stretch our legs, as the roads in the park are very bumpy and we are jounced around a lot in the jeep. On game drives we have to stay inside the jeep, so despite my Fitbit telling me I got over 20,000 or even 30,000 steps, in reality we dont walk much. The Fitbit steps are because of the bouncing around in the jeep. ? The view was very
We drove down from the lookout, and there were reports of a lion sighting, and after awhile we found a pair of lions, an older male and a younger female. They were both lounging, but to my astonishment, soon began to mate. Now that was something Id never thought Id see, especially so close to where our (and a few other) jeeps were parked. I think we all were astonished. Apparently the lion pair stays together, away from the pride, for a few days, and mates numerous times (Stanley called this the honeymoon). Then they return to the pride. We waited for awhile, thinking the lions might mate again, but they mostly just lounged (maybe they wanted more privacy!) so we left to continue our game drive.
We came across a pair of Reedbuck, which were a new animal for us. They are very shy and elusive, so I felt privileged to see them. They darted off as we drove closer, but then stopped, and we were able to get a good view of them before they took off. A little while later we spotted a Thomsons gazelle who had very recently
given birth. The baby was just struggling to get up, and we watched as it managed to get up, after several tries, and totter close enough to begin to nurse.
We then left the mother and baby in peace, and continued to the Mara River, which is the river that the massive wildebeest and zebra herds cross every year into Tanzania. The wildebeest have already made their migration and are in the Serengeti now. We were looking for hippos in the river and we saw two in one location (mostly submerged). Then we drove a bit further and Stanley spotted a large crocodile sunning itself on the opposite bank. He provided us with lots of information about crocodiles (did you know they have no tongue, so they have no sense of taste, and that is why they will eat animals).
We then drove a little bit further, and around the bend we very suddenly came upon a large male lion. He was quite handsome, sitting up, but then soon laid down and was difficult to see, so we moved on. Around the bend in the river was an enormous group of hippopotamuses in the river, which was
something Ive never seen, even on TV. I had no idea they hung around together in such large groups. There were two separate groups, and apparently they are rival groups. Hippos can be quite violent towards each other, and interestingly they have tusks, not teeth.
We drove away from the river, and headed back to camp for lunch (I had excellent minestrone soup and salad) and a Tusker lite. After lunch some of the group who wanted to visited a Maasai village (this was an included activity and we were interested to see it, so we went). First we dropped by a school in a local village to deliver some school supplies. We saw a classroom (very basic) and the girls sang a few songs for us. They were young teenagers, and sang beautifully (Christian songs so I guess this is a Christian school).
