The Masai Mara National Reserve, located in southwestern Kenya, is the most famous safari destination in Kenya. Covering an expanse of about 1500 square kilometers, it is contiguous to the Serengeti Reserve of Tanzania.
Our adventure began last Saturday at 7:30 AM when our Masai driver, Jeff, arrived to pick us up in an old LandCruiser. Our trip companions were Bob Nagy, a retired ENT doc from the state of Wyoming and Will McKee, who is finishing up his internal medicine residency in Houston. Our ride to the Mara took about 5 hours, half on decent paved roads and the other half on the rocky potholed roads we have become accustomed to in Africa! We arrived at the Sekenani Camp in the early afternoon and settled into our accommodations- large tents that were on elevated platforms and which, amazingly, included a nice bed, solar-powered lights, and indoor plumbing!!
After lunch, we went on the first of four game drives over the course of two days - each drive was about 3 hours. The Masai Mara is so expansive that we covered only a small part of it but were fortunate in seeing many animals and birds, thanks to the eagle eye of our driver who grew up in the area and knew the land well - the four wheel drive LandCruiser allowed us to get far off the beaten path in search of the "Big Five", which includes the lion, elephant, cape buffalo, leopard and rhino. We saw all of these except the rhino - there are fewer than 75 in the whole park!!
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| One of the many gates into the Reserve |
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| Our driver, Jeff, in traditional dress |
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| Dave, Jeff, Susie |
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| Bob Nagy and Will McKee |
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| Wonderful tent accommodations - definitely not "roughing it"! |
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| Sekenani Camp had a spectacular garden - a vegetarian's dream! |
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In the Mara on a game drive - as we were watching this lioness, she decided to get some shade
so moved under our Land Cruiser!!! |
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