Maasai Mara Day 3 Morning

Maasai Mara Day 3 Morning

Last night, we had a bush dinner in a large tent, and a group of Maasai men did a welcome song for us and escorted us into the tent. One man, armed with a rifle, stood guard outside. The Maasai men also sang a call and response version of the real Hakuna Matata which included a happy birthday verse for Glenn, who was celebrating his 65th birthday. We then sang a traditional happy birthday to Glenn, and has a delicious birthday cake.

After a quiet night - no baboons outside - we leave about 9:00am and we’re out for the whole day. Margi rubs her cheetah earrings for luck, and voila, after about 30 minutes we see a cheetah. The cheetah crosses the road and fixes on some zebras and antelope in the distance. She goes a ways, pauses and lays down, then continues on. Barney says that cheetahs cover 88 feet a second for short periods. She is still 100  yards from her prey so it may be a while. 

We continue on, to another area near the river, and hear of some rhinos ahead. We are the second truck to arrive, and we see two rhinos just where the shrubs begin. They are quite large, dark gray, and they slip in and pitot the shrubs. We see a total of four rhinos, some only for a moment, but one stays in the sun and gives us a beautiful side view so we can see the massive horns. Sammy says this maybe a family group. It is hard to believe that anyone would want to kill such a magnificent animal. Suddenly, from the left, we see a group of 12 people on horseback, and as they move forward, they seem to be frightening the zebras and wildebeests ahead of them. A ranger in a truck who is nearby takes off and intercepts them, stopping them and turning them around. But their forward movement was enough to scare the zebras and wildebeests right in front of us, and they run, full out, some of the zebras bucking as they run. What a glorious sight.

We go back to the site where we saw the cheetah earlier, and it is still there, laying down just in front of a group of shrubs. The ride is now very bumpy, and one of the other trucks is briefly stuck in the mud. Soon we’re in a drier area, and we see a Crested Eagle in a tree, with a black body, white legs, yellow rains, white beak, and piercing yellow eyes. A short ways away is a Fish Eagle in the very top of a tree, with something in its mouth, perhaps making a nest. Back on the road, we go a distance, seeing giraffes, wildebeests, antelope, and zebras in abundance.. We come to a tree and Marilyn spots something white hanging down, which turns out to be a dead gazelle, likely stashed there by a leopard, though we do not see the leopard.

We start to head toward our lunch spot, and see about a dozen vultures circling something in the distance. We come to a Maribou stork and some vultures are eating a wildebeest carcass, which we can smell from the car, and several vultures perch on a nearby tree. A group of 12 giraffes amble by in the distance, eventually crossing in front of and behind us. I continue to marvel at how many animals come really close to our truck: giraffe, lion, zebra, elephant, wildebeest. A few times they are ambling along and as the truck approaches, they accelerate up the small embankments on the side of the road cut (really just two tire tracks, not a real road). Once a group of elephants are crossing the road, Sammy slows down, all of them cross except one, who trumpets at us as she turns away from the road, then crosses behind us.

After a quick stop at the pit toilet near a hippo group, we see a few lionesses in the far distance, spotted by Sammy who has very sharp eyes. As we continue on, the vista is all wildebeests and zebras and impalas, mile after mile before the flat horizon. Nothing can compare to the scope of this.