Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Masai Mara

We went for a 2 day 1 night trip to Masai Mara - Kenya's most famous Reserve Park. The story follows below....



On our way there, we stopped by at the head of Mara river with the hopes of seeing hippos and there they were, lazing away in the sun, half submerged in the water!







We arrived at our camp.. it was hidden away in some bushes. There was no electricity so it was pitch dark at night with a kerosene lamp as the only light source. The tent wasn't bad; it was spacious and mosquito proof. The toilet however, was icky..dark and there were insects and ants crawling all over the floor :(












After settling the check-in into the tents, we went to visit a real life Masai village. Here's a picture of the son of the chief Masai.
Masais stay in houses made from cowdung.. it's pitch dark in there even during the day because the window is smaller than the size of your head :P they cook in there, sleep in there, *ahem* in there









Continuing with the safari...
Just around the corner from
our camp were bushes - hideout of a whole pride of lions. We could hear them roaring at night when we took our showers *shiver*


The magnificent male.. look at that mane of hair! He's also a lazy bum who gets the lioness to do his hunting for him



A vulture flying away after it was chased from its lunch.. their take off is cute *run* *hop* *skip* *flyyyy*




Safari sights - Thomson gazelles and wildebeest enjoying the sun. People were actually teaching them how to speak Tamil..hmm.. new language? *hehe*











Wildebeest and zebras lining up in a row - wanna race?












The trees and skies in Africa are absolutely beautiful... the contrasting colours are just wonderful. The blue... green.. *drool*


There are only 3 rhinos left in the whole of the Masai Mara game park so they are watched over by guards and are taken to shelters when night comes. They are quite tame and this is how close we can get to them.


On the way back, our van decided to break down. Apparently the radiator ran out of water and the pipes just disconnected *groan*.. Here, the driver is trying to pour some water into the radiator and it's squirting out like a fountain *die lah*


The driver now decides that he needs a whole bucketful of water to get the van moving again, so off he goes to the nearest river to get water; leaving us stranded beside the road in hyena territory!


These guys were having fun watching us by the side of the road.. they were taking care of cows just across the road. They must be wondering what was going on - are they going to stay?


Flowers by the side of the road.. the leaves of this plant are used as a traditional cure for flu - they smell invigoratingly good


Finally, the van radiator is working and we're on our way. Here's the bumpy road - it was worse than a ride on i-Gallop.. *bounce bounce bounce* don't be fooled by the pretty photo


While we continued on our way, we met the 2nd van which was stuck by the side of the road. The clutch was worn to bits and finally gave up.. the driver of the 1st van had to tow the 2nd van along to get it moving. Considering how dark it was, it was quite a scary ride, but an adventure nevertheless


A beautiful sunset to end a beautiful day..
We finally made it back in one piece, dirty, dusty but happy :)


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