16th – The long drive and the great reward

Our gigantic land cruiser was due to pick us up at 06:00 this morning, so I got up at 05:00 (just about managed) to have breakfast and what I suspected would be my last shower until Monday.

It was still dark outside as the eight of us awaited collection. The eight of us being myself, English Sarah, Katharine, Layla, Hannah, KA, English Jenny and American Jenny. All of us yawning from the lack of sleep.

We got into the cruiser, driven by a guy called George, and were on our way to Masai Mara. The views were stunning for most of the five-hour trip and George gave us a short commentary on every town and place of interest we drove by. The view of the Great Rift Valley was the best. In the Kenyan middle-of-nowhere, the poorly surfaced roads disappear; dusty, over-used tracks in their stead, and the driver kept opening his window and letting the dust in for reasons unbeknownst to me. I had to tie a cloth over my face to stop me from having to eat dirt for the entire trip.

We arrived at the camp just before they served lunch. I got a tent to myself (not really a tent as it had a thatched roof over the top and a stone bathroom built onto the back of it), the only one with a double bed. Swish. The camp’s quite small so we share it with only one other tour group who keep themselves to themselves.

Shortly after lunch, we went on a three-hour game drive into the park, stopping to look at and photograph the ten-a-penny mara fodder such as antelope. I was extremely happy with myself for spotting the two lionesses lying at the side of the road, obscured by long grass and overlooked by everyone else. Within fifteen minutes there were a whole crowd of tour vans parking to see my find. We also saw a lot of giraffe and English Jenny spotted some elephants, which took us ages to get close enough to. She also spotted a huge tortoise that we photographed for about ten minutes before any of us realized it was merely a large piece of wood.

We saw a couple more lionesses with some difficult-to-spot cubs, which at least sounded adorable, before we headed back to camp. We drove through a small town on the way back, as we were looking for a shop to stock up on supplies. The shop was closed, but I did spot a building sporting a sign “Mara Hotel and Butchery” which I found hilarious and a great idea for a horror film. If only I’d thought to get a photo of the place.

Back at camp we had dinner and chatted for a while. There really isn’t much to do here, so I began to write this post that I am only just finishing on Monday. (They only had the electric generator running between 19:30 and 21:30 everyday, so no light to write by later in the evening.)

Can’t wait for tomorrow, when we’ll see the pandas, kangaroos and penguins. I've given up on posting photos. It takes far too much grief and hassle here.