I love animals

This past weekend I went to the Masai Mara to do a little safari for the weekend. You know, no matter how many times I go to game parks and see animals, I really never get tired of seeing them. You would think it would lose the novelty, but that never happens.

So a group of us (Michael the intern, Mike MacHarg, Andrea, Shannon, and Melissa) left on Friday via prop plane. Let me just say I am not a fan of the prop plane. I am not a huge fan of flying, let alone getting into a little puddle jumper and trusting that the pilots have no desire to die. Of course we get on the plane and a woman tells me that the airline we are flying (Air Kenya) has one of the worst records in all of Africa. Great, thanks for sharing.

We arrive in the Mara around 4pm, Shannon and Mike having taken the earlier flight. We are picked up by the Intrepids folks (the tent camp where we are staying), and immediately go out on safari. Have to take advantage of the daylight hours I suppose. And it was a good thing we went out, we were able to spot a cheetah, some lions, an elephant, a sable cat (not sure exactly what that is, but it was pretty), and assorted deer-like animals. As the sun set, we headed back to the camp. The camp itself was a lot like a place I stayed with Emily when she and I were in Kruger. It was sort of a luxury tent camp. The tents were huge, with running water (hot), and lights, nice beds, etc. I bunked with Andrea, who is the other Accenture intern working on a PEPFAR project. That evening we had some yummy dinner and drinks, and then called it an early evening because of the day that awaited us on Saturday.

You know, when you are on vacation, even if it is just for a weekend, it is no fun to have to get up at 6am. Even if it is to go and see animals. But, the early bird catches the worm, or in our case, the early muzungu (which is me - the white person) catches the lions with their babies eating a zebra. It was so amazing, the little lion cubs had these huge bellies from all of the food they had eaten. We must have watched the lions for a good hour, and then we saw some elephants, some wildebeests, another cheetah, more lions, so many animals, I just cannot remember everything we saw. We ate breakfast in the middle of the park, we just sat down in the middle of some wildebeests and ate. Of course I couldn't help myself, I tried to stalk and catch some, but I am just not fast enough.

Anyway, I won't try to write down the entire weekend, suffice to say that I saw some amazing animals throughout the rest of the weekend (including the wildebeest migration across a river including 2 being eaten by crocs, and loads of hippos, even hippos having sex! naughty hippos!), loads of relaxation, sun, food, and good times with new friends. An amazing adventure.

Up next . . . camel derby!