Safari Day 6

We had to be up at 5:30 am for the hot air balloon ride. Neither of us got a peaceful night's sleep because we were worried that the wake-up call, my travel alarm clock, and John's alarm we'd set on his mobile would all fail because 1) John wasn't sure if he'd made the wake-up call for 5:30 or 6:30, 2) I kept dropping my alarm clock on the floor when I pulled stuff out of my suitcase and it kept falling apart when it hit the floor, and 3) John went swimming briefly the day before and forgot he had his phone in his pocket, so it got completely submerged and we weren't sure if it worked. But we got the call at the right time and were ready for pickup on time.

The starting point wasn't far away. When we got there they were starting to inflate the first balloon of three. It took about 10 minutes to get the balloon ready for takeoff. While we were waiting I was keeping my eye out for snakes. I didn't see any, phew!

The balloon was really cool. We saw the sunrise from it. We didn't really go too high at any point; we stayed low to have a better chance of seeing animals. We saw two lions walking toward their recent kill. We saw a jackal enjoying his kill. Obviously we saw wildebeasts, as well as buffalo, baboons, zebra, impala, gazelles, and waterbucks. We saw our first reedbucks and four grown topi with four topi babies.

We had what the pilot called a soft landing, but it seemed very hard with a couple of big bumps and a big tilt which seemed like it would topple us. Apparently it's not uncommon for the basket to tip over. I don't want to know what a hard landing is like!

After the ride we were driven to the champagne breakfast. That was good fun, chatting to everyone. Emily doesn't drink but had a couple of glasses of champagne, and she was drunk! That was funny.

They took us on a game drive after breakfast. We were in land rover type vehicles instead of our regular vans, and I sat in the front with the driver. I took the opportunity to ask him if there were many snakes in the Masai Mara, and he said, 'Oh yes! There are vipers, mambas, pythons... all the deadliest ones!' I'm pleasantly surprised we never saw any snakes at all.

That drive was brilliant. It started with a close-up encounter with two cheetahs who were lounging under a bush. Then we saw three sleeping lions and a couple of elephants, one with 'five legs' (he seemed to be very happy to see us). At the end we saw a momma cheetah with 5 little cubs! They were the cutest little fluff balls! She was on the move, so we got to see them jumping along behind her. That was fantastic.

After the drive we laid out at the pool. It was very, very hot, and the pool was really cold. It was so hot though that I actually got in all the way to my shoulders. Very brave!

We could hear the hippos from where we were laying out, and they sounded like they were on the other side of the bushes from where we were. We were able to confirm later, though, that they were pretty far away, just so loud that they sounded nearby.

After the pool we went down to a hut with a bar where we could watch the hippos who were cooling off in a pond and elephants eating plants and trees. We heard later that a lion showed up. The lodge has no fencing, so the animals from the Masai Mara are free to enter as they please. There were also monkeys on the path down to where we were watching the hippos.

On the afternoon drive we saw some elephants with little ones. There were some brush fires we could see in the distance, and Jeffrey said they were happening in Tanzania and were controlled fires to try to control the migration.

We then came across three lions, two females and a male. Jeffrey said they were preparing to mate, so we stayed and watched them for over 1/2 hour to try to see them mate. They never did while we were there, but we did see a lot of foreplay by way of tail flipping, rubbing against each other, growling, and exposing bellies. They were probably smart lions and waited until the last bus had left before mating.

Up in the bushes in the hills we saw a pride of sleeping lions, including several cubs. They were well hidden though, and we didn't get a very good glimpse.

After that we saw a female lion with three little cubs. When we got to the them the female (adult) was on the move, and she came right to our van and then around it. This caused the cubs to follow her, again right in front of the van. They were very cute and playful. It wasn't long until there were at least a dozen vans following them. We decided to move on and found three lions a little way off. Because everyone was still watching those cubs, we got to watch these lions completely on our own. They were out in the open, chilling out, so we got a good view.

From there it was time to head back. We saw 2 jackals who looked like they were going through some mating rituals. We also saw the most gorgeous red sunset on the way home.

After the drive we went down to the hut bar to watch the hippos. There were about 17 of them in the pond. We saw 6 or 7 of them get out andstart grazing once it got dark, including 2 little ones.

The next day was the last day. We were sad to leave, but it was such a fantastic trip that we didn't feel any extra days could have improved it. We drove to Nairobi and hung around the hotel for a few hours before our overnight flight back to London.

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