Ashnil Camp Masai Mara day 2

Today was amazing.

We were up at 4am, ready for our early morning cuppa, and then in the vehicles by 5am winging our way across the Reserve to meet our Balloon - yes I am going up in a Balloon - I have not got a head for heights.

Boarded the balloon at 6.10am, our Pilot was Ellie an Australian who works for 6 months of the year in Kenya along with her hubby, then they spend 6 months back in Australia.

The flight in itself was amazing, although we didnt see anything different to what we had been seeing on a Gamedrive, the only difference was, we saw the Sunrise, we saw again Lioness (Yes Karen women again) eating their kill, Giraffe, Elephants and plenty of Wildebeast in fact 1000`s - I enjoyed the flight, but I`ll tick it off my list of things to do, and probably wont do it again.

After our flight they served us with a Bubbly Bush Breakfast - it was very nice, and we all sat and traded our experiences, and found out that the Chinese party was quite merry, as they had substituted their water with Whisky !! Ellie joined us, and filled us in on all the funny stories she had encountered over her years (15) in Kenya, (like Ellie where do they keep the animals at night) then around 9.30am we started to make our our way back to camp, where Douglas was waiting for us, ready to go back out again on an all day Game drive. 10.30am - 6.30pm, he had already collected our picnics, so once we had made our toilet stop we were ready to be on our way.

On our way out we encountered a Lioness with her 3 cubs - cute, during the day we saw the usual animals, Cheetah, Leopard, Wildebeast, and we were lucky enough to see 2 adult Male Lions although they were asleep (Karen I rest my case) until I dropped my camera, and woke one of them up, lots of Giraffes today as well, which was nice, a family with 2 babies around 2 weeks old, we drove along the River and saw a group of Hippo`s these creatures are very camera shy, always seem to be hiding as soon as you pick up the camera, a little further along we bumped into a Crocodile giving us a smile.

Lunchtime was spent under one of the many Acacia trees, always looking out for Predators, I`m sure Douglas wouldnt have stopped there and set out the Picnic if we were in danger, but I felt quite vulnerable.

On our way back to camp around 6pm, we passed by the Lioness and her cubs again, she had made a kill (Wildebeast) and dragged it into the bush to hide it from others, she had made the first incision for her cubs, as their jaws were not yet strong enough, and two of them as you can see, were there munching away at it, the 3rd was lying in the long grass by its mother.

We stayed here for about 30 mins watching their antics, and after some time, they had either had their fill, or they was fed up with trying to chew through the rubbery Intestine, so they decided it was time to get back to the comfort of Mum and nuzzle her and get a drink.

This was the creme de la creme of the whole Safari and finished it off on a high.