Masai Mara - day 2

Its rather cruel to have to wake up at 4am when on holiday, but, it had to be done as we needed to get to another camp by sunrise as that is where we were to board the hot air balloon for our flight over the plains of the Mara. The conditions were good and there were three balloons flying today, each one carrying 16 people. We were up and drifting along by sunrise, and it was beautiful to watch the sun come up and the sky change colour from the elevated position of the balloon. We drifted along at a low level so that we could easily see the animals below, and we were just above the tree tops so it was incredible to look down on to the raptors sitting on the tree tops. I have added a photo of a similar balloon taken from our balloon.

The flight was for about an hour, and after a bit of a bumpy landing where we bounced over a few termite nests, we were collected by a vehicle and taken to a lovely spot in the open grasslands where we had a champagne breakfast. The hordes of wildebeest walking past us was quite a sight - this spot was near the Mara river so there are many wildebeest at the moment due to the migration from the Serengeti. We met so many interesting people at breakfast, from all over the world and some who even used to live in our same village, isn’t it a small world. 

Today is Adam’s birthday but we are having a problem trying to phone him as we don’t have any signal here and the wifi signal is patchy. He was with friends today and we did manage to get a message to him.

This camp is lovely, it consists of 6 tents which are described at luxurious - they come with huge beds, proper bathrooms and flushing loos - but here they use bucket showers which took some getting used to. A bucket shower means an askari literally fills a bucket of hot water which is poured into a container from which one draws a shower - one bucket is usually shared by two people so showers are not lengthy things (I am looking forward to my lovely bathroom and big bath at home….) The tent is beautifully decorated and very comfortable, and is well placed in a good conservancy which generally means better sightings as the number of vehicles at a sighting are limited. The camp is not fenced so animals can wander through if they want - we have to be escorted to our tents after dark by an askari. The giraffes in the extra were outside our tent today, and we usually go to sleep with the sound of the hyenas whooping outside. 

This afternoon when we set off for our game drive, our guide Nelson (picture of him added as extra) got a message on the radio that a leopard had been sighted. We decided to drive to where the leopard was even though it was quite far away, as we were very keen to see a leopard. When we got there she was sleeping in a tree, and so we sat below the tree and waited for her to wake up…and waited and waited. Patience is key with viewing animals! I managed to get a shot of her through all the branches which is my blip, and by the time she came down it was already getting dark so it was impossible to get any decent photos of her. However, it was wonderful to see her walking past the vehicle and calling for her cub, even if it was just too dark to get a shot.

We got back to the camp just before 8pm, time for a quick bucket shower and then a delicious curry dinner. Now off to bed as we have a full day out tomorrow - we are leaving at 6am as we are going to the Mara River to see if we can see any of the wildebeest crossing due to the migration. It will be a long day, usually its about 12 hours out. This trip has been so exciting and interesting but it has been tiring with all the early mornings and full days with very little down time. Its amazing how tiring it is sitting in a safari vehicle all day!