Quick breakfast, in a hurry after delayed start, with everyone pitching in so we could start game spotting.
We saw Masai giraffe, cape buffalo and Grant's zebra, that created a psychedelic wall mural propped against the natural greens and browns, even before we entered Masai Mara National Park proper.
What an extraordinary reserve: a haven for mobs of topi (tall and majestic russet antelope), pretty-faced Thompson gazelle (flashes of fawn slashed with black and white, dashing across the grass or grazing) and regal waterbucks with beautifully marked faces and shaggy grey coats; a lone female lion, moving away from us, heavy with cub; dozens of grey warthogs with tusked heads erect, strutting through the grasses away from us, often with young warthogs trotting along behind; old striped jackals; a pair of beautiful crowned cranes , their yellow crests like gladiator helmets; several flocks of storks, the black and white males standing out beside the dull brown females as they danced and ruffled their wings; statuesque red Angolan impala (Ton and Gary insisting they were Grant’s gazelle) with twirled horn; white bearded wildebeest whose shaggy heads and chests appeared way too big for their powerful but hairless bodies; huge herds of dark grey Cape Buffalo, their heads heavy with judges-wig horns curling on each side; hippopotamus, grunting and snorting from the depths of wallows, eyes and ears twitching at us; crocodiles sunning themselves on the sandy banks or in the river, only their eyes and noses visible; spotted hyena, their cowed, sly countenance perfect for their scavenging, thieving natures, a massive red male – I couldn’t believe his size, at first thinking it was a lion – and smaller, shaggy grey young; huge herds of Masai and Ugandan giraffe, from gold to chocolate and with variously shaped spots separated by clean-edged stripes and smudges, all blinking long lashes at us from metres up, their heads and necks moving behind a stand of trees as if Hollywood cutouts on rollers; the elongated blur in the grass of a single mongoose; huge pale Kongoni hartebeest; a handsome immature male lion with only a short red shagginess around his head, just softening the outline, rather than the grandeur of a mane, that moved from his original resting spot to a quiet bush, from where he watched us as intently as we watched him.
We lunched at Keekorok Resort, where the rich people stay - $200 for one hour in a balloon and private views around the park. Admired the impressive smorgasbord before lunching on the resort's soccer pitch with baboons, one of which stole Kelvin's bread.
Our game watching fun continued after lunch and our wish to see elephants was rewarded with herds and herds of pachyderms strung out across the plains, huge grey animals trailed by immature ones and ridiculously cute youngsters, their trunks swaying and reaching out for the grass and leaves. We occasionally saw a lone elephant but always grazing within sight or sound of a herd; they watched us and then quickly sauntered away to the privacy of a bush. Left the park at 6.30pm after a fabulous day and more ivory than we had dreamed of. Would have liked to see more lions but they are more visual when the wildebeest are migrating between the Serengeti and here.
More giraffe, zebra and wildebeest before driving off the rough park "road" through thorn trees to camp. Lions roared as we watched a spectacular sunset paint 6the sky with reds and yellows.
I really felt the theft of my cameras on this day. These images are a mix of postcards and friends' pix.
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