August 11 – OMG!
We left on our first game drive from Siana Springs around 8 AM assuming we would see some animals. We didn’t prepare ourselves for what we saw! We drove for about 30 minutes to get into Masai Mara National Park and then we saw some buffalo and a few giraffes grazing in a field. As we began to get into the guts of the park we saw wildebeest and zebra for as far as the eye could see. By the end of the day we assumed that we had seen tens of thousands of these animals. It was like an ocean of animals stretching for as far as the eye could see.
Not only did we see wildebeest and zebras (there are supposedly 1.4 million wildebeest and 500,000 zebras making the crossing this year) we saw so many other animals. We saw two sets of lions, male and female. The first set had just killed a wildebeest that was sitting in a field half eaten. The guts of the wildebeest were leaking out of the carcass that was very fresh. The second set of lions was scared from their resting place and I was able to get close to 100 pictures of the male lion on a 10 minute stroll. That was amazing!
We also saw cheetahs twice, the second time it was a mother with 4 baby cubs. We saw elephants and ostrich and so much more. 
But the thrill of the day was catching a small heard of wildebeest crossing the Mara River around 3 PM. Most people in the camp said you very rarely get to see an actually crossing, and we got it on our first day! Our driver, David, was extremely patient and he was very good at trying to go to a place that no one else was at where some animals might cross. You can’t imagine what it was like in the areas that were obvious for crossing. There were over 50 vans in this one area and the animals were scared away from crossing the river because of the people. That is sad.
The only down side to the day was the 10 hours we spent in the bush pig. All in all it was an amazing day. We are up this morning at 5:30 AM for a 6 AM exit from the camp. We should be back by lunch and then we will do a sundowner tonight. We scheduled a balloon ride for our last morning here, which should be amazing.
‘Til next time …….
Larry Kesslin 