Masai Mara Safari

Last Sunday morning (June 6th) we were picked up by George, our driver from Basecamp Masai Mara. George is the same driver / guide that took our friends John, Erin and Kim out to Masai Mara for their safari, so we knew we were in good hands. (He told us to give you guys his regards!)

Anyway, George drove us about 5 hours southwest of Nairobi to the Masai Mara National Reserve where we stayed for the next three days at a place called Basecamp. We weren’t sure what to expect on arrival, but lets just say it blew everything out of the water. They called our cabin the “Obama” and we were told that it is where our current commander and chief stayed when he visited a few years back. Maybe they tell this to all the wazungu (white folks) but we were certainly impressed with the digs. Looking off the front porch of our cabin we could several different kinds of antelope as well as a crocodile 50 yards away in the river below.

Over the next three days we were well taken care of by the staff at Basecamp. The food was by far some of the best we’ve had and we took full advantage of the coffee that was provided.

However, as awesome as staying at Basecamp was, the real highlight was the game drives which we made in the morning at 6:30 am and in the afternoon around 4:00 pm. It is like our friend Kim says, “Safari is magical.” Our list of highlight experiences includes:
· A family of giraffes running across the road on the way to Masai Mara
· A huge crocodile behind our cabin
· Herds of gazelle, buffalo, antelope and other grazing animals
· Several different birds of prey
· Juvenile elephants trunk wrestling
· Sunsets and sunrises over the rolling plains
· Hippos thrashing through the brush near our cabin late at night
· Male and female lion on their week long honey-moon
· Cheetahs… hunting, eating a gazelle and cheetah cubs playing.