Kenya

June 14, 2023 Hailey Pryor

From June 11th to June 14th, 2023

Day 1

We flew into Nairobi from Frankfurt, Germany. Once in Nairobi, we flew another airline to make it to the Maasai Mara Reserve. In total, we took about 4 flights and the total travel time was about 1.5 hours.
We landed and were picked up in a typical safari style SUV; the drive from the landing strip (not an airport) to the lodge was about 40 minutes.
We checked into Angama Mara in Maasai Mara Nature Preserve and we were blown away at the facility on top of the mountain top. The view of the Maasai Mara was incredible and we could pretty much see The Big 5 from the patio of the hotel.
We went out for safari after lunch at saw: a black mamba snake, hyrax, giraffes, elephants, baboons, colored lizards, zebras, giraffes, cows, buffalo, impalas, zebras, warthogs, cheetahs, and lionesses.
Midway through our safari, around 6pm we watched a cheetah take down an antelope. From the time we started tracking the cheetah until the actual kill was about 45 minutes. Once she made the kill, her cheetah juvenile offspring came to help feast on their dinner meal.
That night the hotel set up a candle light dinner in the woods on their property. We had a BBQ style dinner at the family style tables and it was a great start to our first day in Kenya.

Day 2:

We woke up with a knock at the door at 4:30am, left the room by 4:50 for coffee, and left the resort at 5am for the trip to out hot air balloon ride.
Halfway through the drive we picked up somebody around 5:30 to escort us further into the park and to the balloon area.
Made it to the balloon around 5:45 for a 6:15 balloon departure. Our captain was Ray from Toronto Canada. The flight was about an hour and we were with 6 other people in the basket with us. While flying, we saw crocodiles, elephants, pride of lions, hippos, giraffes and more.
After a beautiful hot air balloon ride over The Mara River and a ‘bumpy’ landing we drove to a picnic area that the group had set up for us to enjoy a little breakfast. We enjoyed fresh eggs, pancakes, yogurt, fruit, avocado and a champagne toast to cheers an event filled morning and safe landing.
After breakfast we hopped back with our guide, Eki, and within 10 mins stumbled upon honeymooning lions. Waited about an hour for them to engage in their mating act (they’re supposed to ‘jiggy jiggy’ every 20 minutes or so).
We later saw: more lions, cheetahs, a solo hungry looking lion, and a whole a pool of hippos
That night the hotel put on a cocktail party that included a traditional song and dance by the locals in the area. Hailey and Julia joined in on the action once they were invited up to dance.

Day 3

Our final day in The Mara started with a visit to the local womens craft center to see what unique hand made gifts we could find. After picking up a number of beaded pieces, bracelets, rings, and more, we continued our day to try and track more animals until our flight. We tracked a few rhinos for an hour, but didn’t get a chance to see them as we had to head out for our flight.
We made it to our flight around 11am to fly from the Mara to Nairobi, then down to Kigali, Rwanda on Air Kenya.

Next time we visit we plan to check out:

Words/things learned:

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