Last day in the Mara

Today was the first day in a long time that we were able to sleep in past 8am, and after yesterdays insanely long safari adventure, well deserved, in my opinion!  We met up with George for breakfast and we were told he arranged for a local Masai named Solomon to take us up into the hills behind our lodge. It was a great hike and a welcome change from all the driving we've been doing, the views over the plains were fabulous.  We spent quite a long time taking in the view through the lens of our binoculars, watching safari vans drive around and taking note of the locals down below milling about in their everyday fashion.

After listening to George talk endlessly about the local fauna, birds and everything in between both Marlene and I were getting quite tired and a little annoyed with this constant bombardment of information.  Upon returning from our little hike we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, reading, and writing.  A perfect opportunity for me to finally tuck into the bottle of rum I had been carrying around the entire journey!  We had been told the alcohol within the parks can be quite expensive and to bring our own booze, to be honest, we had neither the time, nor the energy to sit back and enjoy multiple drinks per night.  I actually ended up just leaving 3/4 of the bottle for the cleaning staff.

And soon the time had come for our final safari!  It was met with mixed emotions because on the one hand it was kind of sad to be leaving the Kenyan plains, if not for ever, then for a very long time. And on the other hand, a once novel and thrilling experience had began to take on a kind of weary, un-enthusiastic aura. Not to sound like a couple of spoiled brats but we really had seen everything we had come to see and we didn't see the point in going out again.  But alas, we had paid for it and George was gung ho to find us some lions. There were many many grazers lying by the watering hole and Marlene and I would have been just fine to sit there and watch these magical beasts in their natural habitat, taking in all of our surroundings for one last time.  But George was determined, he was going to find us our lion!  For the next 2 hours we drove around in circles attempting to cross a creek, each time we were faced with soft ground, we would have to turn around.  On one of these attempts we found ourselves face to face with a very disgruntled, enormous bull elephant.  He seemed to have been cranky to begin with but our presence in his territory clearly tested his patience as he began to flap his ears and even trumpet his trunk as he slowly began the "charge mode" rituals.  This time I was a bit nervous because we had just climbed up a steep, windy, and narrow road and the only way to evade him was to go back the way we came.  George quickly threw it in reverse, vearing off course in the process.  Luckily we managed to get far enough away from the angry elephant that he decided we were no longer a threat.  We all sat back, caught our breath, and watched/listened as the elephant stormed off in the opposite direction, up rooting trees along the way.  We could still see the trees shaking down in the valley long after he was out of earshot.

The Jackyl

When we retired to bed Marlene and I recounted many of the incredible things we had seen and experienced along our 2 week journey.  We decided that 2 weeks was the perfect amount of time and the we were ready to take on Uganda!  We were very excited for a change of pace, and to meet up with some of Anne's friends who promised to treat us to a night of local Kenyan debotchery! 

View of the Masai Mara from above