During the night there were occasionally sounds of various kinds. Apparently some elephants were grazing near the rooms. There was a gorgeous sunrise - sadly I was awake to see it. We had a breakfast buffet which included many fruits. Then it was off to see the animals.

It started with the lions at left. The male limped a bit and they both looked pretty full. We hung around with them for awhile and then headed down to the plains. We saw another lioness up at the top of a hill and there appeared to be several others under a tree nearby but we couldn't get a clear shot of them.

We continued on and saw a large number of wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, gazelle and other assorted animals. In addition, we saw a large number of Vultures of various kinds and an Eland. Eland are very large antelope that look somewhat cow-like. (See right) They tend to be very shy and we only saw a couple of them (individually). They have fairly short, spiraled horns.

We headed back for lunch, which was a buffet. After lunch we headed out again on what was the only disappointing game drive of the trip. We headed off in a different direction than the prior, or subsequent, trips and ended up navigating some truly treacherous...uh, paths. We didn't see any cats, interesting or new animals. We saw a couple of jackal and the usual cat-food. Lots of vultures. Not even any vaguely interesting birds.

We did see a very nice Sunset though. In fact, the sunrises and sunsets at the Mara were all pretty spectacular. We had a bit of a surprise at dinner. It was a 4 or 5 course meal. The only buffet was the dessert bar. I wasn't sure how to react!

After dinner I picked up some film and a couple of small spears in the giftshop. Things were pretty cheap here. We also talked to the balloon pilot who would be taking us for a ride (figuratively we hoped) on the following morning.

< Previous | Next >