Kenya – Part 2 | Cruise Boy

I woke up early so we can be at the gate of the actual Masai Mara Nature Reserve as the sun was rising. However, not as early as the folks doing the sunrise balloon ride – they had to leave at 4:45am. Yikes.

April is the most early in the year that I’ve visited the Masai Mara. It’s so much more green. On the other hand, all the grass is so much taller and always getting in the way of my pictures! We didn’t see as many giraffe as yesterday, but this fellow was very interested in us.

I finally got a good angle on a topi. I remember previous guides calling it a “cowboy antelope”, since it wears blue jeans.

We were caught off guard a little when an elephant pushed its way thru the bush. The first of our “big five.”

Then a small family of warthogs dashed across the open and jumped into a shallow den.

A pair of hyena crossed the road we were on as they were following a pair of cheetah. More about the cheetah later.

Our second big five was confirmed when we found a small herd of buffalo.

Rapidly followed by our next score card: three napping lions. Our guide pointed out this was likely a mom and two of her daughters. Seems mom was pregnant again.

We then enjoyed breakfast out on the savanna. I don’t expect to be able to see the other two of the “five”: leopards and rhinoceros. We are only in the bush 2 1/2 days, what can you do? I drowned my sorrows with more pictures.

Our guide took us to the local hippo river. They mostly stayed underwater.

Someone spotted a crocodile on the beach, hiding from the hippos.

We finished our morning game drive with the classics: elephant and zebra.

OK, about those cheetahs. Our guide said it is unusual to see adult cheetahs together, so they are likely a mating pair. We caught up to them twice, but that annoying tall grass kept getting in the way. You’d be surprised how well grass can camouflage something that is orange with spots. However, I did get a few clear shots.