The Safari Adventures

Saturday 22^nd July 17

Safari day 1:

Today was the start of our weekend adventure to the Masai Mara. It was an early breakfast, with lots of sleepy faces, then loading the vans up for our safari trip. At first the students were ecstatic at the fact that the seats in our safari vans had arm rests, a few hours in to the journey their delight was less evident. There were a few bumps along the way, involving a little bit of musical chairs with the vans, and an additional car, much to Miss Wilson’s delight, that proved a pretty bumpy ride to say the least. After a slightly longer journey than expected, we made it to our home for the next two nights, a camp site next to the Masai tribe village. We checked in to our camping huts, then left by foot to the Masai Village to meet the tribe. This was a very unique experience for the students who were greeted by the Masaai tribe men to welcome them to their home. The masaai men then performed a dance and jumping demonstration, of which all of the boys were pulled to the front to jump and join in with the performance. We were then led into the village and into some of the Masaai families’ houses. Again, this was an eye opener for many, seeing the basic living conditions. After buying some souvenirs, it was back to the camp for dinner, songs by the fire, and an early night ready for our day on Safari tomorrow.

 

Sunday Safari day 2

Today was a very long day of travelling and excitement. We woke up early to get a longer safari fitted into our day. We arrived at the Maasai Mara National Reserve and waited until we could be allowed in. Tribal women came up to the windows in a hurry trying to sell us more native souvenirs. Within the first five minutes of the journey we saw our first wildebeest, this was a surprise to most of us, and we soon understood that these were the most abundant of the animals. Warthogs were next to be seen, a family of them strolling the African landscape. The driver was listening intently to the radio to know where to go to be able to see our first big cat. In the bushes there were two cheetahs, they were lying down within the bush very well camouflaged. All of our vans gathered around and we all took in the tranquillity of this peaceful animal. 

      

The proximity of the animals was amazing, being in their natural habitat was such a surreal experience. Further into the safari we saw our first buffalo and stripy horses (AKA Zebras). We saw our first giraffe in the distance after this, although it was far away we could still see the patterns of it. A little while after we saw a rock with two lions on it, one female and one male with a large mane. They didn’t seem bothered with us going up to them and snapping lots of pictures. They looked very peaceful lying in the morning heat of the sun, sleeping. Moving on from the lions we travelled further into the African savannah. We saw many more wildebeest and zebras, now less excited about them but more excited to see bigger animals. After travelling more, we encountered a herd of elephants with their calves, they were much bigger than we thought they would be, and much quieter as well. Later we saw some hyenas close to the road in the shade, under the bushes minding their own business. They seemed very calm with us being so close to them. We travelled until we reached the Tanzania-Kenya border which was marked by a stone with T and K written on it. We saw our first vultures flying and relaxing on the ground. Soon after the border, we reached the blood river, we all saw the hippos on the bank and bathing in the water, unaware of upstream there were hundreds of dead wildebeest strewn across the river. 

  

The smell was overwhelming and shocked many of us. Whilst having lunch further away from the river we saw some mongoose running around and a lizard going after them. We then walked along the river upstream seeing more and more crocodiles as we went along. The wildebeest numbers kept increasing and then we reached an even larger group of hippos than the first. We then got into the vans and started our way back to the Mara Sidai camp. On the journey back we encountered more giraffes closer and lots of baboons along the side of the road. 20 minutes before the end we saw two cheetahs after just having killed a wildebeest, they both rested until one started to eat it. This was such a crazy experience as you could never imagine being close to cheetahs eating in their natural habitat. After this long day we all craved our beds and a good nights sleep, In the evening after eating we all gathered around the campfire telling stories about our day and the different adventures we all had.

Monday 24^th- the journey home Safari day 3

 

We started the day off extremely early top see some more animals on the safari. Almost immediately we saw lions and their cubs! They were by far everyone’s favourite animal. The safari this morning was very short compared to yesterday. We saw more of the same big five as before, and went back to camp for some breakfast. The journey back was a very bumpy one to start off with and soon we reached lots of loose mud, 3 vans got through perfectly fine, and then Wilson’s van went through and tipped to the side, leaving us stuck in the mud! After half an hour we were finally free and on our way back to Nakuru in convoy, ready for a big meal.