Arriving in Masai Mara

Elissa and I spent last Thursday night packing for our three days in Masai Mara. I borrowed enough long-sleeved shirts and jackets to layer up for the cool mornings and evenings, we brought boggle and scrabble and made sure our cameras were fully charged. We were ready.

We took a short flight on a 20-seat plane and landed at Keekorok Airport in Masai Mara, essentially a “natural” runway in the middle of a gorgeous landscape. We were picked up by Edward, our guide, and met a lovely Swiss couple who would be our safari companions for the weekend. Our vehicle was a land cruiser with open windows and sunroof, meaning that there was no glass at all. We could stand on the seats and pop our heads out of the sunroof to get an unobstructed view of the plains and watch for animals (confession: I was horrible at spotting animals…I had some luck with giraffes, which are so tall and awkward they are practically begging to be spotted).

After arriving at the camp, where Elissa and I bunked in a tent next to a lake, we had lunch, looked around, and geared up for our first game drive. Edward took us out around 4 p.m. and about 20 minutes into our drive we came across an elephant that walked right in front of our jeep! As I was trying to take pictures I got a message on my camera saying my memory card was full. Oops! I frantically deleted pictures (all of them were already on my computer) and was free to take pictures of every animal that crossed our path after that. We saw lots of zebras, and while we all know they are black and white striped, the strangeness of their markings doesn’t seem apparent until you see them in their natural surroundings. Their stripes look almost painted on! How do these animals survive in the wild – don’t they stand out? I learned that they move in packs and because their stripes tend to blend together, it is hard for predators to tell one from another and go after one particular zebra. I quickly learned how to spot a Topi gazelle (look for the dark blue markings on its reddish-brown body) and the smaller, leaner Thompson gazelle (a black striped marking across its lower side or flank). The sunset was gorgeous and I ended our drive wondering why I hadn’t come sooner…