6 of us woke up at 4:30 am (before the electricity or water came on!) for a 5 am pick-up to go ballooning over the Masai Mara! We got to the launch site before sunrise and watched as the balloon slowly filled with air and and elephant followed by a herd of wildebeests marched by. We climbed in the basket while it was still on its side, scooched our butts right down to the seat, then hung on as the balloon lifted us upright so that the older French group could climb in ... they weren't quite as agile as us! We stayed seated for the lift off with our bags on our laps, but as soon as we were airborne, we were standing up leaning over the edge to check out the view.
It was an overcast morning so we didn't get to watch the sunrise and it also meant that I didn't get many good pictures (my camera doesn't do well in low light conditions). But it was still amazing to see the expanse of savannah, the giant herds of wildebeests and zebras heading south, and the incredible amount of poop on the ground! Along with all the wildebeests and zebras, we also saw hyenas, warthogs, elephants, giraffes and lions. The first two lions we saw were sleeping and the another group of four lions (one female and three males) was wide awake and wandering around by the stream. One of the males looked right up at us as if to say "what are you doing up there?" We also got to observe two lions "copulating" ... it only took about 3 seconds!
We had a soft landing and were able to climb up out of the basket while it was upright, then took a group picture with the basket before walking over to where breakfast was set up. There was champagne, orange juice, croissants, apple pastries, fruit, hard boiled eggs, sausages, quiche, yogurt, cereal, and tea and coffee. It tasted great! After we finished eating, our balloon pilot pointed out the lion on the hill behind us. We quickly used the "bathroom" (a jeep with a tarp strung up so no-one could see our bums when we squatted), then loaded into our open sided SUV for the ride to meet up with the rest of the group.
We were expecting just a drive to the meeting spot - we ended up getting a hour and half game drive! Just after leaving the breakfast spot, two male lions walked right past us - it was a bit uncomfortable having a lion less than 8 metres away from me and walking towards me when there was NOTHING between us ... no car door, no window, no fence, etc.! We also saw a lot of cute little baby animals and some vultures tearing apart a wildebeest before meeting up with our group at a fancy lodge in the park.
We continued the game drive with everyone else in the truck, stopping for lunch at the Mara River (the border between Kenya and Tanzania, and the Masai Mara and Serengeti parks). It's one of the spots where the wildebeests and zebras cross the river in their migration, so it smelt a bit like rotting, dead animals, and there was a large group of hippos on the opposite bank so we couldn't go near the water's edge. (There were probably crocodiles there too, but we didn't see any.) It was pretty hot, but we couldn't sit under the trees to eat, because that's where the lunch-stealing monkeys hung out! They managed to get one lady from our group's sandwich and from the shrieks some of the people in other groups were making, probably managed to grab a few more lunches!
We drove a few more hours, bumping down the road (I managed to bash my head pretty hard on the ceiling after one bump!) and adding a mongoose sighting to my list of animals, we were back at camp for our final supper together. We had traditional Kenyan food again, then all had to stand up and make a speech about our experience on the trip. A group of Croatian guys was having a great time watching the spectacle - even turning their chairs to watch! They also asked if they could video us flapping our dishes (the method we used to dry them) ... of course, we were pretty entertaining since we had made up flapping songs to flap/dance to!
No comments:
Post a Comment