Safari. . . . . . . .

My parents and I had the amazing opportunity to go on safari while in Kenya.  Kenya is probably the most well known country in Africa for seeing wild game.  While it would've been nice to actually hunt one of these exotic animals, sport hunting is actually outlawed in Kenya.  But, it was great just to see the animals up close too.  Tenwek Hospital has a relationship with a resort in the Masai Mara, the Fairmont Mara Safari Club.  This is a 5 star resort in the middle of nowhere Africa.  The accomodations were incredible.  Although we stayed in "tents", you can see below that they were much more than that!

Kenya is home to many animals.  We think we saw around 25 different species during our game drives.  The "Big Five" are famous and consist of the Black Rhino, Elephant, Lion, Leopard and African Buffalo.  They're called the Big Five because they are probably the most dangerous and most elusive.  When you come to Kenya, that's what you want to see.  We were able to see 4 of the 5.  We didn't see a lion surprisingly, but we did see a Leopard which is the one that people usually don't get to see.  Below are pics of the 4 that we saw.  I have many more but these are some of the best.

The landscape on the Masai Mara is beautiful.  It's mostly plains for as far as you can see.  There are some hills around and occassional patches of Acacia trees and brush in the areas that collect water.  The Mara River runs through the area supplying much needed water for the animals.  The Masai Mara National Reserve is 580 square miles.  The southern extension of this landscape crosses the border into Tanzania and is known there as the Serengeti. 

We of course saw many other animals other than the Big Five.  Here is just a sampling of the many pictures I took.

There are at least 5 different types of gazelle that live in the Mara.  This pic shows a Thompson Gazelle in the front and a Topi Gazelle in the back.  There are also Grant's and Eland Gazelles and Impala.  

The wildebeest are the dominant inhabitants of the Masai Mara, and their numbers are estimated in the millions. Around July of each year these animals migrate north to the Mara from the Serengeti plains in search of fresh pasture, and return to the south around October. The Great Migration is one of the most impressive natural events worldwide, involving some 1,300,000 wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson's gazelles, 97,000 Topi, 18,000 eland, and 200,000 zebras. 

Didi of course managed to have some fun outside of the game drives.  These Masai men were playing instruments and singing during lunch one day and she started dancing with them.  They loved to see the muzungu (Swahili for "white person") trying to dance!  They were good sports and followed right along.

All in all, the safari was an amazing experience.  I can't wait to bring Mal and the kids next time.