I didn't make it to "The Mara" in 2007, so Anne & I had counted our shillings in anticipation of this finale weekend. It was spectacular. The views, both in the presence of the abundant wildlife and with that of the horizon alone, were uniformly breathtaking. We had a wonderful time, some of which was spent not viewing our surroundings through a 3-inch camera screen. A collection of more than 1,100 pictures from the group says otherwise.
We traveled with a group of six, all students fresh off matching at their residency of choice & myself, fresh off Anne matching at my residency of choice. Our travel agent, driver & guide Eric is on the left... with Jason, Molly, Rozi, Dave & Anne up top.
The Big Five includes lion, elephant, cape buffalo, leopard & rhinoceros... We saw so many of the first three that we were passing them by in search of newer sightings on our fourth and final game drive. A game drive consists of sitting or standing in the above pop-top mini-bus and looking out. Just looking and looking. I somehow came to believe that leopards were to be found in the trees. Even hours after leaving the park, I couldn't keep myself from eyeing the contours of individual branches of trees, searching for a dangling tail or spotted fur. The elephant in the foreground is right-tusked, as he or she has worn the right tusk down with use.
I am still completely fascinated by giraffe. They have only seven cervical vertebrae like you and me... as well as a long, black tongue.
Our two guides were a mysterious duo for most of the weekend, stopping, looking through binoculars and talking rapidly in Swahili, never really filling us in on their safari guide ways. On one occasion, someone picked up the word "simba" as we rolled in amongst some bushes. As the van passed within three feet of the male lion in the twosome, he stood up and took a few steps away. We gasped & lunged toward the far side of the van, only to creep back to the glass and stare, stare, stare. We were close enough to see the bugs crawling on the female's belly. We speculated that those same bugs were the cause of the male's disinterest in her affection.
There are several hundred more where those came from and time in the coming days to sort through them all, posting only the finest, of course. Hyena, hippos, wildebeest, hartebeest, topi, two species of gazelle, zebra, baboon, vervet monkey, warthog, mongoose, a cerval cat and various birds, the largest shown below.
The game drives either began with a sunrise or ended with a sunset. I have plenty to get done before we leave Eldoret tomorrow afternoon, and I have just now sat for at least fifteen minutes, completely incapable of making the difficult decision of which picture of the sun rising or setting over the Masai Mara to choose.
We now have one day in Eldoret, one day in Nairobi, one day in the air and another day in Providence before getting back to work at the Miriam. I expect we'll continue to reflect on the past two months in the days & weeks ahead... mixing in the more mundane tasks of buying a home in Providence and a dog to put in it. We are sad to leave but excited to get home.
Usiku njema,
Joe
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