Robertsons & Daughters: Maasai Mara African Safari

Tuesday morning we headed out to Maasai-Mara for our first ever safari! It was about a 2 hour drive.

It was neat seeing traditional clay/mud homes of the Maasai people.

They have awesome packing skills!

Tracey and Michelle picked up some snacks for the safari. I thought these were appropriate!

We saw a lot of these "cactus trees" as I call them. Some of them were huge!

Our first spotting right inside the preserve!

It was pretty incredible seeing these animals just roaming around in their natural habitat.

Logan, Amanda, Dave, Mariah, Don & Julie

The Serengeti in Tanzania is the same "reserve/land" as the Maasai Mara. Just the name in Tanzania.

Stopping for lunch! It was weird for us eating cooked meat that wasn't properly refrigerated. I mostly avoided it, but did have chicken one afternoon, but not this day.

So beautiful!

This was really neat. We saw a pride of lionesses. Some were crossing the road.

They were eating something, maybe a warthog? Then the hyenas came in wanting in on the kill. The lionesses growled at them and kept them away for a little bit. But the hyenas were persistent. The lionesses apparently ate what they had wanted. The hyenas enjoyed the scraps. We could hear them even from our van crunching the bones of whatever animal.

Guess what Kenyans usually call a warthog? Pumbaa.

Late afternoon we drove off the preserve to a camp that we would stay at for the night.

Maasai Mara guys. They walk with sticks with them as a weapon/protector to ward off wild animals.

Here is our camp! Camp Oloshaiki!

We saw lots of boran cows!

We were at the camp for about an hour or so to get our stuff put away and take a little break. Then we went back out to the preserve to see the sunset.

We each received a moistened washcloth and a glass of juice upon arrival. We used the cloths to wipe our arms and faces from all the dust. It was crazy how dirty we were!

The huts or bungalows were so cute!

A crazy flood/storm happened a couple weeks earlier and ruined quite a bit at the camp. We were some of their first guests and they were very grateful for our business.

Shanna and Haley had their own hut. Elden was with us.

Love the water bottle holder!

We hung out for a bit and then took off again.

Under the African sky. Wow!

With our awesome driver, Patrick.

Tracy and Julie

Back at the camp we had a very late dinner. We were all so tired! Dinner was good though. After they dropped us off at our hut....or tent? at night we weren't allowed to leave unless we asked a guard to accompany us because of wild animals.

We had a fun surprise waiting for us! Warm waterbottles! It was a fun touch. They even came in and locked up the windows in our huts.

From earlier in the day....

Wednesday morning we went out to Maasai Mara again. First a bit of hanging out and breakfast. Elden had fun seeing the monkeys. It was frustrating....I waited till the morning to take a shower, but the water was cold, but no one told me that they turned the water heater on the last evening. Ugh. That would have been helpful information. I didn't want to take a cold shower, when I could take a warm one back at Camp Madison. So I didn't.

Braiding hair and playing Skip-Bo.

Crazy what the storm did to the bridge!

Back to the preserve!

One of the highlights was coming upon a lion and the lionesses. Wow!

They liked to go sit in the shade, even if it was minimal.

We had some pretty crazy rides!

We came here and saw some hippos!

Haha....lunch not refrigerated....

More tree climbing!

This was a crazy intersection!

My favorite animal to see in Kenya was the zebras. They just look so amazing and other-worldly in real life! And they are just walking around! The wildlife we see roaming is mainly deer and squirrels. Nothing exciting like zebras!

After the safari we stopped at a gift shop. Very fun.

There was a tree full of bird nests. I guess they are called Weaver birds. One was on the ground and Haley brought it home. Pretty neat!

I'm not sure when we had this, but definitely for breakfast. Maybe yesterday before we headed out on the safari? The mimosas--like a spring roll or egg roll. Mandazi was sweet fried bread. So good!