Maasai Mara

After a semester of resisting, I finally went to Maasai Mara for my first safari. Nine of us were picked up after Swahili class on Fri morning and drove all day, getting to the game park around 3pm. We drove around for a few hours and immediately saw lions, ostrich, wildebeests, impalas, gazelles, and giraffes. We headed back to our camp for dinner, where we met two hilarious, old drunk Dutchmen. They barely spoke English but they were very jolly and silly, and it turns out they live on our street in Nairobi!

The next day we left for a 6:30-11am game drive and saw a rhino (really rare, since there are only 5 in the whole park) and a parade of elephants marching up a nearby hill. We saw more lions and tons of tourists zooming around with their binoculars and safari hats (of course, I wore my hat as well, but it’s ok because I’m not a tourist, right?). We then went on an evening drive until 7pm and followed a cheetah and her cubs as they hunted a gazelle. But in the end the cheetah couldn’t hunt, because the safari vans invading their space and alerting their prey. We were pretty upset about—I noticed that most of the Kenyan drivers and European/Asian tourists were anxious to get as close as possible to the animals, regardless of their disturbance, while we Americans felt guilty and preferred to stay back and not interfere with the wild.

cruising the game park before sunrise

my roommate Megan

one of the local Maasai

 the giraffe running away- it looked so ridiculous

The next morning we did see the cheetah hunt, almost by chance. The cheetah was sitting alertly in the grass with her cubs about ten feet behind her. Then out of nowhere, she began sprinting at some trees. Suddenly a herd of gazelle emerged out of the trees and there was a big cloud of dust as the cheetah pounced. There was no blood or drama—it was done in a few seconds. Then the cubs bounced happily over to her to take part in the feast.

I’m really glad I went, especially since I got really good rates for being a resident. It was so great to have a weekend getting to know the other AU Abroad girls, and I’m sure it looked ridiculous to have a little safari van packed with nine hyper American girls (most vans had 1-4 tourists in them). We got back on Sunday afternoon and I caught up on homework. The nice thing about this semester is I have a lot of flexibility, so I’m able to travel but still get my work done.

toasting with tea on our last night