SAFARI DAY!!!!!! This post is mostly pictures, but the
morning started off with the girls (the 4 of us are in one room) waking up 5
minutes before we were supposed to leave because Lourine set her alarm for 4:45
pm instead of am. So Wairimu knocked on our door and we flew out of bed, threw
clothes on, went to the bathroom, and were ready to go before the boys.
Naturally, we got the best seats in the safari van… I sat up front next to
Jackson, our (beautifully dressed) Masai safari guide. We were on the road by
5:30, but 20 minutes in, Wairimu realized that she forgot our money to get in
back at the compound (typical of her), so Njau’s van drove back to get it.
While they were gone, we drove around a little and Jackson found us some zebra,
gazelle, impala, and dikdiks, which are like mini gazelle. They’re so tiny and
cute! Finally the other van came back and we made our way to the national park
gates, 2 hours through straight back roads (as in, no roads). On our way, we
got to watch the sun rise over the mountains. which was absolutely
breathtaking, and we saw tons of gazelle. Once we got to the gate, we started
into the grasslands of the Mara. We didn’t really see anything besides gazelle
and wildebeest for a while, so we pulled under a tree, and Jackson basically
turned the van into a breakfast buffet! I couldn’t believe it, the floor in the
backseat slid out, and turned into a table and he pulled out dishes,
silverware, mugs, and tupperware full of sausage, bacon, hard boiled eggs, and
cereal for us to eat. It was so cool! We did the same thing for lunch, but we
had salad, pasta, and chicken. Anyway, after breakfast, we drove deeper and
deeper into the Mara. We saw Ostrich, Warthogs, Wildabeast, Water Buffalo,
Jackals, Hippopotami, and lots of pretty birds. But we still hadn’t seen any of
the Big 5. About 2 hours in, we saw a car parked under a tree so we pulled up
and found a pride of lioness and their cubs taking a nap. They were all half
awake and watching us carefully, checking on their cubs every few minutes. We
stood their and stared for at least 15 minutes... it’s SO cool seeing animals in
the wild when you’ve only ever seen them in captivity or on the TV screen. After a bit, we moved on
and found a hippo, belly up in the middle of the grass. The smell gave it away
instantly, it must’ve been dead 2 days before we got there. It looked like
plastic and it was rotting from the inside out. As we tried to get upwind, we
stumbled upon another pride of lions, this time, 4 males, 1 female, and, as we
soon found out, a little baby cub. Jackson thought that the males must’ve taken
the hippo down a couple of nights ago, because they only leave the water at night and this guy was fried to a crisp.
The males were giant and so
beautiful. We figured they must have already eaten, so after a while, we
started to leave. That’s when we saw the fourth male stand up from behind the
tall grass with the baby. The two of them and the single lioness walked over to
the hippo together and started to eat! As disgusting as it was (they were
eating its rotting stomach), I’ve never seen anything like it besides on animal
shows, and the little one was so cute trying to pounce on it! We stayed for a
while longer, then moved even further into the Mara, where we found an
elephant… FINALLY! He was alone, eating, but a little bit later, we found about
5 other families that we were able to get a little closer to. After that, I was
content, and aside from having to pee worse than I have ever had to in my life
on the way back to the gate, it was a pretty perfect day!
We got back at 5 and had spaghetti and beans and garlic
tortillas for dinner and had the a very memorable last night conversation. Tonya asked each
of us what our favorite experience was and as we went around sharing, I started
to get extremely sentimental knowing that we were going to be leaving. In just a
few short days, we had become like family, our group and Tonya and Linda. I
guess that’s what happens when you’re immersed in the wild with no distractions
and a strong sense of community. I was definitely ready for a shower, but I
wasn’t ready to leave. The day in the bush opened my eyes to a world I never
knew was there, and one I never want to forget. And as we finished up dinner,
Tonya said, “Don’t ever forget the experiences you had in the clinic. Don’t
forget the face of the old woman, stripping down and begging for a massage.
Don’t forget the unbearable heat of the manyattas. Don’t forget the flies
covering the faces of babies. Don’t forget the women carrying enormous loads of
firewood on their shoulders, jugs of water on their heads, babies on their
backs. Just don’t forget.” The whole time I was thinking, “how could I possibly
forget any of it?”, and, as if in response to my thoughts, she continued, “it
may seem too much to forget, but life goes on, things happen. You get busy with
school, work, family, friends, and the more time that passes, the easier it is
to forget. I challenge you to never
forget.” ....Challenge accepted.
So, after 4 days of squatty potties, wild animals, no
showers, dirty feet, beautiful, starry night skies, whipping winds lulling me
to sleep, the 5 second transition from light to dark (and dark to light),
colorful Masai jewelry, late night girl talkssprinting to the outhouse at night so as not to get
eaten by a lion, playing with wild dogs, life lessons/adventure stories from Dr. Tonya, and that giant
African sun, I can confidently say, I will
be coming back.
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