Africa - Day 2

July 24 - We woke up pretty early, showered and went down to breakfast.  It was a buffet and had a lot of choices – yogurts, bread, oatmeal, fruit, grilled tomatoes, bacon, ham, sausages, eggs, and beans.  It all looked and tasted great!  However, little did we know that this would be pretty much the standard breakfast meal for the next 10 days...

Breakfast buffet

Getting fat already

We enjoyed it nonetheless and the coffee was very good as was to be expected.

After breakfast, we met the tour operator organizer, Daniel, and our driver for the next 5 days, George.  They gave us a brief overview of what to expect and Daniel left us and we were on our way.

We drove through Nairobi for a bit before heading out on the open road.  While much of the scenery is beautiful, once out of Nairobi, there is  no mistaking that you are in a Third World country.

Kenyan countryside

Almost all advertising is painted onto the side of stores

Shopping in Kenya

We stopped off at a curio shop overlooking the Rift Valley, where another ritual of the safari began.  Bathroom stops always coincided with a curio shop.  How convenient!  The curio shops were ridiculously overpriced even after bargaining down some items to 1/3 of the original asking price.  We ended up only buying two items from a curio shop during our entire trip.  The rest we bought from individual vendors selling at the entrances to some parks.  This was more fun since the bargaining was more personal and we could barter some items (pens, pencils, candy) to trade.

The Rift Valley (in the distance)

It was a long drive down a bumpy and dusty road to get to our hotel in the Masai Mara Game Reserve.

We got to the Mara Sopa Lodge a little before lunch and walked around a bit to stretch our legs before eating.

Ouch

Lunch was also a buffet and, again, we would see most of the same items at every lunch: beef stew, beans, baked chicken, fried or baked Victoria Perch (fish), stewed carrots, peas, and broccoli/cauliflower, various breads, a couple of soup choices, fruit and an Indian dish of some sort.  It was almost always very tasty but the lack of variety was a little tiring.

We went on our first game drive after lunch and got to see a TON of animals: zebras, wildebeests, gazelles, water buffalo, impalas, giraffe, topis, ostriches, a cheetah and lions!

Wildebeest

Impala

Lion...duh!

Water buffalo

Thomson gazelle

Giraffe

Herd of buffalo

Here is the thing about these safaris... the pictures make it seem like you are out there by yourself but the reality, especially with big cat sightings, is this:

There is a lion somewhere in there

We also were lucky enough to see a pair of lionesses lounging around after eating some zebra.

Dinner

Food coma