Maasai Mara

I finally returned to Kenya the end of February.  A friend from my church in Oklahoma traveled with me, which was a new experience for me.  For 10 years, I have traveled back and forth between Kenya and the U.S. by myself.  I have always believed a shared experience is a richer experience, and it turns out that traveling internationally falls into that category!

My friend's name is Zula.  She was wonderful and enjoyable -- a very good combination.  I will be sharing more about our two weeks together in future posts, but for today, I will share our wonderful time in the Maasai Mara.

Another missionary friend, Joanna, and her guest, Debi, joined us for a two day trip to the Mara. We sat and watched this group of elephants for a long time.  Its so fascinating to see them in their natural habitat.  We were close enough to hear them chew!  If you look closely, you can see the legs of another elephant behind the bush.

Cape Buffalos are not pretty animals, per se, but they are massive and can be quite mean and aggresive if they feel threatened.

We got to the Mara River and met with a Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) Ranger who took us to the river to view hippos and crocodiles.  Along the way we came across hippo footprints.  This is Debi's foot beside this print showing you the size comparison.

This crocodile was about 7 feet in length.  We were happy he was across the river!

After we got back to our tour van and started driving away, this hippo was seen just beside the road.  He probably came up out of the river we had just been walking beside.

I get a thrill every time I see a giraffe.  They are just so graceful and elegant looking.  All four of us had cameras and choosing only one picture to put on this post was difficult.

Impala's were plentiful.  We enjoyed every group we saw.

The rhino is becoming so rare to see, so when we drove up to this black rhino, we felt blessed indeed.  Poaching is a huge issue for these magnificent animals and their numbers are shrinking at an alarming rate.

These naughty little monkeys are fun to watch, but a pain to be around when you are trying to enjoy a picnic!

Our driver/guide, pointed out this leg hanging out of a tree.  When a leopard kills an animal, he drags it up into the tree to eat to keep it away from other predators.  I guess he got full before he finished his meal.

In the ten years I've been in Kenya, I have never seen a leopard until this trip.  We were so thrilled when our driver took us to see this incredibly beautiful animal. 

We were so blessed to see lions on this trip.  Three different prides on three separate games drives.  In all, we saw 41 lions!  It was amazing.  On the last day, we saw them in action as they were stalking their prey.  But they are very patient, and our driver said we had to go after about an hour of watching because it could easily be several more hours before they actually made their move.  We were disappointed, but understood that we needed to move on.

This next picture is out of order as it belongs with the first picture, but I wanted to include this baby with his mother.  They are so much fun to watch.

There are so many pictures I didn't include.  With a slow internet connection, it takes a lot of time to upload pictures.  So I hope you enjoyed what I did include.  I feel so blessed to live here, doing what God called me to do, but also in a position to enjoy His creation!