School excursion to masai mara

I visited probably one of the most famous parks in the world, the masai mara. The organisation for which I do the research, organised excursions to the park for school kids, which I joined.

Things happened in a typical African way. We were supposed to leave at 6, we left at 7. Before we reached the park, we had 2 flat tyres, probably they were already flat but nobody checked it the day before. We passed 3 petrol stations and at none of them the air machine was working, so we waited, and waited for someone to fix the machine. We were in the park at 10:30, sigh.

But the masai mara is a beautiful park, I have seen many national parks and game reserves but this park is really something! It has stretched hills and mountains, but there are grassland plains in-between, where plentiful game is grazing. Of course the inevitable zebra's and wildebeest were present too (the masai mara is most known for its wildebeest and zebra migration from the serengeti in the masai mara). We also saw eland, hartebeest, elephant, buffalo, impala, Thomson’s gazelle, baboons and more.

The children where most excited when they saw the lions (2x) while for me the highlight was seeing a cheetah chilling under a tree. When we left the park, the bus was less noisy than the ride towards the park. All the new impressions and animals made sure all the children were tired and half of them were sleeping. We came back in Naikara at 8:30, all tired but satisfied.