Masai Mara Reserve – Day 1

Whilst being on safari and seeing all this exciting animals you should never forget how important good light is to take a nice photo. This giraffe didn’t move one step, it’s just us changing the position…

Even though the afternoon drive of our arrival day was rather an easy one we still got to see some lovely things

as well as a spectacular African Python and some guys you better not make angry.

In the evening rather than starring on their mobile phones people spend the time sitting at the bonfire and chat about God, the world and a lot about culture.

A completely different thing was our first day. The morning drive started with a spectacular sunrise.

Followed by some lions who had just finished their morning meal, only some jackals were still nibbling on something.

Directly after and just before breakfast

we’ve found my big highlight, Imani with her four cubs of about 5 weeks, all playing around in the bush; absolutely impossible to photograph, but great to watch.

Afterwards we decided to go into Talek Area to try our chances with the five brothers, the five musketeers or the Tano Bora, the special five as the locals call these five cheetah brothers who are ruling the Mara. With the flooded roads and the impossible river crossing we unfortunately had to leave the park, drive through Talek and reenter through Talek Gate.

Since these famous Cheetahs were seen earlier the day we knew which area to search and found them almost immediately, unfortunately sneaked deeply into the shade of some bushes.

Ah, with so much excitement in such a short time I almost forgot the two male lions, Kaka and his brother, who were lying in the shade.

Next stop was a bushy area next to a river. Searching around Paschar, the Askari from our camp, who joined our drives in addition to our guide suddenly leand wide out of the window, almost crawling into a bush, where he’s spotted a half eaten prey, the prove that there was a predetor around. Having enough patience to seek even when everyone else (well, the one other car) left, we’ve spotted the most elusive cat of the Mara on the other side of the river, a leopard, Luluka with her two month old cub.. The were playing around, drinking and tried to cross the river bed in one jump, which caused the cub an unwanted bath. Afterwards, the mom laid down in the shade whilst the sweet fur ball showed some acrobatics by climbing a dead branch, going further to thin branches and sliding or falling down, just to start the whole game anew. A sighting to die for.

Well, it has been an unexpected long and spontaneous day with a skipped lunch and so we decided to head back to the camp to give our brains time to digest this unbelievable amazing day!