Air Balloons & the Masai Mara- Could It Be Better?
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2006
1
2
9
Trip End
Sep 29, 2006
Where I stayed
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
Sunday, September 10, 2006
The Masai Mara is one of the best known and most popular parks in all of Africa. It is probably best known for the wildebeest migration which we only had a chance to capture a small glimpse of.
The park was established as recently as 1961 to protect wildlife from hunters. What a wonderful experience we had seeing cheetahs (a mother with her five cubs), lions, elephants, giraffes, cape buffalo, hyena....practically anything you can think of. You are virtually guaranteed seeing all of the Big Five! This portion of our trip was especially wonderful as we also took our first hot air balloon ride and were able to see wildebeest, although not a major herd, in their migrations. It was probably one of the most exhilarating experiences we've ever had and despite my concern that we'd get vertigo, we didn't! ....shades of the film Out of Africa...
We visited a Masai Mara village which was an interesting experience as we were to be charged $20 for the privilege of walking around. We refused as it was included in a later part of the trip. The visit was brief although the villagers still attempted to sell us lots of souvenirs.
Also, I was able to hold a tiny, days old leopard cub which had been found by a villager and possibly abandoned by its mother. It was about to be sent on its way to a special center to care for orphaned animals.
