Kenya: Animals in the Wild

One of the main reasons for going to Kenya was to be in the presence of its wildlife, to see in person the animals that, at home, I had only before seen on TV or in the Zoo. I could never imagine what it would actually be like.

We started by leaving Nairobi early in the morning on a Monday. Our driver picked us up from the hotel and we proceeded to go pick up the rest of the group, who we had not yet met. We picked them up and headed to the Safari in Masai Mara (with a few hiccups along the way).

Now, I thought we would be driving around 1 or 2 hours in dirt roads to get there. Much to my surprise, it ended up being around 4 or 5 hours or intermittently good/horrible roads – meaning I felt sick and anxious when we finally got to our campsite.

After getting there at around 4 p.m., we dropped our stuff in our respective tents and headed out for our first day at the safari.

Immediately we saw Zebras, Wildebeests, Giraffes, Buffalo, Antelopes, one Elephant and, to our surprise, a family of lions asleep on top of a rock. The next day (a full day driving around), we got to be in the presence (surrounded) by many other different kinds of animals, including Leopards, Cheetahs, Hippos, Crocodiles, Snakes, Monkeys, etc.

Seeing them in the wild like that made for a very different experience than what I was expecting, and I loved every it of it (even if we didn’t get to see any Rhinos ☹). And, aside from the Snake part, I’ve never felt safer than amidst those animals just going about their day!

I really advise anyone thinking about doing a Safari to go ahead – it was an incredible experience and, if it wasn’t so far away from home, I’d be back for more right away.

More on the campsite specifically on the next post.