Two Game Drives In The Mara!

Day 45
6:30 Game Drive
9:00 Breakfast
12:30 Lunch
2:30 Trip To Town
4:30 Game Drive
7:00 Dinner
8:00 KWS Guest Speaker
9:15 Wildlife Conservation

   This morning's game drive was pretty amazing! For our Natural History class we've been keeping a journal of the climate, habitats and wildlife we see. I documented that "Only charismatic megafauna events will be documented because the wild game is seen everywhere. This includes zebras, gazelle, topi and impala herds all seen grazing in the grasslands." This morning we saw four giraffe's walking in pairs, like a double date! "We saw hyena's fighting over food. When one grabbed a piece, it ran away quickly. There were vultures around them but the hyena's didn't snap at them. The birds waited patiently until the hyena's abandoned the meat and then grabbed their share." At a riverbank we were allowed to get out of the truck. There were tons of hippos in the water. The baby hippos were surrounded by adults, presumably for protection. "One baby sort of jumped out of the water, it turns out it was on the back of an adult hippo!" We saw elephants from afar and under a cluster of bushes there were lionesses with their cubs and a male lion looking over. The cubs were playing while the adults lounged, eyes half open.
   Our trip to town was interesting. "This town was a couple strips of concrete rooms. There were some general stores with children's clothing and cookies - all behind bars. Women surrounded us selling beaded jewelry. We went into a medical clinic, it was a small square building. Earlier today a man had been ATTACKED BY A LION! The lion had come to steal cattle and a couple young boys watching the livestock saw the lions and ran to the village to get the warriors. The men came out and surrounded the lion and as they closed in to kill her, she attacked a man, gashing open two wounds on his legs and his hand. The doctor told us that the medical supplies are paid for by missionaries."
   The afternoon game drive was just as amazing as this morning. We had a very close encounter with an elephant. It was feeding on some bushes and after flapping it's ears at us it turned back to eating. We drove over to a notch in some wooded area and there were a lot of other tourist vans there. It turns out that there were TWO LEOPARDS there! "I was transfixed, this is such a rare sight. One leopard was on the ground at the base of a tree and the other leopard was in the tree on a branch, eating! So leopards really do take their kills into a tree. I think the leopard eating must have been more dominant to get to eat first." Today was fantastic!! 10 years ago today I was living a dream.