Kenya wildlife snapshot Day 1

Since we had our National day holidays in Bahrain in December and as a usual routine we were thinking of countries to visit during this holiday period. While we were checking fares to various destinations,  we found fare to Kenya to be reasonably better. But we had our apprehensions of travelling to Kenya on our own. So we contacted one of our family friend there. He  gave us suggestions on itinerary,  even booked the best tours for Masaimara. We even stayed in his house during the vacation.

 

As per our itinerary, we left for Masaimara on the first day. Bonfire tours that we booked charged us 370$ per person which included 2 nights stay in Serena hotel,  2 days game drive, food, pickup and drop from our place in Nairobi. Then there was entry fees for Masaimara,  80$ per person per day. Since we stayed for 2 days,  that was a total of 160$ per person,  so a total of  530$ per person for the Masaimara trip. The travel itself is around 6 hours drive from Nairobi to Masaimara Park entrance. On the way we stopped  in few fuel stations . From the Park entrance,  you start seeing animals and our hotel :Serena is more than 52 kms from the entrance.  The vehicle  has a provision to raise the roof,  so that we can stand and see the animals  comfortably,  also this provides a full view of the area. As we were moving to Mara triangle, we spotted herds of elephants,  giraffes,  2 lioness,  1 lion and lioness separately . Too many Gazelle, baboons,2  leopards , 1 hyena with a cub, . They are just near Jeep and they don't seem to care. Also we noticed a baby zebra was killed and put at top of a tree.. This was close to the place where we spotted the Leopard,  so this could be the work of the Leopard.

As we crossed the Mara River to enter Mara triangle,  we watched hippopotamus,  crocodiles, many birds near the river. After crossing the entrance,  here we saw herds of zebras and wild bull. So many of them,  that they seemed  coming with us as we kept driving. Finally after 3 hrs we reached  the hotel and checked into it. We had missed our lunch and survived on snacks. So we were very eager to refresh and have dinner.

There were limited vegetarian options, there   for dinner,  but they had a vast variety of desserts. Since  my family wanted Indian food,  we  ordered plain rice and added the masala curry paste that we brought from India.

After dinner,  the hotel had masai dance program. We watched it and took part in the dance too. Then we went back to the room.