Masai Mara!

Four days of Camping Safari in the beautifull Masai Mara!
Im a bit behind on this here blog thing.. I am trying hard to experience as much as possible while Im here and I find it a bit hard to keep up!

Departure: We left Nairobi in two 4wd packed to the brim with luxury items, Mario had planned every meal in details and we were very well fed :-D

As soon as you get close to the Masai Mara animals are everywhere. The park is unfenced so animals come and go as they wish.

As a rule the animals have the way of right, especially the elefants who can get quite angry and has been known to attack cars and topple them.

wilderbeests are all over, migrating to find food they seem to be always moving in some direction.

wilderbesst and zeebras often travell together. When they cross the rivers it is often the zebras who jump first as the Gnus seem to be more flockanimal like.

A lonely hyena by the road, Hyenas are actually closer related to lions than they are to dogs. At night u hear their uuuiiip as they call to each other.

We partly went to the Mara to visit my landlady Claire, she works for ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) and had spend close to 4 weeks in the Mara already. This is her research car. Her team goes on 12 hour drives counting and logging every animal they come across. The purposse of her research is to determine the effect human settlementa (bomas) has on the wildlife, so far it seems that the smaller animals actually prefer to be close to the human settlements while the bigger keep their distance. I spend a full 12 hours on top of the car with binoculars and the humble task of checking temperature and humidity and helping to spot movement. Great fun for the first 6 hours, the main problem was that every animal had to be logged which ment that every tiny antilope (thompsons gazelle) and every flock of wilderbeests had to be counted.. some of the flocks vere over 200.. And lions simply are more fun to wach!

My first Lion! and with a fresh Kill! yum yum raw meat..

When Lions are done eating they yawn alot, some say its a signal to the flock to relax and take it easy.

The mighty Mara river, didnt get any good pics of the crocs.. but they are there always lurking right under the surface.. often all you can see is their evil looking eyes always looking for something to tear at..

Hippos in the mara river, we watched this group for a while and was treated to a serious rumble from one of the big males and a serious looking fight when one of the other males approched this female and her calves.

Maria in Marions Landcruiser. I had the strange experience of meeting Maria at a garden party in Valby Denmark 2 weeks befor I left for Nairobi.. When I got here I stayed at her house for e few weeks.

The Masai giraffe with its different but equally beautifull patteren, I think Giraffes are one of my favorite animals.. They are amazingly gracefull when they run.

As I said Mario took very good care of our food. Here he is minding the breakfeast eggs and beacon which we had on one of the small hills.

Amaxing sunsets is part of the deal!

This is apparently the biggest of the antilopes, i can't remember its name right now, but they era very shy and always try to get out of the way as soon as they see a car. Not like wilderbeests who seems to be too dum to really be frightend or Lions whos just dont give damn.. actually lions have been known to move to the shadow of the cars that stop to watch them..

These friendly vultures were guarding an old carcass. When driving in the park you are constantly on the look out for signs of something interesting, cirkeling vultures is a sure sign of a kill, wheter fresh or old there is bound to be at least hyenas and possibly also lions, leopard or cheetas around. another sure sign of something interesting is a line up of Safari cars..

Pretty little picture of Zebras by a waterhole..

Words are useless here.. very very beautifull..

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