Maasai Mara

Greetings family and friends,
We just finished 3 wonderful days in the Masa Mara National Wildlife Preserve. We saw many wild animals doing their thing of survival. Hundreds of other safari vans searched for lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, etc, etc.Hundreds of photos taken. It is quite the expansive park. Seeing the wildebeast and zebras was also fascinating in their migration. Also, the pecking order of lions after a kill is made. Very interesting. There is tremendous fascination about watching a kill take place and then devour their prey. We did get to see the birth of a gazelle one day. We don't know if the little fellow survived.

Our camp was just outside the park. It was a small camp. We had a large rectangular tent with toilet and shower attached to the back. It was covered with a reed type roof structure over the tent. Cooking area was small and our cook provided excellent meals.

Kenya is definitely more prosperous than Ethiopia. More privately owned vehicles and a lot less of cattle, donkeys, etc along the roads. Road conditions into the Mara were a bit rough to say the least. Roads between towns are good paved highways. Paving into Mara was done years ago but no maintenance. Pot holes are prevelant. Most of time the drivers are on shoulders where there is gravel and smoother.

Now we are at Lake Naivasha, north and east of Mara. We took a nice hike through Hells Gate, a slot like canyon. Good geology because of sedimentation and volcanism over the years. We had a good guide as well. Our facility here is pretty nice. We have a cottage with just the two of us thought hot water is limited. They also have some drainage problems in shower. Name of this place is Fish eagle inn. Tomorrow we will go out and photograph some of the eagles.

We just read about the explosion in Nairobi. Paper indicated that this has happened in past where people tried to salvage the free fuel only to have it ignite and kill many people. We were not in the area when this occurred.

We've seen four of the big 5. Rhino hasn't been spotted yet but we should see this animal in Samburu National Park. We will have a couple game drives there.

Though our guide and driver and cook here are good and entertaining, our Ethiopian experience was much more personable. ERVS Tours is really good and we thank Bob and Nancy Sturtevant for arranging such an experience for us. They should be getting back to their Peace Corps residence today or tomorrow after being in Addis to drop us off and then to do some PC things.

Marcia is enjoying her shopping experiences. I enjoy watching.

No sicknesses yet, thank goodness. Now it is time for a Tusker beer and a coke light.

Until next time.

Phil and Marcia