This morning after a nice buffet breakfast at the Fairmont Maasai Mara, we did a short 10 min. game drive to the local dirt strip where we boarded an AirKenya Dash-7 for the 1 hr flight to Nairobi. On our way to the airport baboons, moneys, warthogs, impala, and a zillion gazelle all waves goodby. We’re now chilling at the…
One of our Maasai Mara game drives involved quite a bit of non-animal related adventure. First one of our rear tires came off the rim after hitting a big rock. This is a fairly common occurrence given the vehicles run around with fairly low pressure in the tires for traction. The guides jumped in as a team and completed the…
One of the highlights of our last Kenya game drive was a very up close encounter with a pair of southern white rhinos. You can’t tell from these photos shot with my phone, but we were able to get within 15′ or so of the pair, guided by a few game keepers who are assigned to their protection. The bigger…
During our trip we have literally seen thousands of Thompsons Gazelle, including groups with a single male and 20-30 females, bachelor herds with 10-12 males, juveniles, etc. Pictured here are a couple of juveniles we saw on our last game drive out of the Fairmont Maasai Mara. They are testing each other as practice for one day when they actually…
The Fairmont Maasai Mara has a resident company of velvet monkeys that keep us on our toes. Last night one person out of our group decided to step up to one and he decided to try and climb her like one of the trees. The pics here are of a couple of juveniles that are constantly tussling! This morning while…
Pre-dawn we all packed into the Land Cruzers to a journey across the savanna to our balloon launch site. We arrived just as the crews of our two 16 person balloons were being stretched out for rigging and pre-flight inspection. After a short safety briefing to go over landing, aka crash positions, we loaded into the gondolas and Dan our…
During our last game drive, we revisited the male lion zebra kill, but they were all dozing from gorging. We then headed up into the mountains for a nice little sunset gathering with drinks and bites. Unfortunately, a severe thunderstorm rolled in and cut things short. Nevertheless, it was a good time with amazing views of the storm, including clouds…
This morning we had an easy schedule with a mid-morning flight from Mt. Kenya to the Maasai Mara in southern Kenya. It looks like we are in for a treat since on the way to the hotel from the airstrip, we saw an absolute ton of animals, including baby warthogs, baby elephants, baby giraffes, etc.
After spending time with the children, we received a guided tour of the weavers that turn raw wool into beautiful woven scarves, rugs, etc.
After our game drive, we stopped by a local non-government sponsored primary school to say hi to the teachers and munchkins as well as help them out with supplies. To say that the kids were friendly and happy would be like saying the sun is warm. All the kids lined up and sang us several welcome songs, then we sang…