Started early, wakeup call at 4:45am…. and that was after Glenn woke me up during the night! He had jumped out of bed and was sure we had an “intruder”. It took some convincing but eventually he agreed that no animal had joined us in our tent and I was able to go back to sleep…

We were off on a balloon safari which is why the early start, what a cool experience, highly recommended! We saw the Masai Mara from a completely different perspective, looking at the plains and escarpment from the air was exhilarating, felt a bit like I was in a movie and floating, not reality. The game were active – I learnt that the grass is actually patterned, it has animal tracks all through it, something I never realized (or saw) viewing game from a safari vehicle! Our trip ended with a rough ride to a champagne breakfast. On the way we ran into a pride of lions – 2 lionesses and 3 cubs. Andbeyond picked us up after breakfast and we joined our safari companions on a game drive. We decided to go looking for the lions we saw earlier, lucky us, our guide found the pride of 5, they had moved and were active and on the move. We followed them for some time, watching them walk, play, stop, look around in search of an entree. Eventually we had an awesome exclusive sighting. All other vehicles had left and we had the pride to ourselves. The lions seemed to be thirsty and went in search of water. As they approached a small pond, a hippo emerged and chased them off. The young cubs pretended to hunt the hippo and we watched as they chased each other around for a bit. Eventually the hippo wandered off grazing and the lions went in search of that entree. The adult lions found a lookout mound, they perked on top searching the horizon, nothing to be found. After some time, they decided to conserve energy and headed for shade and sleep. We went in search of a crossing at the Mara River – saw the most enormous crocodiles and multiple hippo pods. The hippos were in and out of the water and it was incredible to watch. Never seen so many, still quite large, ugly and generally inactive but managed to capture a yawn!!! Also captured some beautiful shots of the Topi (antelope) and Grey Crown Crane. It was a long morning and only got back to our lodge at 2:00pm. Lunch was fresh and light and just what we needed before some rest. Unanimous decision, cut our afternoon drive short and start later.

4:30pm and we were off again for some game viewing. Learnt two interesting facts:

• the trees dotting the savannahs that look a bit like Acacia trees are in fact Balanite trees.
• the Masai Mara is a public park and anyone who pays a fee can enter – the pop up van is the budget safari option and extremely popular, could not resist this picture, downside is sightings are not controlled!

Saw 4 of the big 5! Decided to skip looking for the male lions, our choice instead – sundowners and sunset. Glenn has discovered the local beer! We stopped on the way to our campsite, every vehicle that passed us was jealous. They were not as well prepared, we were the envy of camp!!! Finished off the evening with Glenn on guitar.