Days 87 & 88: Kenya

Day 87

The park gates to the Masai Mara open every day as the sun comes up at 06:30 and shut as it goes down at 18:30 and so to utilise this timeframe so as only to pay for one days worth of park fees ($60 per person per day) we got up at 05:30 to get ready. Once we had driven through the gates, the first drive heading west took us past hundreds of Thomson Gazelle, Kudus, Wildebeests and buffaloes before Caz spotted a Lioness in the grass. There turned out to be three of them and it was quite pleasing not only to spot them at all, but within ten minutes of being in the park.

Next we spotted a lone elephant, before stumbling across a herd of giraffes, and eventually a herd of elephants. As we slowly approached in the Landrover and pulled over to take photos, we could see one of the elephants that was a mere 10metres (9 yards) away starting to slowly charge towards us! I quickly stepped on the accelerator and we sped off from the elephant that I’m pretty sure was giving us a first warning.

The day continued with spottings of baboons, hippos, warthogs and various other animals of all sizes until we needed to start our journey out of the park back to a hotel. The route out of the park was again off road and it had started raining heavily leaving some of the roads very wet. The real problems started when the rainwater would channel itself into the road to descend the hills, leaving a lot of the roads completely wet meaning we were effectively driving down rivers! The worst part was a muddy stretch where none of the road could be seen for a thin watery/muddy layer that was un-drivable. Luckily we turned around to find the main road out of the area and back towards civilisation, but we spent around five hours driving off road in the rain and dark through terrible conditions just to get a cheap hotel room for the night.



Day 88

With such an amazing day the previous day we decided to close the loop on our trip around Kenya back to Nairobi so that Caz could catch her flight back from Nairobi airport. I hadn’t been feeling too well all night and the dodgy stomach had continued into the day, so by the time we got back to JJs it was time to chill out.

After getting a much-needed lunch cooked by Nathan and Caz, I headed for a late afternoon kip in the rooftent. When I woke up again in the evening it appeared that the rain that we had witnessed in the Masai Mara had caught up with us in Nairobi.

The entire campground was flooded and so we all gathered inside the main house adjoining the campground for some noodles and a beer. This is when Caz informed me that whilst I was driving the Landrover around the Masai Mara with Nathan and Caz sat on the roofrack to get a good view, Nathan had proposed to Caz, and Caz had duly accepted his proposal! I informed Caz that it’s never too late to change her mind.