East African Adventures with Preston pt. 3: Masai Mara

The final installment of this 3-part series on my action-packed week with Preston focuses on our trip to the Masai Mara - the most popular national park in Kenya and (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I'd been to the Mara twice before this trip, but this time was very different because we were driving our own car instead of going in a van along with an organized tour.

We woke up early on Thursday, November 26 (Thanksgiving!) and made the drive out to the Mara in about 3 hours. I managed to talk my way into getting student and resident rates for the park fees (saving about $150 - boom!) and then we drove through the park to the Sekenani Camp, a beautiful, small, tented camp nestled in a little valley just outside the park. My friend Adrian, who works for a tour company, had arranged for us to get a great rate on two nights lodging in luxury tents with full board in the wonderful dining room, so we were "camping" in style! We met up with a Masai man named Isaac, who we hired to be our guide and driver for the next two days, which turned out to be a great decision - Isaac had an unbelievable ability to spot animals and knew the park like the back of his hand, and he led us to places we would have never found on our own!

Over the next two days we went on four game drives, during which we saw some of the most amazing things I've ever seen in the Mara. God blessed us with some amazing lion sightings, including a pride of 13 clustered around a big "Pride Rock" and a mother with four tiny, two-week old cubs that we watched with a beautiful sunset in the background. We also had a couple incredible leopard experiences. Leopards are one of the rarest animals in the Mara, but one afternoon we found two leopards in a tree with a freshly-killed reedbuck draped over a branch - awesome! Then, the next day, we found a big male leopard walking around on the ground. We followed as he ran into a clump of bushes, then heard a big commotion as two lions ran out the other side of the bushes! The leopard was just as surprised as we were, and we watched as he ran out of the bushes, up a tree, then down and up another tree. Leopards are gorgeous animals, and the combination of their beautiful spotted fur with the powerful way in which they climb trees and bare their teeth makes for an unbelievable animal! Apart from these sightings, we found several cheetahs, baby hippo's, and the normal assortment of zebras, antelopes, wildebeests, elephants, and giraffes.

On Friday morning we had another cool new experience - a picnic breakfast in the park. The kitchen staff at Sekanani packed us a big cooler of food and comfortable folding chairs, and we found a nice big acacia tree to set up under. We enjoyed a breakfast of fruit, sausage, muffins, and tea looking out over the endless expanse of the African savannah - beautiful!

All in all it was a wonderful week with Preston. We finished it off on Saturday with dinner at Carnivore (probably my favorite restaurant in the world and a must for any meat-lover!) and then Preston hung out at the airport for a while before his 4:30am flight to Madrid. I am so thankful for this chance to spend time with him in a place that is becoming so near to my heart, and I praise God for a brother that I can have have such awesome adventures with!

ps - if you want more animal pictures, there are many more on facebook!