Lions and leopards and cheetahs, oh my!

Well I don't know about you, but I see nothing wrong with having a massage as part of our safari adventure...who says they are mutually exclusive!  

Anyway, last weekend we flew to Masai Maura (in a very small plane I might add for any fellow small plane fearers) and had an amazing experience in one of the world's most beautiful places.   Words and pictures will fail to justly describe what we saw.  We landed on a red dirt landing strip in the middle of nowhere, met our guide Deadon and jumped into a land cruiser that had no windows and an open roof and headed to our lodge which was only about 5 minutes away.  We saw lots of zebras and a few wildebeest on the way to the lodge - we were beside ourselves already!

We arrived at the lodge where you are greeted by someone with cool towels and then are handed a glass of some type of fresh tropical  juice...needless to say the service at this place was top notch.  Each room at the Serena is shaped like a little Masai hut.  They were really cute and had an amazing balcony where you look out and the sky and the land seem to go on forever.  And you could see zebra, elephants and giraffes milling about and walking across the land!  

We went on 4 games drives throughout the weekend.  You go out at 6:30 am and 4:00 pm each day since that is the best viewing time.  Most of the animals are asleep in the middle of the day.  Our first game drive was on Saturday at 4 pm and we found everything amazing!  We raced out with all the other trucks because there was a large herd of wildebeest near the Mara river.  Apparently it is quite rare to see a herd cross a river.  We waited about 20 minutes but it looked like they weren't going to cross and then all of a sudden they just went for it!  Thousands of wildebeest crossing the river - it was incredible.  You could also see a croc in the water watching them!  Apparently it tried to attack, but the wildebeest just kept on kicking and got away!  

So I could go on and on, but here is a recap of the animals we saw:  

• Tons of elephants - including lots of babies.  The elephants always travel together in groups and their tusks are incredible.  
• 3 cheetahs - 2 that were just relaxing and sleeping and one that was walking away from eating about half a wildebeest.  John and I thought she looked pregnant but our guide said she had just eaten so much.  She was stunning.
• More wildebeest than we could possibly count.  Thousands for sure.  They are currently migrating back to Tanzania.  They usually spend about 3 months in the Mara
• More zebras than we could count - they are beautiful and are also migrating to Tanzania.  We saw lots of baby zebras
• At least 25 hippos - we had an amazing outdoor breakfast by the Mara river where the hippos are often found
• 3 crocodiles
• At least 20 giraffes at various places in the park.  At one point one walked RIGHT in front of our truck.  Their size is stunning and you can always tell it is a giraffe.  Sometimes when you are looking far out you don't know if it is a bush or an elephant or a rock or a lion.  But there is never a question about a giraffe
• 4 male lions.  2 together sleeping, one early in the morning walking towards the woods and one walking in the middle of a field.  The last one was one of the highlights for me - the sun was washing the field in light and it walked right by us - maybe 10 feet away!  Majestic is the only word to use
• 7 female lions.  3 sleeping together in a field, 2 sleeping on a rock and then a single lion dozing. She would look at us and yawn!  A group of impalas almost ran right by her but stopped at the last minute.  We thought we were about to see a kill.  
• lots of impalas, gazelles, waterbucks, buffalo
• hyenas 
• warthogs
• lots of amazing birds 
• a huge group of vultures feeding on what the cheetah left behind
• A leopard in a tree!!  This was amazing b/c it is quite rare to see leopards.  Their paws are HUGE
• We kind of saw a rhino - but i don't think it really counts.  With binoculars you could make out a grey mass but he never came out of the woods
• Monkeys
• lots of lizards - extremely colorful

So all in all we couldn't have really asked to see anything more.  We were so struck by the expanse - the sky is so big.  The land seems to roll on and on.  It truly felt surreal to see such beautiful creates.  You couldn't help but worship in the midst of the beauty.  

And here is what you probably really want to see - pictures!