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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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MASAI MARA (CONT.), KENYA
On Sunday, we woke up at 6am to get ready for morning game drive. We had a cool truck that had removable sunroofs so we could stand up and look out onto the Serengeti. It was beautiful! We saw more of the same lions, elephants, zebra, etc.
At about 1pm, we drove over to the Tanzania side of the Serengeti and ate a picnic lunch under a tree - the only one for miles, just tall dry grass all around. Helen and me kept looking for lion tails popping out of the grass but we didn't see any.
I really lucked out because Helen and Olivia are sooo cool! Of course they are 10 years younger - maybe I am about 26 mentally! Helen is a teacher and Olivia just finished law school. We had loads to talk about! Anyway, we then headed back to Kenyan side and drove through park again. When we reached camp, we took HOT showers and went to the bar. Sammy cooked stew and we all ate it in the bar with loads of Tusker. Life is tooooo gooooood!!! |
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We also ran into 2 cheetah who weren't really concerned with our truck (as we were one of thousands they had seen!). We got really close and they were gorgeous! What a treat! It was the first time I had seen cheetahs in the wild. Wow! Pictures really don't do them justice. It's fascinating how much they were camouflaged even though they have black spots! We also got a chance to see their speed when they were stalking some zebra. They really are lightning fast (can reach 62 mph in short spurts)! 
After lunch, we went to Mara Pools to see hippos and crocs. When we got out of the truck, we were assigned a guide with a rifle who took us around the pools on a 20 minute walk. There were lots of baby hippos - very cute! On the way back to Kenya, we stopped at a park gate to use the toilets. When Helen and I came out, there was a HUGE male elephant in front of us - about 10 feet. We froze and whispered "Sadera! Sadera! Come get us!" He was laughing and said that the elephant won't bother us. We were like - how do you know? He's staring right at us! He told us to wait until the elephant started eating and then walk slowing backwards towards the truck. We did EXACTLY what he said!
