Mombasa to Mara

Angus, Euan, Niall and Aidan 
relaxing
 in the Indian Ocean

Arrived in Kenya in early July for 3 weeks holiday with the whole family plus Angus, a friend of Aidan's, who was coming out to see where Aidan is going to be living and going to school.  After a few days in Nairobi we headed down to the coast.  What we thought was going to be a 6 hour journey ended up being 10.5 hours on a very busy road.  All the containers arriving at the port in Mombasa are put on lorries which then c...r...a...w...l along the road between Mombasa and Nairobi and back.  The whole journey is stop-start as cars try to overtake on a single carriageway.  It is not uncommon to be forced off the road as a 'matatu' - mad minibus - comes tearing towards you with lights flashing.  The road drops from 6,000ft in Nairobi to sea level at Mombasa with lots of changes of scenery as you go down the escarpment.  The temperature also heats up - rather welcome as being the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere it can be very chilly in Nairobi. In fact we have rarely had a sunny day since arriving. One is not surprised to learn that  Nairobi was originally chosen as a place to settle because its weather is like Britain's!

Zebra in sight

A week later we went to the Masai Mara where we had an amazing time seeing animals.  Herds of buffalo, zebra, giraffe, elephant, antelope, zebra.  Warthog with their funny little tails in the air, hyenas, leopard, thousands of vultures circling over the Mara as they prepared to gorge on yet another carcass of wildebeest or zebra that didn't make it across the river.  And the most amazing thing - a lion kill just 4 metres away.  We all watched with bated breath as a lion crouched behind a bush - we then realised it was eyeing up a young zebra that was walking past with its mother totally unaware of the lions presence. We watched with horror and awe as the female lion sprung out grabbing the young zebra around the neck and dragging it to the ground.  The mother zebra was absolutely distraught standing for a good 5 minutes staring and braying loudly as she watched the lion drag her baby away.  I wasn't dry eyed either. I know its nature but to see something so powerful happen in front of your eyes is rather overwhelming. No photo of the kill I'm afraid as I was too stunned to take pictures!  

 At night we returned to the 'bush camp' - luxury tents complete with beds and solar lighting.  The camp was on the edge of the escarpment above the Mara with amazing view over the plains below.  A trip of a lifetime.