Masai Mara - an unforgettable experience.[ Day 1]

Masai Mara, the biggest game reserve in Kenya is situated in the southern part of the country and is a Northern extension of Serrengetti National reserve, Tanzania. My recent visit to this place of wonder, adventure and  excitement sets me rejuvenated as I recollect my experience. Let me share my memories with all my friends. The best time to visit this game park is from June to September as the migration phenomenon starts and animals come to grazeon  the soft grass in the Mara land. The huge area of reserve forest which is taken care by the Kenya Forest Dept. has total 6 entrance gates. There are numbers of hotels situated inside the forest land. Now which gate you have to pass through depends on the  hotel you have chosen to stay. There are arrangaments to stay in rented tents too inside the forest area near the hotels. The arrangements inside the hotels are quite good. The entrance fees for a kenyan resident is  2500KES per head /night and for children under 12 yrs. of age it's 500KES/night. For foreign nationals it's 80$per head/night and the same applies for the children too. Vehicles allowed inside the game reserve are jeeps, toyota cars and landrovers.  Cars with powerful engines only are recommended to drive inside  the jungle. Basically I had opted for a 3 days 2 nights trip in Masai Mara.

Our day started at 7:00 am when we commenced out adventure towards the game park.We had a nice buffet breakfast and asked the hotel staffs to provide us packed lunch for the day. Our hotel was situated at just 5 minutes distance from the entrance where we could see the animals. We were strictly instructed not to get down while on the trip, scatter any litter or feed any animals. Anyways we were allowed to take pictures of the animals from a safe distance(50 ft only). 

We saw imphalas. They are hebivores and are available in plentiful numbers in the Mara area. With a black stripe on their body they really look amazing.They simply jump form one place to another and are quite attractive. I stopped our vehilce to takesome photoraphs. They are peace lovers and are scared by the sound of the vehlcle.

We saw antelopes with long horns. They are herbivores, shy in nature and try avoiding public. We saw them on the both sides of the road in the jungle. They like to roam about in open places and are very much fond of the sweet grass.

 We saw topi or medium sized antelopes which have typical redidsh stripes and brownish to purplish color on their bodies. The stripe of yellowish tinge in the limbs gives a stockings like appearance. A topi can run fast. These animals fall prey of the carnivores at the approach of sunset. What a pity!

 An Elan is a herbivore which belongs to the deer family and of biggest size. It resembles a cow in the lower half. They are elegant,bears exquisite looks  and proudly display their long horns. It's an amazing creature.

'Dig dig' is the smallest of the deer family available in the forest. It's said that a dig dig finds it's partner and always moves in pairs. In case if one dies , then the other will also die within a span of 3 weeks. It was a cute little animal , running from place to palce.

We saw a creature callled 'wild beest'. These are wild cows with long hairs all over it's face. They move in groups. Thry are darkish brown to blackish in color. These animals are available in the Tsavo national parks apart form Masai Mara.

We saw zebras grazing along with the wild beests. The sight was really a majestic one and it was nice  to observe the grass eaters munch the grass in such  a disciplined manner. 'The rules in the jungle are much more proficient than the urban ones'- I felt to my my mind for a second.. It was fun observing those striped creatures dazzling in the sunlight. The sky line of the forest was a superb, mindblowing view.

We saw three ostriches on the way while we were going for searching  for more animals. They are flightless bird and having the capacity to run fast. The ostriches proudly displayed their feathery body  and their  tall feautres caught our attention amongst the bushes. It was indeed a magnificient sight.

Our eyes caught attention of some wild boars. They were hunting for insects and other eatables form the ground. They  are omnivorous and nocturnal in habbit.










We saw elephants in herds. I tried to take her videos and watched one coming closer to our jeep. In one moment I thought that she is going to bump with our jeep and you may see she came quite near with a little bit of arrogance. But to my dismay I saw that she just crossed our jeep , as if she came only to pose for photo/videos. OMG! where did they get this training from? I believe that they are really trained to be photographed quite  naturally. An excellent experience!

We saw giraffes grazing in the forest. These tall creatures were roaming around like queens of the jungle. They can run quite fast and possess  beautiful dark brownish spots on them. They feed on trees, grass and any herbs that get into their way. I will say that our jeep had to stop thrice becasue of girraffes crossing our way. Lovely experience of traffic congestion in the jungle.

Suddenly we came across a very unforseen incident. There was a vehicle in front of us which was trying to cross a small mud filled area nad got stuck. The driver was unable to take the jeep out of the sticky cotton soil. There ws a landrover which came for help and the vehicle was tied to it. With 15 mins of continuous struggle ultimately the vehicle got out of the mud and there was a sense of releif among all of us. It's very essential to be together in a forest in order to face any such unforseen incidents. Moreover ranger cars are there to help you any point of time. Thank God at least we had mobile phones to contact.  What would have happened 30 years ahead when there was no mobile? I just tried to imagine and got terrified.

It was almost the end of the day while we saw a buffallo with it's big, magnifient srtong features which crossed our way. We were told by the driver that sometimes the buffaloes get aggressive and might attack a vehicle. So we were careful and observed this strong creature quitely.






It was time for us to return to hotel and take rest. I was a wonderful day with rich experiences of beautiful animals. We say the process of the great migration where the animals follwed each other in a queue and were following all the way to Tanzania border towards Serrengetti where they were expecting sweet, fresh grass as after the rainy season that was the best time to munch their very desired food. Our hotel was at 5 minutes disatnce from the game drive and we were inside by 6:30.p.m. as that was the rules of the forest. The rangers( or the forest officcers) have the right to fine anybody disobeying the rules with  hefty amount and that will be charged either from the visitor or the driver. So, we were cautious of the rules.