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Hakuna matata! And yes, they actually use that saying quite often here (it still reminds me of the lion king every time... classic!). My safari was fantastic! I got to be about 5 metres away from a pack of lions, not as scary as I thought as they looked so sweet just lying there (well, until one yawned and showed its HUGE sharp teeth!).
We saw Thompson's gazelles, hippos bathing in murky water, a crocodile, ostriches running stupidly in front of the van, heaps of zebras, bufallos (which were so scary looking but it was kind of sweet how the birds sit on their backs, makes such a funny combination, these huge agressive beasts with pretty delicate birds hanging out with them!).
The giraffes were gorgeous! They are so relaxed looking and they just roam around slooooooooooooowly, eating a bit here and there. We drove up in the safari van and they were feeding a little way off and they took there time eating before turning to gaze at us with huge eyes while they chewed with their superlong tongues.
The highlight was definately seeing a cheetah! It was a female one with 3 adorable cubs! They were bounding over the grass and playfully attacking each other before running back to their mum when she made these growling noises. I was so tempted to sneak one into my bag! :)
The elephants were pretty impressive too, you feel so small when you see them, even the baby one seems big!
The grossest thing would have to be the 4 hyenas that we saw eating a Thompson's gazelle. They were so creepy looking (you could just imagine them breaking into evil song like on good old lion king... well, I could!). You could hear them crunching the bones from ages away, was such a disgusting noise, gave me the shivers. Aparently they eat every single bit of the carcass, so I felt a bit sorry for the pack of vultures waiting nearby if they were going to get nothing at all.
The Masai Mara national park is beautiful. Its huuuuuuuuuuuge. Driving down from Nairobi, we stopped at a look out to see out over the great rift valley, and it is stunning. There are random mountains and then complete flat for miles in between. In a way it reminded me of Otago, where there are roads that go on the flat for aaaaaaaages (trust me, I cycled them!) and then end up at mountains. Here in Kenya the plants and trees are much different and you don't often see lions of hippos in Otago but the feeling of being so small and insignificant is the same.
So now I am spending a day in Nanyuki acclimatising before starting my Mt Kenya trek tomorrow. Really exited but pretty nervous too. Will update on my mountain climbing skills (or lack of) on monday.
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