Maasai Mara

Two weeks ago we were at the Maasai Mara in western Kenya. During the four days we saw oodles of animals: elephants, giraffes, lions, zebra, wildebeest, cheetah, gazelles, topi, crocodile, hippopotamus, ostrich, vultures, hyena, waterbuck, buffalo... the only one we didn't see was the leopard. Just made me wish I had a longer lens on my camera..

The scenery at the Mara was wonderful. Mountains on all sides with seemingly endless grasslands stretching in every direction. The occasional tree always stood out.

Here we are at the Kenya - Tanzania border. From the left: Kylie, Heidi, Elvin, me and Heather.

We were there during the wildebeest migration and saw thousands of the creatures. At one place in the river though, we kept seeing dead ones float past. What you see in this picture is hundreds of dead wildebeest in a pile beside a bridge. It was rather sad. But at least the vultures had a feast. (What do you wanna do? I don't know, what do you wanna do?...)

We also came upon a pride of 13 lions killing a zebra. They had already caught it by the time we got there and had it on the ground. A few lionesses were holding it by the neck and you could hear its raspy breathing and struggling. The other lions chewed at the zebra's butt. Then, the zebra got up and tried to get away, its entrails hanging out of its stomach. They quickly brought it down again and kept on eating it. Finally after about 15 min of kicking and struggling the breathing stopped. It was a gruesome scene.

The zebras were my favorite creatures in the place.

This was the group of us that went.