. Safari .

What an amazing week!

Safari started off with a bang, quite literally... the bang of a stray dog against the car bonnet. Very sad times. After we recovered from that ordeal, we set off in our safari jeep to the Masai Mara. Izzo and David were the drivers and Myself, Charlie, Mama Bishop and a lovely couple from Australia called Keri and Nathan were the passengers. The journey into the Massai Mara was incredible and very long - as we drove deeper and deeper into the Savannah, away from civilization and roads, land stretching for miles and miles and random zebra and giraffes were just chilling on the side of the road, I began to realize how far away we were from ANYTHING. Then the truck decided to break down. Yaaay. Whilst David and Izzo began removing car parts, we all sat in the sun - it was so peaceful to be surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but incredible landscape. We set off again eventually, hoping for the best - we hadn't even arrived and we'd already broken down and killed an innocent dog! Nightmare. Things brightened up when we eventually arrived though, we went straight into the Safari  park and within the first hour we had already seen Lions and Leopards, and the entire Super Seven in one day which is aparently outrageously rare.

The Massai Mara is BEAUTIFUL. Stretching 1,500km² the view is spectacular. Driving around on the second day for the entire day gave us all some time to reflect, which I was thankful for - it's impossible not to in such a place! We stayed in large basic tents with beds and hot showers (hallelujiah) and had a 5am start on day 1, but it was so worth it. We saw e v e r y t h i n g up close from Hyenas to cheetah's to lions eating a giraffe, even the extremely rare Black Rhino, which there are only 6 of in the whole Massai Mara. I've been on Safari before but this one was just something else! Our car got stuck in a ditch in lion territory too and we had to get out and push, that's always a laugh.

Of my favorite moments was a golden Char moment - A zebra walked out in front of our truck, and Izzo announced 'quick everyone, take a pic! It's a Zebra Crossing!' We all chuckled at the joke and then carried on with our safariness. 10mins later, a Buffalo walks out in front of the car and Char excitedly screams 'YAY I got a pic of a buffalo crossing the road!' Literally had to explain the zebra crossing joke. 'Ohhh I thought we were just taking pics when animals cross roads.' She now has a picture of every animal crossing the road.

The third day we visited the Masai tribe. They live in mud huts in the middle of nowhere, hunting and herding their cows. At age 15 the boys get circumcised in a ceremony, then sent out to live in the bush for 5 years. They can't come back until they've killed a lion. Our chief leader showed us the mane of the lion he killed which he made into a hat, madness! They gave us a traditional Masai dance, showed us how they make fire, and gave Nathan a Masai tattoo. This consisted of burning him on the arm with a stick, then covering it in cow poo, which I wasn't too jealous about. They then set up a market for us which mainly consisted of beaded bracelets and jewelery, and again we got harassed to buy from every stall (tourism is pretty much they're main source of income) yet still managed to buy a few pretty things. Later we drove to Lake Nakuru, where we stayed in a hotel (with hot showers again WOOP) where we had a quick party and then the next day, headed to safari at the lake. Again, absolutely jaw dropping stunning. A huge lake sprinkled with flamingo's and pelicans, beautiful greenery and zebras and buffalo.The highlight of my entire safari had to be when I got to drive - I surprised everyone with my badman safari truck driving skills and ending up driving round the park for about 45mins, eventually coming across(and very, very close to) the rarest sighting possible - the Black Rhino. It literally walked out in front of the truck and I followed it along the road, such an incredible experience! I didn't even stall or have a near-crash-experience, which is more than I can say for my English driving. After lunch we headed off home, and now we are back in Nairobi. :)

xx