Where the Wild Things Are

The Masai Mara is an amazing place and we explored it in the perfect way. Our view was never obstructed and nobody missed a thing because they were concentrating on driving. We went in land-rovers that had open sides and tops and stadium seats. Each group had the same driver for three days. They all knew tremendous amounts about the animals, their habits and natures. Our driver, Aggry, had spent 11 years as a guide and had a degree as a naturalist.

We followed trails that traversed the savanna, rivers and hills. The drivers split up and when they found something interesting they called and we headed off the trails and across the grassland to where the wild things are. We could go any place and we did!

There was open savanna and lots of rivers. There was also bush, which is where you find leopards up in the trees. We searched through miles of bush, but nobody ever found a leopard.

Moments after we left camp we saw our first animal. A couple of hyenas were lying on the side of the trail. I always thought they were scavengers,but they're really the second strongest hunter in Africa. Only jackals are better hunters. We saw jackals another day.

A few minutes later when we crossed the river, we saw our first hippos. They stay under the water most of the time to cool and moisten their skin, so we saw hundreds of hippo noses in our three days and a few other really great sightings.

For the rest of the two-hour game drive we saw one sort of animal after the other. One of the things that was most interesting to me was that all different kinds of animals were together. Sometimes even predators and their prey would be right together. We asked Aggry about it and he said that the prey just knew the predators were not hungry, but they kept a very watchful eye on each other. These bat-eared foxes are sitting right by some gazelles, who would sometimes be their dinner. This time the foxes just weren't hungry.

We saw several herds of giraffes. They were beautiful as they glided gracefully across the savanna in long lines. The baby giraffe was adorable.

We saw many, many warthogs-That would be Pumba.

When they run through the grass you can see their little tails sticking up like antenna. They are the favorite food of lions. It's interesting that in THE LION KING Pumba and Simba (lion in Swahili) were friends. Not on the savanna!

Then there were lions. There are at least 30 prides of lions in the Mara. We saw lions every day. They were so close that we felt like we could reach them in two giant steps. One day a group of lions discovered that there was shade in the shadow of the land-rovers, so they all went over and sat in the shade.

Baboons and monkeys were all around. We zipped our tents every time we left to keep them out and it worked. No baboons getting into our things.

The cheetahs were about two steps from our vehicle. . The cheetahs looked so cute and cuddly, like stuffed animals. Elder Puckett asked Aggry what would happen if we got out of the land-rover He said that we appeared as one big animal in the vehicle (like an elephant), but if we got out then we would look like "lunch" and we would be eaten in a minute!

And this all happened in just the first two hour game drive on DAY ONE.