All about the land!

This morning I headed to Masai Mara National Park. I took 2 airplanes to get there, which gave me the experience of landing on wet dirt air strips twice-ugh!! After walking through the mud to retrieve my backpack in order to board an adjacent plane, I was totally convinced that our team made the right decision to drive, rather than fly to the Moheto area :-). At least in this area, the daily December rains are continuing so air strips are not drying out.

It was so interesting to fly over Nairobi & see the city & surrounding suburbs. It was a beautiful day, so I had a clear view of the landscape from the air. Everything is so lush & green due to the rains. The land between Nairobi & Masai Mara is beautiful & sparsely populated. I was struck by how few roads were present & those that were, were usually dirt. The soil is very red, which make the dirt roads quite distinct in the landscape.

My hotel, the Serena Lodge is positioned on a ridge and is the only lodge or camp located in the Mara Triangle, a 500 square kilometer area of the park. The views of the landscape & animals from here are amazing! Right after I checked into my room, I heard a noise & looked out to see 6 warthogs grazing on the grass right in front of my room! Talk about being up close & personal with the animals!!

The people I’ve met so far in Kenya are some of the most hospitable that I’ve met anywhere I’ve traveled!! It’s been such a pleasure to be with them! My guides have been so knowledgeable! I’ve learned a lot from each of them. Tonight I went to a talk given by a man from the Masai people, who are the indigenous people who live in this region. It was fascinating to hear how they blend their traditional way of life into this modern world around them. They still live apart from others in traditional villages and are nomadic in this region of Kenya & Tanzania.

Tomorrow I’ll post some photos of animals I encountered on today’s & also tomorrow’s game drives. Because so many folks here at the lodge have cell phones & computers, the wifi is very slow uploading the photos for my posts.