Kenya Stop #3, Maasai Mara Aug 29

 Up early.  Catch another 12 seater from Ol Pejeta to Ol Seki.  Probably a couple of stops.  I honestly can't remember.  The flights are blurring together and happily they are all basically the same.  Put on a face mask.  Climb in the back, bend way over to get to your seat, what with the 4 1/2 foot ceiling and the 1 foot wide aisle.  Sit down, buckle up.  Listen to the pilot's safety message.  It is very short.  And you're off.  45 minutes, you're coming down.  

We were met by Mike, our guide for the next 3 days.  The good news began right there.  The ride to the camp would be 10 minutes.  Not the 40 - 75 minutes we had been experiencing.  This was welcome news.

The schedule at Ol Hemingway was

6:00 wake up call, including a coffee tray

6:30 departure

8:30 breakfast in the bush

10:00 return to camp

1:30 lunch

4:00 departure for evening drive

7:00 return from the drive

7:30 dinner

rinse / repeat

After orientation, we were taken to our newly remodeled "tent".  Its not really a tent, it is a canvas covered cabin.  And what a cabin !

We got settled in and took advantage of the unstructured middle of the day to blog, take a dip in the pool, enjoy the view and just generally relax.

Before you know it, it was time for the game drive.  What turned out to be the very best thing about this camp (aside from the beauty and the service and the food) was that you could be in the thick of things in 5 minutes.  Compared to the 75 minutes to the action at Amboseli, this was magnificent.  Unfortunately, the thick of things on Monday evening turned out to be a rainstorm.  Not a shower.  A storm.  

Within 10 minutes of leaving camp, we were in this

It was a driving storm and we had to put the flaps down on the sides to keep from being soaked.  At one point, the delay between lightning and thunder was less than 1 second.  That burst hit less than 0.1 miles!  Thankfully, it was the closest flash.  We waited quite a long time.  I think all of us but Mike and John were ready and willing to call it day.  But they wanted to stay, so we stayed.

It did eventually stop, of course.  And we went searching.  We didn't know what we were looking for, but Mike did.  And we (that means Mike) found John's favorite animal.

Can you tell that she is pregnant?  She is.  And she's pretty hungry, according to Mike, but its too late in the day to hunt.  If she hunts at this hour and fails, she wastes energy.  If she is successful, a hyena or lion will probably steal her kill.  So she just stays put.  We watched her for 20 minutes and she never showed any sign of change.  

OK, it was a short day, thanks to the rain and the flights, but John got to see his favorite and we have this great "tent" and wonderful hosts to enjoy for more than 2 days.