We woke up in the cold and darkness but excited about our long safari day. We got ready quickly, carefully unzipped the tent to get out, and flashed the flashlight to signal the security guard to escort us. Within minutes, a staff came and escorted us to the restaurant for cake and coffee. We are not coffee people so we skipped that and just grabbed pieces of cake. Brian, Sokunna, and TJ came and then we went to the reception to meet up with Nicolas to start our safari. We jokingly said for sunrise, can we find a place with a lone tree and animals like a giraffe as the backdrop? Nicolas laughed and sped like crazy to get us into the park and searched for a lone tree. He passed by a few trees but he eventually stopped at one. We patiently waited for 5 minutes or so and realized the hot air balloons were flying up on the horizon!
We didn’t have the giraffe, but the hot air balloons were quite a sight as they flew over us as the sun rose.
After sunrise, we continued the drive to search for animals and the first ones we saw were the giraffes! The golden hour was so good for the landscape and animals.
The giraffe looking toward the hot air balloons 🙂
Nicolas was chatting on his phone again and got a notification of the lions so off we go to the lions! When we got there, the pride of lions was having their breakfast.
We followed the lion to the puddle of water where he got a drink.
Then, he stared at us :O
We followed him back to the pride.
The safari trucks were that close to the pride :O
We parked our truck and as we were observing the pride, the lion came out and got really close to us. Close meaning within 3 feet, literally right next to our truck. It wasn’t our first time so close to the animals and we were assured that we were safe as long as we were inside the vehicle but at one point when the lion was NEXT to us with nothing blocking us from him, we got nervous! The lion can just stretch his legs and reach us!
The lion looked like it was staring at us, straight eye to eye LOL.
Next, it was the lioness’ turn to get a drink. I love the reflection from the water puddle. The lioness was on high alert as she was drinking.
Whenever the pride was eating, there was at least one lioness watching/guarding!
This lioness acted like she was angry at that little one :O
Nicolas was on his phone again and said let’s go to see The Great Migration. What??? It’s happening now! HUH? He was at full speed as well as other safari truck drivers! He drove crazy for like an hour and reached a hill overlooking the vast open area. He said you see those dark spots/dots there? Each of those is a wildebeest, they are heading over to Kenya. He handed us the binoculars and sure enough hundreds of thousands if not millions of wildebeest!!!
I zoomed in to the max 200 mm and woahhhhh!
More on the right side!
Endless of wildebeest, we were speechless!
I had read and seen videos of the Great Migration but being right there seeing it myself was unbelievable. It is mindblowing how millions of wildebeest gathered together and who made the decision to start migrating?
We asked Nicholas how long it’ll take for the wildebeest to get over to the Kenya side? He said could take up to 7 hours! We sat there, having our packed breakfast from the lodge, and enjoyed the scene. The movement seemed slow so after half an hour of watching, we decided to go search for other animals. We went to a few places but not much luck of any action and then Nicolas rushed back.
We were the 2nd truck to arrive and the first groups of wildebeests already crossed the border, they were like 20 feet away.
More and more safari trucks arrived (around 20) and the wildebeests were getting closer and closer.
They got to like 10 feet away and I was thinking should we move back, once they are surrounding us, how would we get out? I don’t want to stuck here for 7 hours LOL!
The migration is not just wildebeest as you can see zebras joined too!
The wildebeest were slowly walking toward the right side and then out of a sudden they started to run to the left side and the rest followed. We quickly turned around and followed them. The storming sounds of hundreds and thousands of wildebeest running and the dust that got kicked up from them were truly unforgettable!
We were this close to observing the migration!
The wildebeest decided to split into two path surrounding that safari truck!
The group of zebras!
More safari trucks arrived to see the actions!
The run eventually stopped and the wildebeest were chasing and playing with each other, eating, and resting. My nose got very stuffy from the dust and when I blew my nose OMG it was a lot of dirt! Likewise, when I wiped my face, the napkin turned black, seriously! I strongly recommend you pack masks, lots of MASKS for safari in Kenya/Tanzania!!!!!
I don’t know how long we watched the migration before we decided to move on. Nicolas drove up to a hill (I forgot the name) and it has a bathroom facility with flushing toilets and papers! We were surprised how clean and “modern” the facility was! Outside the facility, we saw those color birds.
After the quick bathroom break, Nicolas asked what we wanted to see, TJ said elephants so he went to look for elephants. On the way, he passed by a group of giraffes, I love the African savanna.
Nicolas knew where elephants hang out so there they are!
Next, we drove to the Maasai River to see the hippos and crocodiles. According to Nicolas, end of August/early Sept, the wildebeest will make their way back to Tanzania by crossing this river. That would be the action photos of the river crossing! Next on my bucket list!
Can you see the crocodiles?
More hippos on the other side of the bank.
Hippos and crocodiles can live happily together?
We were watching this bird while the crocodile has his mouth open and ready for lunch LOL. The bird did fly away by a few feet.
We saw a herd of elephants on the other side of the river.
The cute baby hippo swimming to shore with mommy/daddy.
After that, it was time for our bush picnic! Nicolas picked this place, he got out of the truck to check the surrounding area and then setup. The packed lunch from the lodge consisted of chicken drumsticks, mango juice, apple, a cheese sandwich (not edible by the way), and a few more items. I was on the lookout for snakes! After a quick lunch, we want to recreate our photos on the safari truck like we did in South Africa 😀
We didn’t have a tripod so Brian was the one taking the photo of this group photo.
After the group photos, we headed to another herd of elephants with lots of baby elephants!
This little one is so cute!
This one was drinking milk from mommy elephant.
This was the biggest of the herd, the leader I guess? He got angry when another male elephant got near the herd and drove him away.
Can you see the monkey inside that tree?
We saw an ostrich, I think this was my first time seeing one in the wild.
The lone tree, I love to photograph lone trees!
The warthogs are funny animals, they run, stop, and then run again. Nicolas said this was due to their very short-term memory, they forget where they are heading to so they stopped.
It was around 2 PM so it was over 6 hours of safari! We were getting tired and sleepy so it was time to head back to the lodge to rest. Dinner was steak or fish, Jason said the fish actually tasted good. Our server (also named Brian), was awesome, he told us Maasai culture stories that were very interesting. For example, for a grown man to get married, he needs to go kill a lion with his knife :O He would be an awesome guide!!!
Our server Brian asked Jason if he wanted a second dish of fish, he gladly accepted it as it was not very filling.
The coconut cake tasted good! I think I enjoyed the dessert more than another other dishes in the lodge so far.
Our 2nd long day of safari was legendary (I couldn’t think of a better word to describe it). We started with a beautiful sunrise, then a pride of lions eating their kill, and then The Great Migration. We were very lucky to see The Great Migration in action on our 2nd day, the right place at the right time!!! The whole excitement of seeing hundreds of thousands of wildebeest right in front of me migrating together was mindblowing!!! It was one of those moments that I will never forget!
