Africa is a lovely continent with humble people who love tourists and guests. My greatest adventure was a trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya, Africa, to witness the September Wildebeest migration across the river Mara. This trip was not planned, since things just happened and I found myself on a one week holiday in Kenya. One of my elder sisters is a co-founder of one child home in Kenya that handles the welfare of children in conflict. My parents received word that the wildebeest migration was about to start, and they decided to pay my sister a visit while exploring the country.
The trip to Kenya was a rather long one, going through the UK and Egypt before landing in Kenya. Our sister received us at the airport and directed us to a hotel where we would be staying for the duration of our visit. Being in a different country felt exciting, and I could immediately note the differences between the two countries. We arrived at night, around 10 pm. The road to our place of accommodation was smooth. Vehicles were moving on the left-hand side, and the driver’s seat was on the right of the vehicles.
On the first day of our visit to Kenya, we booked a tour guide to the Mara in the morning and spent the afternoon with children at the children’s home, playing and hanging out with them. The children were warm and receptive to us, probably because they were used to being visited by many different people. The children’s home was located in a town called Thika, 40 Km from the capital, Nairobi. Most of the buildings were less than ten story’s high, and the people were unusually friendly, which made it easy for us to adjust. On the second day, our tour vehicle came for us at the hotel where we were staying, and the exciting adventure started.
The trip included a tour of the Great Rift Valley as we made our way to the Masai Mara, where we would set up tents for two nights. The brochures promised us a thrilling adventure that would see us explore a diverse wilderness comprising acacia trees and a variety of wildlife, including giraffes, zebras, lions, rhinos, antelopes, and baboons, among others. The climax of the trip would be the wildebeest crossing the Mara River, a phenomenon that was identified as the eighth wonder of the world.
Our first stop was in a place called Mai Mahiu, where we enjoyed the lovely scenery of the Rift Valley Escarpment and various mountains, including Mt. Longonot. We then proceeded to Nakuru town, a four-hour drive from Nairobi town. We stopped at the lake Nakuru national park, which is a leading bird sanctuary with an abundance of flamingoes and home to the Rothschild giraffe. There were other tourists at the place, most of whom had booked accommodation in Nakuru town.
The national language in Kenya is Swahili; therefore, I had with me a Swahili-English dictionary so that I could catch on to Swahili words faster. For instance, words like “Jambo” and “Habari yako” were commonly used as a salutation, meaning “hallo” with the response being “mauri Sana,” meaning “fine.” Other wildlife at the Nakuru national park included waterbucks and rhinos. We spent the night in Nakuru, before proceeding the next day to Kisumu town, the birth town for the US president’s, Barack Obama, father.
There were several stops to enjoy the beautiful scenery comprising mainly of tea plantations in Kericho. We also made a stopover at a famous village town known as Kogelo, where we enjoyed a delicious meal of tilapia fish. Afterward, we proceeded to the famous Masai Mara Game Reserve. We arrived in time to enjoy an evening drive in reserve. There were many animals, including elephants, giraffes, lions, buffaloes, gazelles, impala, ostrich, and wildebeest. We also met the Masai community, one of the many Kenyan tribes who live inside the reserve.
The highlight of our safari was witnessing the famous annual migration. In the migration, there were thousands of wildebeests and zebras crossing the Mara River as they escape dry conditions in western Serengeti, Tanzania. This was quite a spectacle as hundreds of animals were captured by hungry crocodiles in the river. The Mara River had strong currents, and some animals, especially the young ones, were carried away by the river, giving the crocodiles easy prey. This was quite exciting, as we took pictures and shot videos of the spectacle.
While the migration provided a breathtaking scenery, the entire Mara game reserve was beautiful, with a variety of animals, including the big five, namely the lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino, and elephant. During our short tour of the Mara, we did not manage to see a predator kill an animal, but we witnessed several chases, which were terribly exciting. On the fourth and last day of our tour, we took an early morning tour of the game reserve in order to take amusing photos of the wildlife and scenery.
The highlight of our African safari was witnessing the wildebeest migration as the zebras and wildebeest crossing the Mara River from Tanzania into the greener Mara game reserve. It was also exciting to see the predators prey on antelopes and even bigger animals. We were not allowed to leave our tour vehicles for safety measures but enjoyed every bit of the trip. The Mara was certainly a case of saving the best for last.
On our way back to Nairobi, there were fewer stops as we reminisced on our fun-filled safari. I was almost sad that our trip to the country had come to an end, but at least we had some photos and videos to remind us of the fun we had. It was certainly enjoyable to see wild animals in their natural habitat, as opposed to seeing them in an orphanage. It was during the safari that I made sense of the meaning of natural selection and adaptation for survival.
There are obviously a lot more fun-filled adventures for young people like me, like kayaking, hiking, mountain climbing, and flying in balloons, among others that I would like to explore in the future. I would also recommend to my friends a visit to the game reserves in Africa. The safaris are a great way for people to interact with nature and to understand why we need to conserve our environment. The next adventure that I embark on will probably involve a sport like kayaking or sky diving for some adrenaline rush.