Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

We set off for our two days camping in Maasai Mara, stopping off at the Great Rift Valley viewpoint. It was a few hours drive total, and a really bumpy road at the end. We visited a local tribe in the afternoon, then entered the reserve and spotted quite a few animals – elephant, buffalo, zebra, hyena, lions with cubs. This was my first ever experience of safari in Africa, something I’d been wanting to do for years. It felt amazing to be standing at the back of the jeep, looking over the expanse of land with animals roaming. This is exactly what I had pictured when I started thinking about planning a trip to Africa.

Day 2 in Maasai Mara was another big day. I was up at around 5 AM for the hot air balloon ride. It was nice, but the weather conditions weren’t ideal – it was quite foggy, so we had to fly low to get a view of any of the animals. We finished with a champagne breakfast with Sadhbh and Dan from my tour group, but I’m not really into these overtly luxurious activities. Later that day we went back into the national reserve, driving around in the Jeep until about 6 PM. We saw loads of animals, it was never ending. The tour group is still forming and getting to know eachother. There’s about 20 of us. I feel more comfortable getting to know people in smaller groups, in larger groups I feel a bit disconnected and go into my shell a bit. We’re on the road again tomorrow with more camping on the menu.

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