Christmas & Safari

We had a really nice holiday season even though we were away from home. After the wedding we went up to Nairobi to stay with our friends Eda and Albo and their two sons (baby Seo arrived shortly after we last visited them in August!). We had a relaxing Christmas Eve and Christmas, got to see a movie in a theater, played board games, got some shopping done, visited with a friend, Julie, who is an American teacher, visited with Laura and her parents (Kenyan family friends), and generally took a vacation! We neglected to take pictures, though, since our batteries were dead :-(. This was my (Lesley) first Christmas away from my family, but Eda’s family took us in as their own and we did Skype with family members. We particularly enjoyed the chilly weather (similar to a California winter) and being in the presence of strong Christians and good friends.

The day after Christmas we took off on our safari … though there were a couple of minor mishaps when we first arrived and on the way home, all in all it was a great trip. We visited Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru, and spent most of the time doing game drives. We saw all the main animals except leopards, which are notoriously hard to spot. Here are the highlights, in roughly chronological order:

A cheetah on the chase (even though we couldn't see the running behind some brush, here the cheetah is after sadly not catching any of the antelope).

A lion-buffalo face-off (here is a brave buffalo from the herd trying to run off the lionesses), and a male relaxing in some brush not too far away – probably associated?

Visiting a local Masai village (Chris on the left, in the purple - just in case you can't tell!)

Zebra herds patiently waiting to cross the road:

An elephant herd (with a little baby)... not waiting to cross the road!

A lion crossing the road to join another lying in the brush.

Driving all the way to the Tanzanian border (where the Masai Mara becomes the Serengeti) and seeing a rare Masai giraffe just across it.

Hippos in the Mara River:


A crowned crane dancing for another right in front of our van:

Having an unexpectedly romantic, candle-light dinner at the Mara Hippo Lodge:

"Honeymooning" lions - yes, we can actually attest to it!

A cheetah couple relaxing, and then when they got up, it appears one is pregnant.

The beauty of Lake Nakuru:

A rhino crossing the road right ahead of us - there was tall brush on both sides of the road, and we were looking in the trees for a chance to see leopards, so this rhino just like appeared right in front of us and was already on the other side of the road as you see by the time we got the camera up.

Impala herds – they are separated into the females with one male, and then a nearby heard of the rest of the males. Then, we saw a male challenging the other males in his herd in preparation to challenge the male with the females!

A giraffe herd very close around us, with two neckling (neck wrestling) though it looked like just for fun/practice fighting.

Flocks of flamingos in Lake Nakuru:

ps. We just have a basic digital camera; no special zoom ... we really were that close! And we have hundreds more pictures if you like that stuff ... just ask us when we get home.