7 of My Favorite Parts of My Trip to the Masai Mara

1.  "Wilfred's Game Drive"  - As we neared the Farimounte (our resort for the weekend) our driver announced that we should keep our eyes open because we would start to see animals.  He was just as excited as we were to point them out and slow down to watch them. 

2.  The Sunset - on our first "game drive" the sky was astonishing.  The red that wiped across the shy was so vivid. 

3.  Run - towards the end of our first "drive" we got to get out and walk around.  After stretching our legs and enjoying the scenery I asked Rachel if she wanted to chase the Zebras.  We took off running and burst into laughter at ourselves.  I will never forget the joy of laughing as we ran after the retreating Zebras.

4.  What was that? - After dinner I was alone in our "tent" and I suddenly heard a loud bird call, in the tree above, followed by an even louder monkey scream.  It was so shockingly loud that I had to laugh.  Five minutes later it happened again.  After the third time I thought I should call the front desk to see if there was anyway to get the monkey to move so that we could sleep at time without hearing its screams.  Thankfully, they sent a guard!

5.  Hippo Noises - There were at least six hippos right across the river from out tent.  I've been curious what hippo actually look like ever since the last time someone pointed them out to me and I only got to see heads popping out of the water.  It was a special gift to have the hippos right outside our tent so we could watch them go up and down in the water and listening to them grunt and groan.  How often to you get to fall asleep to the sound of the river flowing down stream while listening for hippos noises?


6.  God Made That -  There were two things about the animals that left an impression, their size was the first.  The rhinos were much bigger than I expected and the lion was smaller.  I think the lion may have still been a young adult.

The second thing that always sticks with me is that God could make spots and stripes on animals with such vivid colors.  Its amazing that an all drown buck could have two dark "bracelets" around its legs or that a leopard would always be born with spots all over it's body.  How did God do that?  I realized I also love when the animals run and the babies are pretty cute too. 

7.  "A New Day Dawning" -  On our morning "Game Drive" we headed towards the mountains at the same time as the sun was coming up between the peaks.  My mind began to sing, "The sun comes up it's a new day dawning," like a soundtrack for the weekend.  I hummed the tune the rest of the morning and each time we went out to see the animals I couldn't help but hear the words in my head.  On our last drive I loved singing the chorus in my heart for we had seen so many reasons to exclaim, "Bless the Lord oh my soul..."