Lions in the Masai Mara

Early one morning in the Masai Mara we came across a pride of lions having breakfast. I'm not sure what animal it was but they'd killed it a short time before we arrived.

We watched intently, taking lots of photos. A few minutes later we spotted a male lion approaching slowly from the other side.

We weren't the only ones to notice, some of the lions stopped eating and started starting at the approaching lion.

A few more lions scattered as he approached leaving only a small group finishing their breakfast.

The male lion approached slowly. Check out the hot air balloons in the background.

With one powerful roar the male lion dispersed all of the lions. You'll need to click on the photo to see a bigger size in order to see the expressions on the lions faces.

The male lion dragged the caracas away and started eating while the rest of the lions looked on from a distance.

Then a jackal and a hyena started approaching slowly. You can vaguely see them in the photo below.

They slowly went to the original kill site to join the vultures and started eating the scraps.

Related Blog Posts:

• The Miracle Safari - Part 1
• The Miracle Safari - Part 2
• The Miracle Safari - Part 3
• Presidential Safari

The Miracle Safari - part 3

The plan was to camp using our own tent, cook our own food and pay for the game drives. We spoke with the owner of the lodge and he explained how their pricing worked. Taking their all-inclusive option was about 30 dollars more expensive but we'd stay in one of their 'big' tents, have all our meals in their restaurant and get two game drives a day. I asked if they took credit card as we didn't have enough cash to cover one night, they couldn't take card but they said we could pay from Narok when we were on our way back to Nairobi. We checked in for one night and ended up staying three. 


Their big tent was a like a small house, multiple rooms and a proper bathroom with a hot shower, definitely worth the extra cash! It couldn't have been more perfect, the food, accommodation, vehicle and driver were all excellent. Within 5 minutes of our first game drive we came across a pride of lions, later a cheetah with cubs, then elephants, wildebeest, buffalo, giraffes, hippos, hyenas and the following morning a pride of lions having breakfast.

Related Blog Posts:

• The Miracle Safari - Part 1
• The Miracle Safari - Part 2
• The Miracle Safari - Part 4
• Presidential Safari

The Presidential Safari

After visiting the giraffe centre we went to the main entrance to Nairobi National park to see if we could arrange a safari. The information desk said the best option for those without vehicles was to use a taxi and they could arrange one. We spoke to their suggested taxi driver but apart from it being very expensive we didn't really think we'd get to see much driving around in a taxi! We walked to the park entrance to see if there were any other options. Here's a sign from the near the park entrance. 

Who has right of way?

Here we got talking to one of the park officials. He suggested that we could use the presidential vehicle, we thought he was joking at first but he explained that it was the parks vehicle and in absence of Obama coming to visit they've decided to make use of the vehicle. The cost would be 10USD per person, considerably cheaper then the 80USD taxi the lady at the information desk was try to sell us. We organized to meet them at the gate the next morning at 6:30am. We didn't pay anything at that point so we were still little suspect as it seemed a little too good to be true and extremely weird that such a service would not be advertised or mentioned at the information desk. We took a moto taxi back to the campsite and organized with the driver to collect us at 6am the next day.

6am mototaxi to Nairobi National Park

Next morning we arrived by motorbike much to the amusement of the security at our campsite and also the officials at the national park. We got there paid the 40USD park entrance and the 10USD for the vehicle and driver. The guy wasn't lying, we actually had the presidential vehicle all to ourselves for a morning safari in the national park!

Presidential Vehicle

We were driving for about 15 minutes through the park and so far hadn't seen any animals. I was starting to think this was the catch and then we spotted a lion! Our guide knew what he was doing and had gone specifically to where he knew the lions would be. One of the lions came quite close to our vehicle which made for some great photos. 

A lion a few meters from our vehicle

Same lion, different view

After an hour or so watching the lions more tourists started to arrive. At some point the lions got curious and decided to investigate the cars.

A lion investigating one of the other vehicles

As it started to get crowded with tourists our guide suggested we leave the lions and go further. Next we came across a Rhino. This guy kept his distance from us so I didn't get a particularly great photo.

Rhino in Nairobi National Park