Room to Roam

Linda Lou Burton posting from Sarova Mara Game Camp, Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya– Porridge. “It’s what we eat for breakfast in Kenya,” Abdi assured Judy. “It’s good for the digestion.” Judy decided to try it too, a big bowl of the brownish stuff. “I like it,” she proclaimed. “Not too heavy for a morning start.” I had some fruit and yogurt, feeling pretty health conscious myself. Meanwhile Rick was enjoying a Full English Breakfast “in the bush,” meaning, outdoors, with a sweeping view of the world around. AND, all the sausages and eggs and buttery biscuits that the British ate in the olden days when out on safari. Tea available, of course, but champagne if you’ve just completed a balloon ride. The rest of us were gathering at our Sarova table INDOORS, showing up one by one, sleepy headed, but eager to climb into our 4x4s and get out on the Mara. First stop: to pick up Rick.

The Maasai Mara National Reserve is called The World Cup of Wildlife; it is home to Kenya’s highest concentrations of “the Big 5” (remember, buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard, rhinoceros) and the Big Cats (cheetah, leopard, lion). With plenty of room to roam for all of the above. What would we spot in the next hour? The ROOM caught my attention first – so much air, and sky, and space, and, I say it again, space. We were on the ground, not in a balloon, and yet, amazed at all the THERE out there! Do the animals realize, I thought to myself, just how fortunate they are? It took us an hour to get to the Balloon Safari’s breakfast spot, where Rick awaited; take a look at what I saw on the way. Note my first sighting of the big hairy wildebeest. Imagine millions of them! The story of The Great Migration I’ll tell you next post – it’s the greatest draw to the Maasai Mara — both in animals, and in tourists.