Masai Mara Game Reserve part I

I got up at 8am saturday morning for breakfast because I was getting picked up at 9 for my 4 day safari. They picked me on time and then we picked up our 4 other passengers. Tour companies put people together on a tour if they only have one person going, even if you booked through another company. Sara and Emma, 2 young ladies from Ireland doing a round the world trip, were already in the van when they picked me up. Then we got Gala, a Russian/Canadian from Toronto on a work holiday and then Henry, a young travel agent from Nigeria.
We finally got on the road at 10. We stopped on an escarpment for a lovely view over the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley stretches from Ethiopia to Mozambique and is where Africa was almost ripped in 2. It contains many valleys,deep lakes and volcanoes. The road had been ok up to this point but then it turned into a diaster of potholes with a bit of road inbetween! We stopped at Narok for lunch and then it was another 1.5 hours on a horrible dirt road to our camp on the edge of the Masai Mara. Along the way we saw some giraffe in the distance and some zebras quite close to the road. We arrived at camp at 3.30. I got my own tent with 2 beds, similar to what I slept in in Kruger National Park in South Africa. After settling in we went out on our first game drive at 4. The gate for the park was only 2 minutes from camp. Immediately after entering the park there were many animals, zebras, wildebeests, grant's gazelle and thomson's gazelle. A bit further in were topi and hartebeest. I'm not really going to describe what many animals look like because there's just too many. I understand many people might not be familiar with all these animals but you'll have to wait for me to post photos or you can look them up on google images.
The landscape of the Masai Mara is the stereotypical savanna with long rolling grassy hills and Acacia trees and some scrub brush. I had never seen any landscapes like this before and it was great for wildlife viewing. It was my first time doing a safari in a minivan and I was a little skeptical on how it would be. The roof opens up about 60cm high and you can stand up and have an elevated 360 degree view, which I quite liked. The only downside is that you have to stand up. It's fine to sit down and look out the window but I prefer to see everything to have the best chance for finding animals. The minivan sat 7 but with only 5 of us there was plenty of room for everyone to stand. Everyone did stand up for the first bit while there was a lot of animals but then they sat down. I stayed standing. It was a good thing I did to because I was the first to spot a pair of black backed jackals in the grass. Our guide/driver, who liked to be called 'Animal' told me it was some 'good spotting!'. We drove closer to the jackals, who look like happy dogs, but they stayed on the move and wouldn't let us get too close. There are tons of vehicle tracks in the Mara,some of them main roads, other just faint tracks through the grass but vehicles pretty much just drive where they want. So, whenever we saw an animal we wanted to get closer to, Animal would just drive up to it, terrain permitting. I know, not so great for the ecosystem but good for photos! Most of the time though, Animal did his best to stay on existing tracks because there is the possibility of getting stuck going off road and we're only in a minivan.
Around 6pm we started heading back to camp because it's dark by 7. I could see in the distance a gathering of minivans, this usually means something good is there. As we got closer I could see large beige animals and thought....hopefully it's lion. I was right, a pride of 9 lions was understandably attracting all the attention. There were 3 lionesses and 6 cubs of varying ages. Right after we parked a lioness walked right in front of our van and just stood on my side of the van, about 1.5m away! She just stood there, intensely staring at something. It was amazing and an adrenaline rush to have this huge cat standing so close. I had seen lions before in Kruger but it was in tall grass and only a glimpse of their heads, nothing like this. One lioness stood guard under a tree while the rest starting slowly moving away from the vehicles. None of them seemed to pay any particular attention to the 15 vans parked all around them. The cubs played with each other while most of the vehicles began to leave. We stayed a little while longer because we were the last to arrive. We arrived back at camp at 6.30.
Camp consisted of about a dozen tents surrounded by small trees and a fence of euphorbia cactus to keep any curious intruders hopefully at bay. There was power from a generator and even hot showers and a powerbar to charge whatever. Dinner was at 7 and consisted of rice, beef, cabbage and chapathi. Most of the food I've eaten so far is very bland, maybe it's just where I've eaten but I don't think Kenya is known for its cuisine!
It rained earlier in the day on our drive to the Mara but the sky was clear now and full of stars. It shouldn't be raining now, Animal said. The 'short rains' come and end around september. But I don't mind some rain, it makes everything more fresh and lush and keeps down the dust. I went to bed around 9.30. My thoughts focused on what an amazing first day I've had. 10 species of animal, 4 of them new for me and the best lion experience I've had.....so far!