What an experience... What a start to the trip though. We're definitely starting to use 'hakuna matata' quite a bit'

We'd been told to be ready for 7am so had to leave the hotel in the pitch black before any staff were up and only the guard dogs to keep us company! They were very interested in Tony when he snuck out the side door! Our driver then turned up at 7.45, after we had phoned the office to establish he was still coming. A very sleepy James then turned up. After driving around for almost an hour we finally found the hotel where 2 more people were staying. It transpires he turned up bang on time for them. Not quite sure how that works. Oh well, hakuna matata. We met 2 other people in a shopping centre car park and this is where we handed over the rest of our cash. I wondered what on earth was happening. Thankfully it was all ok, even when 2 armed security guards wouldn't let us out the car park... Transpires they hadn't paid the car park fee!

After a 7 hour very very dusty and very very bumpy journey, we arrived in the Mara, our home for the next 4 days. We headed out on a game drive straight away, another 2.5 hrs in the dusty van. This time it didn't matter as we spotted a cheetah, a lion, elephants, wildebeest, zebras and lots of impala's. Tony's camera was click click clicking away.

Back at the camp we had dinner and a couple of beers before retiring to bed as the camp only has power and hot water between 7-10pm.

The next day we headed out for 10hrs, heading to the Kenyan/Tanzanian border. We saw loads more animals including 2 lions mating, 2 cheetas sunning themselves under a tree, a leopards kill hidden up in the tree- a baby wildebeest and baby zebra just hanging there... No leopard to be seen though, and lots of hippos and giraffes. Interesting facts about lions- they mate for 7 consecutive days... The first 3 are spent mating every 5 minutes for 5 seconds at at time #tiring!!

Hippos, even though they live in the water, do not eat fish. The story goes that when God created hippos they asked if they could live in water as they liked it. God agreed but only if they didn't eat the fish. Every time they surface and open their mouths wide, it is to show God-look, no fish in my mouth!

The next day our trip companions departed and we were put with another group-suddenly our maximum of 6 in a van was no longer applicable! On the plus side, we were meant to only have 2 short game drives but instead had another 12 hrs out in the van. Not great on the bottom but a great experience! We saw 2 female lions and their cubs, more cheetahs, lots more zebras and giraffes, loads of hippos sunbathing at the river and best of all, we witnessed the great wilderbeest migration which we weren't expecting as we'd been told they hadn't yet stated crossing from the Serengetti to the Mara! We received a call over the radio and our driver rushed over the deep rutted tracks and we arrived to a plume of dust as thousands of animals stampeded towards the river.... and then stopped. The vans had spooked them. Only a few had made the crossing, the squeals from one suggesting it hadn't quite made it and instead had landed in the mouth of the crocodiles that lie waiting.
After much commotion and protection from us and other tourists that the vans were blocking the river crossing points, the vans all moved to create entrances to the river for the animals and we waited.... and waited.... and waited a while longer. An hour and three quarters later after the animals had approached the river and walked away again several times, they went for it; dodging the crocodiles and making it safely over to the other side, but not until circling around in the water for 15 minutes or so, trying to figure out how to exit. All the time I watched with bated breath, sure another baby wilderbeest would fall prey to the lurking crocs. Thankfully though, no victims.