We woke early for our game drive through the Maasai Mara. It wasn't long before we veered towards about 4 safari vans intently looking at a bush... which we soon discovered had 9 lion cubs and 2 big mums. The parents had caught a small buffalo calf to give to the cubs to practice their killing skills, but with their little teeth and claws it was more a case of cruely teasing the calf instead of eating it. We stopped for a quite a while before moving onwards to find some more animals.

We drove into an area of the park that was obviously a predator hotspot due to all the carcasses and bones littering the ground. They must have all been off hunting though so we continued on.

We passed by many of the standard African animals such as hippos, giraffe, baboons, buffalo, wildebeast, zebra and impala, but it was the 2 safari vans parked underneath a leopardy-looking tree that got Michael and I very excited. With a flick of a leopardy tail, our guide confirmed that it was indeed a leopard, but our next challenge was getting our massive 12tonne truck off the main dirt road and up the steep incline towards the leopard tree. It took about 10 tries, and a lot of screaming 'the truck's going to roll!' before a cheer of success went up. It was at this victorious moment that we watched the leopard leap of the tree and slink off into the long grass, as we sadly assumed we had missed our chance to see a wild leopard up close. However, Cyrus our driver would not give up that easily, and he sped at full speed towards the grass the leopard had disappared into. Unfortunately our back right wheel ended up in a sneaky warthog hole, and our truck became very very stuck. We were all slumped in diasppointment, until just to the left of our truck, a spotty leopard head popped up out of the grass, obviously in stealthy hunting mode as it eyed off a distant impala. It was incredible to watch such a rarely seen animal slinking on by within metres of us.

Getting our of the warthog hole proved to be quite problematic. After several unsuccesful towing attempts by the nearby safari vans, our guide went off in search of a tractor to tow us. It required a lot of digging to loosen us from the hole, but 2hrs later we were on our way and ready to see some more kitties.

Further up the road, we spotted some tawny brown amongst the long grass, and suddenly a big couple of lions emerged. The male was looking very skinny, as the mating process takes about 5 days and they are not able to hunt at all during this time. We all felt a bit intrusive, but looked on with a giggle as the female gave her roar of approval and they got to work making some little lion cubs. The whole thing lasted about 5 seconds.

After our fantastic day of gameviewing in the Maasai Mara, Michael and I decided to top off our day with a tour of a local Maasai village. It was fascinating to see how these people manage to survive without any modern luxuries. We walked through their corale, viewing their livestock and simple mud-hut homes called Manyattas. The men, wrapped up in their Maasai blankets, sang some of their traditional songs for us and of course demonstated their high-jumping dancing. Michael, being the only Western male, was invited to join in with the dancing. We were allowed into one of the Manyattas, where we saw a wife preparing their traditional 'meal' of milk mixed with cows blood and meat. This is their only real source of nutrition and drunk every day. Inside the Manyatta was very small and smokey, and even had a goat trying to sneak in! The family inside this hut had a Mother, Father and one child, although the father was hoping to get another wife soon as it is perfectly acceptable to have up to 5 wives.