The Masai Mara
We arrived in the Masai Mara with no problems whatsoever. We went to one of the Masai villages where the men and women did traditional dances and told us about how they live, we were taken into one of their huts which was really interesting. The hut was tiny and there are loads of people living in there, they showed us how they cook- it was very impressive but I think we will stick with Mccyd's! The dancing and singing was great, they sounded amazing, they jump around and the chiefs son wore a hat made from a lion head. We gave him a lift up to the next village in the truck, it really felt like we had kidnapped him it looked crazy. The women didn't seem as enthusiastic as the men, perhaps this is because they have to share their husband with three other women!

We then drove through the Masai park and did a game drive, it was pretty unsuccessful looking back but as it was our first game drive we loved it- we saw lots of elephants, giraffes, impalas, baboons and zebras. We then set up camp in this beautiful camp site in the Masai. It was our first night to cook and we had rubbish light and everyone was shattered and hungry, our group made curried sausages- it was… emm… an experience! But I can honestly say since this point we have improved greatly!

The next day we headed to the park again and this was a lot more successful- we saw lions mating really close up! We stopped off in a really fancy camp site for tea and biscuits from the truck… we are ever so civilised! We then headed to the river where all of the game cross when they migrate to the Serengeti. This was great to see but not so much to smell as lots of the game die when the crocodiles and hippos attack them, the place stunk of death! It wasn't a bad wildlife encounter as we got pretty close to the hippos and were hounded by monkeys with their babies who were after our sandwiches!

Narok
After the Masai we drove out of Kenya back to Karen (the place we started) we stopped off at Narok to break the journey up. The camp site was awful and after half erecting the tent the owner came out to tell us it wouldn't be safe to camp there (even with the armed guards) and we should all stay in a room for the night. Dale reassured us that this was just there way of exploiting the situation and we would be fine. We didn't exactly feel safe but we didn't really see the difference a wall would make to muggers so we camped with four other tents and the rest upgraded to rooms. We were quite calm going to bed, but larium (the malaria tablet) gives you crazy dreams and I woke up in the middle of the night convinced we were being robbed and that John was the attacker screaming for help! It was hilarious once I calmed down. It's great because we take larium on a Monday and we always have mental dreams so now we look forward to taking it! Well we made it through the night in one piece and had a nice early start to avoid any problems and headed back to Karen. On the way we were talking to another overland truck who's camp site had been invaded by locals with machetes but apparently they weren't interested in the tourists just the locals- lucky for them.

Karen… again.
It was great to be back at Karen as it felt like familiar territory, almost like home! We treated ourselves to a room and upgraded back to the room we had originally stayed in. I had gone almost a week without straightening my hair so it was time to tame the beast. We all went out for an Indians that night. It was hilarious as we traveled there in the little bread van, but there wasn't enough room so I had to sit on John's knee and people had to sit on the floor, there were just heads all over. It made the bumps even funnier and cars were going past staring in wondering what we were all doing! We had a great night, very funny and lush food! Johns African vice is the 50p beer and mine is kit kat chunkys- I would say I'm officially addicted!' The next day at Karen we just got our washing done- by hand… get us! The washing powder is called toss it really entertains us! We just lay in the sun all day and then met our 3 new members Shannon, Sam and Gabriella. Gabby is from Chile and couldn't speak much English originally but now she can even understand Geordie! She's lovely and her random outbursts of Spanish are well funny. Sam's posh but she wont admit it. She's great andh she's a big softy and girlie (she lends my straighteners and we go bangle shopping together) it's nice to have someone else who's a big wuss! We also lost a few members- we lost Helen and Pete a couple from London, they were funny so it's a shame. We also lost the Aussy boys as they were gamed out and decided to head to Zanzibar for a chill out and skip the Serengeti. We will see them there when they arrive and Mark will be getting back on the truck to Maun but Chris and Martin are heading back to Oz.

Off to Tanzania.

We love kenya and will definitely go back but it was quite nice to leave due to all of the trouble. We were told that rebels were setting up road blocks and robbing people and worse and the police and army couldn't do much about it due to a large presence being needed at Nairobi, so they couldn't patrol the country side much to stop opportunists. We never seen any trouble but it was quite nice to cross the border!