Today was another stupidly early start!!!! The gates to the Mara open at 6.30am, so Karen wanted to get there at 6.30... We got a wake up call at 5.45, then tea was at 6, and we were meant to leave at 6.15, but the boys didn't get to the "mess tent" (dining room/siting room) until 6.30 so we were slightly late getting off. We got to the gate by 6.50 which was perfectly in time to get beautiful pictures of the sunrise!!
We saw the usual animals (giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, buffalo etc) including 2 herds of elephants!! And........ 7 lions!!!!!!!!! At first we saw 3 lionesses, quite far away but we could see through the binoculars. Then on our way out we saw 1 lioness which turned out to be 2 lionesses and 2 young males!! Was all very exciting!!!!! We tried to watch the wildebeest crossing the river but we missed it by 5 minutes. The river was disgusting!!!!!! It STANK of dead animals, and vultures, some kind of heron/stalk, and the crocs were just finishing off the remains. I almost threw up smelling the river!!
We got back to camp about 11, and we had a yummy cooked breakfast (including Nutella on toast!!). After that we had a chilled afternoon to get ready for the afternoon/evening game drive.
We set off around 4 (after tea and cake of course), and the highlight of the evening was 2 LIONS MATING!!!!! The best thing we have seen!! The Grants call it "the Gammie factor" in that we have luck seeing so many different animals, and also that we see so many animals mating!! The rest of the game drive was average compared to that!! We got back to camp at around 7 for sundowners (even though the sun had already gone down) and I called Liam for a quick chat.
We then went up to the mess tent for a supper of pork chops covered in mango and ginger sauce. To be honest, it was disgusting (sorry Gordon!!) but the mash potato was nice.
I was then quite tired so we were all escorted (they had seen 3 elephants around the camp) back to our tents to sleep.