Today we had a sort of lie-in... We were woken up at 7.30 for breakfast at 8, and then we set off for an all-day game drive/safari just before 9. Kristina had a bit of an embarrassing time trying to get out of Enkipai Camp, which included: a herd of cattle, stalling on a hill, beeping the horn, lots of people looking at her, and the circle of life blaring through our speakers!!
We went through a different gate, so we drove 30 mins instead of 15 to get into the actual Mara. Ken had got in touch with a man called Moses who is one of the drivers for a company inside the Mara. He knew where almost anything was, and told us that there was a pride of lions nearby, so we went and found them. It was clear from a distance where they were, as there were 10 to 15 cars around them!! We managed to squeeze in a little circle, and saw that there were just over 10 lionesses and young lions lying down in the shade of a bunch of bushes. Due to cliffs and rocks and other bushes, we managed to get a metre away from them!!!! Incredible!! A few metres from that group, there was a male lion - I guess one of the leading lions (generally the females are the leaders apparently) - sat in the sun by himself surrounded by a school bus, 2 cars, a car full of people who wouldn't stop talking, and our 2 cars. It was so amazing to see him that close!!!! When we were leaving the lion pride we saw another male lion asleep and hiding in the grass. This one was slightly smaller than the other.
Then we left the lion pride, and moved on. The whole day consisted of driving - from 9am until 7pm when we returned to camp. We stopped for lunch at around 1pm, then soon after we were told we were in Tanzania for about 2 minutes - crossed the border then back again!! Some of the Mara is in Tanzania, so it technically wasn't an illegal crossing haha!! Between lunch and tea stop at 4ish, we saw a crossing!! Hundreds of wildebeest and a few 10s of zebra crossed the river!! We got there just in time to see it which was handy. Nothing got eaten though, we guessed because the crocs had already had food for the day. The smell was there though - rotting carcasses with loads of vultures circling the river.
We stopped for tea at about 4 by a river, where the Grant family had camped in previous years. It had eroded away (the cliff had) and you could just about see where they used to have camp fires - half was still showing, the other half had fallen into the river below.
We were supposed to go straight back to the gate as it was 5.30 by the time we finished tea (such a long tea time it's crazy!!!!) and the gate closed apparently at 6.30. So we started to head back. On our way though, we came across a big herd of elephants, including 2 tiny tiny baby ones!!!!! And then we were informed that there was a RHINO asleep in the bushes!! It took us a good 5 to 10 minutes to locate the rhino through binoculars, but eventually we found it. It was hiding in bushes and we could just about see its ears and head.
It was 6.30 by the time we decided to leave - all the kids were getting stressed about not getting back in time, but the adults didn't seem fazed. We got to the gate at 6.50 and the guards didn't seem to care which was good!! We got back to camp at around 7, then showered and chilled for just over an hour then had a BBQ supper!! With Gordon's homemade icecream again for pudding.
My back was in horrible pain though, and I was feeling very sleepy, so I went straight to bed whilst the others stayed up a bit longer and played cards or something.