African Safari – Our first game viewing drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve

African Safari – Our first game viewing drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve

After surviving hours of bumpy, dusty roads, we had lunch and freshened up and were ready to get back in the safari van and head out into the Masai Mara National Reserve for the firs safari drive. Others of our group chose other options so Graeme and I had the van to ourselves. We were a bit late in leaving the lodge though so couldn’t go on a really long safari. Enough though to get some idea of what the following days would bring.

The first large animal that we saw was the Wildebeest. From Wiki: The wildebeest (plural wildebeest, wildebeests or wildebai), also called the gnu (pronounced /ˈnuː/noo or /ˈnjuː/ new), is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved (ungulate) mammal. Wildebeest is Dutch for “wild beast” or “wild cow” in Afrikaans (bees = cow), while Connochaetes derives from the Greek words konnos (“beard”) and khaite (“flowing hair”).

Soon after, we saw a couple of Black-Backed Jackals. In Africa, jackals tend to occupy about the same position in the supply chain as the Coyote of North America.

From the bird world, we saw a number of interesting birds. We would see the same species again in later outings but they were all new birds to us at this point in our African safari.

Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) – National bird of Uganda

Crowned Plover/Crowned Lapwing (Vanellus coronatus)

Temmink’s Courser (Cursorius temmininkii)

Bird species not known

Bird species not known

At one location African Cape Buffalo were present in significant numbers.

Seeing zebras and various antelope species in their native habitat was quite exciting but probably the thrill of this evening’s drive was when we saw a family of elephants emerge from the brushes.

All in all, not too shabby for a quick late afternoon drive. We had a pretty good feeling that there would be more waiting for us in the morning!