Category: Lions

The Masai Mara has become the premier destination for tourists that want to view wildlife within their natural environment. The sheer abundance of wild African animal species, the annual migration of herds of wildlife and also the lions would be the greatest attraction.

While these attractions are what initially drew me to see this spectacular location, they are not the things i truly loved about Masai Mara. Don’t get me wrong, the migration was absolutely magnificent and seeing a lion initially left me in awe. But there was clearly just much more towards the experience that made my entire journey memorable.

One of many aspects which includes stayed with me the most is definitely the sounds from the African bush that haunt me to this day. It is actually so still and quiet compared to the city noises i are getting to be so used to, but a once, it is noisy in it’s own right.

Just before the sun even begins to peer on the horizon, countless bird species begin to twitter, tweet and sing to each other. It is possible to believe they are shouting out their morning greetings to 1 another and discussing their day ahead. When the sun is up, this cacophony dies down as being the birds move away and off to start finding their food preferred by the day.

The multitude of insect noises made it a hardship on me to fall asleep in the beginning. Thousands of insects sound their calls to potential mates and especially loud, are the crickets that sing their song in to the starlight. The insects don’t stay quiet in the daylight hours either. The cicadas constantly screech out their location and potential being a mate to many other insects in your community.

The sound of an automobile establishing or even a loud boom instantly sends the bush into silence as every living types of wildlife waits with bated breath to find out if there exists danger, what form that danger could take and should it be headed inside their direction. This stillness is all encompassing, especially after your ears have become used to the noise.

Probably the most terrifying sound inside the bush is of male lion claiming his territory in the dark. Unlike popular belief, lions rarely roar and a lot commonly make a booming, guttural barking sound that sent shivers down my spine and made my hair get up on end. The noise was extremely close to our camp which caused it to be more disconcerting. It is actually a sound that my visceral brain recognized and knew to fear.

The shades in the African bush are simply just awe inspiring. In the morning, every feature is tinted with a slightly pink hue as being the sun taints the landscape. Later within the day, I needed never witnessed quite a similar hue of blue as the azure that defines the wide open African skies.

Darkness comes quickly within the African bush and within 20 minutes of watching direct sunlight set in a variety of brilliant colors, I really could not see my hand looking at my face. It took a little while for your stars to seem in a number and intensity that we had not expected, regardless how often times I had heard the knowledge described.

Even later at night, I had been fortunate enough to witness a whole moon rising. I have got never seen the moon so big, so white roughly bright. It lit up the landscape in ways that was both eerie and delightful to behold. It absolutely was like seeing the bush veld in shades of grey as opposed to the colorful pallet that may be displayed through the day.

The smells and tastes from your bush will also stay with me. Through the morning dew towards the start of a rain storm, the odors from the air just seem much more intense than We have ever proficient in my entire life. Each type of grass, tree and flower also gives off it’s own unique fragrance.

The meals I was served was an experience in and also of itself. I opted for traditional African cuisine as an alternative to consuming food that has been adapted to fit our Western palates. The staple is a kind of maize meal porridge that is served savory at lunch and dinner but sweet in the morning for breakfast.

I actually have also never eaten so much meat in my entire life. The Africans treasure meat and each meal has enough protein to hold you going throughout the day. Game and bush meat were often on the menu and that i found the taste to get more intense than any other type of meat I had ever eaten.

The Masai Mara was not practically the wildlife as well as the bush to me, but rather it absolutely was the entire sensory experience that this provided I loved the most and will carry with me for eternity.