Half term Mara trip

It is the last day of the half term holiday. The pupils arrive tomorrow and my house (Ruwenzori) is on duty to meet and greet them as they get back. It has been a most enjoyable break. The trip to the Mara I took with Beverley was a great success. The drive there took about seven hours, the last two of which were spent being shaken about on bumpy roads. The accommodation was very basic as we'd gone for a bargain deal from a tour company in Nakuru. Luckily I knew what was coming, as Beverley had already experienced it in the summer and still thought it worth a second go. Things had got worse...there were the usual tents under bandas, with beds and clean sheets but there was no hot water and they didn't seem ready for visitors in any way at all really. However, none of that mattered in the least because the game drives were as good as anyone could hope. During the three drives (an evening one on the day we arrived, a whole day the next day and an early morning one on the day we left) we saw lions, cheetahs, a leopard, many giraffes and elephants, zebra, gazelles, eland, waterbuck, topi, a secretary bird and many, many more animals and birds. The wildebeeste were congregated in huge numbers all looking ready for a move across the Mara river. They weren't quite ready to do it while we were looking, though, even though we hung about hopefully for a couple of hours. The river was full of basking hippos and the air was full of the sound of the wildebeeste grunting, but they just were not up for the stampede that day. The first night in the camp the hyenas kept me awake with their whooping and cackling, but by the second night I was dead to the world - bumping around in a van and concentrating on looking for game for eight hours is surprisingly tiring. The Mara is vast and we only saw a small part of it. Quite an experience. I'm so glad to have done it.