Mara

Despite thinking that I would not be able to wake up at 6 am for the sunrise walk, due to a heavy desire to sleep in, an early night meant that I could drag myself out of bed and begin the walk. I got my 9 hours of sleep and therefore couldn't really justify missing the walk opportunity. Especially this close to the end of my tour, and it was definitely worth it. Although we missed the sunrise, we still caught the sun just on the horizon, and it was a great moment. We were on the South-West border of the national park, but we could still see the endless plains and plethora of animals that occupy it. We chilled at the top of the hill for 15 minutes before beginning the descent to ensure that we could fit in time to take down tents, pack the truck, and enjoy breakfast. On the way down, the wildlife had truly woken up, and so we avoided some cheeky and overconfident vertvert monkeys that were getting a little too close for comfort. Baboons also lined the path down, which was really cool, and the first time Caroline had seen them. Many more would be seen once we entered the park. There would be a lot of driving ahead of us to get us to our campsite right smack-bang in the middle of the Serengeti National Park. We headed off and drove briefly through the Grumeti Game Reserve before parking up at the entrance of the Serengeti National Park for lunch. We quickly ate and entered the national park. We had a few new crew members, and so we made sure to take our time looking at the regular participants of game drives. This includes Topi, Gazelle, Zebra, Giraffe, elephants, baboons, and many species of bird. Because of the size of the Serengeti, we struggled to find herds of animals, but when we did, we found massive numbers of animals. Straight away, we saw a family of 50 or so elephants, which is the largest any of us had ever seen and was too large to capture on any photo effectively. Overall, the afternoon wasn't too exciting with wildlife activity, but the landscapes were beautiful. We were still very much in the thick of the vegetative parts of the Serengeti and would be entering the grasslands tomorrow. We had hoped for a leopard to show itself during our time, but they are incredibly rare. Because we are in a National Park, we can't leave the roads designed for safari vehicles. Whereas the Maasai Mara Game Reserve allows tourist vehicles to leave the roads and explore all the areas of the reserve. A reason why it, as well as Kenya, has been the highlight of my Africa trip so far. Yet the biggest surprise was yet to come. We arrived quite late at the campsite after getting slightly lost. This meant we were putting up tents in the dark, not normally a big deal, but this camping site was smack bang in the middle of the National Park and had no fences. So, while we were setting up, we could hear the cackling of hyenas and could even see the eyes glowing on the horizon. Quite a scary thing to see, but we were assured that no one had ever been attacked. The biggest surprise was yet to come, however. Although a huge shock, what happened next was probably the greatest thing that has happened to me on my trip so far and easily one of the most exciting experiences of my entire life. This is the sort of moment that reminds you why travelling is such an important and life changing experience. After dinner, most people had gone to bed, but Vic and I had parked up a bit away from the tents to chat. Although we had been hearing wildlife throughout our 30 minutes of chilling, out of nowhere and in complete silence, two tusks appeared out of the dark. Vic was the first to spot it, and she jumped out of her seat, barely able to hold back her scream. She grabbed me and tried to calmly tell me there was an elephant right next to us. We both watched in disbelief and awe, as an ENOURMAS elephant appeared out of the dark. First, the tusks, then the outline of a huge male elephant stunned us. We took a few steps back to give him his space, but he simply walked past completely unphased by our presence. He walked, in absolute silence, right through our campsite like it was nothing, yet for Vic and I, it was the experience of a lifetime. How something so large can move so quietly while basically invisible without light is beyond what my mind can comprehend. Getting within 10 metres of one of the largest elephants we had seen in our whole month long trip, with nothing in between us, was a moment of a lifetime. Seeing a wild elephant in such close detail was mindblowing. While he walked, there was the sound of hooves hitting the ground right behind us, which gave us a small spook. This was, however, the moment I decided I would transfer to iPhone, as the photo and video that my phone took was so horrible compared to Vic's and had she not been there, there would be next to no evidence that the event actually happened. I will attach the photos as evidence. Once he passed, we figured it was time to leave and tell everyone what happened. But when we got back there was no one at camp to tell about it. Everyone was asleep, and we were shook we had to tell someone. Even us yelling to the tents that there was an elephant, no one responded. Whether they didn't hear or what, we eventually conceded that no one would listen to our exciting story and headed to brush our teeth. As this happened, people began to appear, and we could finally tell someone about our experience. But when we went to go find the elephant again, he was nowhere to be seen. Still shook to our core, we could barely speak, yet alone sleep. But we had to try as it was another early morning start to try to maximise our chances of seeing active animals while it was cool. There was, however, a break from the excitement that eased my mood as someone who had already fallen asleep erupted with a huge fart that echoed around the campsite and caused everyone to burst out laughing. It was quite funny and a good way to end the day. Some of the girls couldn't stop laughing for minutes on end.Read more