Maasai Mara—which is often locally referred to as simply, “The Mara”—is the name of a giant nature preserve in southwest Kenya. Its namesake, the Mara River, runs through it, and the word “Maasai” refers to the original tribal inhabitants of this area, who can still be found here today.
Well, as far as I know, the only difference between Maasai Mara and the Serengeti is the border between Kenya and Tanzania. The Mara is the Kenyan side, while the Serengeti is the Tanzanian side. Looking at the map, it might be tempting to think that Maasai Mara is the lesser of the two experiences because it’s so much smaller than the Serengeti, but—while I have not personally experienced both—I’m told this is not the case.
We only saw a couple of Lions at Lake Nakuru, but in Maasai Mara, we’re going to see a LOT of them. Here we saw a male and female lion relaxing in the shade of a big tree. We sat here for quite a while just admiring them. These really are massive cats. But if you watch they way they behave, they really are just cats—the same as the cute little ones we have living in our houses.
The safari continued. The further we drove, the more incredible it became. There were just so many animals out here. I think I saw more animals here than I had in the past decade of my life in aggregate. These environments are truly just bursting with life! Is this what planet earth was like before humans ruined everything?
There was some rain that came through in the middle of our visit, so I got to see the light chance a good deal throughout this photo shoot. I look at these photos and I can almost hear the gentle sound of rain on the tea fields.
It was the British who introduced tea to Kenya in 1903. And, apparently the place where it was introduced was right here in Limuru! Today the majority of tea in Kenya is grown in the Kenyan Highlands, mostly on the upper slopes of the Great Rift Valley. As I understand it, a good proportion of it is concentrated on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. So, Limuru is definitely the easiest area of tea fields to access from Nairobi.
Clocking in at the projected 12th largest city in the world by 2100 (a title that is today held by Lagos, Nigeria), Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya, and by far its largest population center. The most common languages spoken here are Swahili, and then English (Kenya is a former British colony). This pretty much covers “mainstream” Kenya, but like most nations on this vast continent, there are a LOT more languages being spoken here in addition to these main 2. In fact, there are a total of 68 languages spoken in Kenya!
