Turning 24

Despite the mishaps we encountered in Nairobi, we decided on Sunday that we were going to head out to the Mara the next day, Monday. Cue frantic produce shopping on Sunday afternoon and an early morning on Monday to try to get supplies for two camps packed on to one truck, plus four people, two of whom were carting around all their luggage for a year.

My mom called me just as I woke up on Monday morning to greet me a happy birthday (love you Mom!). After that though, I pretty much put my the whole birthday thing out of my mind. We were crazy busy and I had only known my fellow campers for 4 days, so I wasn’t expecting anyone to remember. Turns out they did though, and they managed to surprise me with candy and a serenade of “Happy Birthday.” They’re pretty awesome J Thanks guys!

We grabbed a quick breakfast and filled up at a gas station, and then headed of to the Mara. After around 30 minutes of driving we hit the Great Rift Valley. The view was amazing, and according to Kenna and Dave it was the clearest they’ve ever seen it. We descended one side and shortly after hitting the bottom of the Valley we ran into our first wildlife of the day -- zebras! They were completely gorgeous!

We drove all the way across the valley and up the other side, then stopped for lunch in a city called Narok. Someone had recommended the chili prawns, so I decided to be brave and risk possible bacterial gastroenteritis. Totally worth it, the prawns were delicious, and no, I did not get sick :P

We reached the gate to the Mara at about 5 pm and met up with Jeff halfway through the park. We split up the supplies for the two camps, and then Steph and Kenna went on to Talek Camp while Dave, Jeff and I all headed to Serena Camp on the other side of the Mara River.

The drive through the Mara was amazing, there were animals everywhere! I drove from the place where we met up with Jeff all the way back to camp, and I had to try really, really hard to not drive us off the road while going, “EEEEE! Elephants! Ooooh, hippo! OMG hyena!” Ok, so I was a little excitable, so what? Happy Birthday to me!

We got to camp just after dark so I didn’t really get a good look, but my tent is great, the bed is comfy, and dinner was amazing.

Ok, bedtime for me, we’ll be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to go watch the hyenas.