Cherished memories of the Masai Mara beckon me to return to this magnificent place.

The Masai Mara was the highlight of my first safari and the highlight of the Masai Mara was seeing the sights at sunrise from a balloon. While trying to quickly change film as the crew inflated the giant balloon, I managed to jam my camera. Fortunately, I had my camcorder and a panoramic camera with me to get the following shots.

I was the last to climb into the gondola because I was busy filming the inflation process. As I turned around, we were already five feet in the air and the ground crew were preparing to release our tether line. We floated effortlessly over a pair of male Lions, a large herd of Thompson Gazelle, and some Elephants. We would rise up for a panoramic overview of the Mara, catch the breeze that would take us in the desired direction, then drift down to about treetop level for game viewing. In this photo we sailed above a pod of hippos in the Mara River.

I caught this Hippo blowing a great spray of water into the air over the Mara River. This Photo and the one of the balloon inflating were captured from the video I shot. This photo of the hippos also shows that we were just a few feet above the river. What a rush!

A hot breakfast with made to order omeletes and champagne was waiting for us when we landed. We ate heartily and then climbed into a land rover for a game drive back to the Mara Serena Lodge. Every turn was a photo-op like these Zebras walking along the crest of a small rise.

The Mara Serena Lodge is perched on a rise in the Masai Mara where wonderful views of the Mara stretched out befor us. At night we heard the lonely roar of lions somewhere on the darkened plain. The next day we saw those cats up close and personal.

The second day out on the Mara, we found a cheetah resting in the shade of an isolated tree. Later we saw a Topi acting very strangely, both Richard and our guide alerted us to watch for a cat and sure enough a cheetah on the hunt ran across the road right in front of us. We followed her in our land rover for a short distance, but she eluded us. We decided it was more important for her to eat that for us to get photos of her so we turned back to the road in search of of other wildlife.

I felt very fortunate to find this pair of crowned cranes foraging right alongside the road. I had come primarily for the animals, but was most impressed by the diverse bird life we encountered.

These wildebeest were left behind after the Great Migration returned to Tanzania. These stragglers mingled with a herd of Zebra.

The big cats are plentiful on the Mara like these lions stretched out in the tall grass. They totally ignore vehicles and we were able to get quite close without disturbing them. The windows of our landrover were rolled down and the top was open and fastened down. There was no way to quickly close up, yet I felt totally comfortable so clcose to the King of Beasts.

This lioness was grooming herself in the cool shade beside the road totally unmindful of us. Of course, we were cautioned to speak only in whispers or hushed tones so as not to disturb the animals. The only sound was the clicking of our cameras.

We came across herds of elephants everywhere. The youngsters in this particular herd put on quite a show for us as they ran about under the watchful eyes of their mothers and sisters. I found that the advantage of a small group such as ours was that we could stay and watch the elephants as long as we pleased or linger a bit longer to see if the secretary bird would catch a snake. We saw four of the Big Five on our safari. Only the nocturnal Leopard escaped us.

I will return to Kenya in the summer of 1999. Perhaps I wll find the elusive Leopard on my next safari.

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