My 18-day Mountain Gorillas to the Mara tour is nearly complete… but we have one big stop left: three days in the Masai Mara National Reserve.

The highlights of this trip will be multiple game drives into the park as well as a visit to a traditional Masai Mara village. It’s a big part of the reason I wanted to do this specific tour in the first place — I was looking for an itinerary that combined the highlights of Uganda with the Masai Mara in Kenya.

Maybe an hour outside of Nairobi we pass an overlook of the Great Rift Valley. It’s our second time here — the first was en route to Lake Nakuru two weeks prior but it was cloudy, and now the weather is perfect.

The Great Rift Valley is a continuous geographic trench that runs approximately 3,700 miles in length down the east coast of Africa. It actually begins in the Middle East — Jordan to be exact, right where I went canyoning last year — and it goes all the way down to Mozambique. Kenya falls right in the middle of this line.

We spot these monkeys playing near the Great Rift Valley viewpoint.

After several more hours of driving south, we arrive in the Masai Mara.

Here’s a shot of a traditional village, which we’ll visit during our time here — the huts are situated in a circle, where they round up their cattle to protect them overnight:

Lucky us — after two weeks of camping, our group is upgraded to giant tents with real beds inside. Here’s my tent mate, Kamani, from New Zealand:

And here’s the inside, before they bring in a second bed (identical to this one). There’s an overhead light but no outlet for charging devices; we can do that in the dining tent during meals.

And every tent has its own shower and toilet out back — rustic, but it’s ours!

There’s a hot water tank but by the time I take a shower, the water’s cold. Oh well.

Twice a day we congregate in this enormous tent for meals (breakfast and dinner; we eat our packed lunches inside the National Reserve). The food is just alright, but we’ve become spoiled by Julianna’s cooking skills.

On our first afternoon at camp, we drop off our bags and immediately head into the park for a game drive.

We learn that it’s not a good idea to leave the windows open or locals might poke their heads into the car… and then aggressively block the window while peddling goods. Saying “no thank you” doesn’t work. This woman wouldn’t budge for a good five minutes while our driver ran inside to get the park permit.

Within minutes of entering the reserve, it begins to rain. But we’re still happy campers.

I see wildebeests for the first time! They migrate north to south and back again throughout the year, as they rotate between the Serengeti (Tanzania) and Masai Mara (Kenya).

We spy (and smell) a dead buffalo. Only his skin is left, remarkably intact considering the insides have been eaten clean. Over time he’ll disappear completely as smaller animals on the food chain pick off bites to eat here and there.

Speaking of vultures…

It turns out that following vultures is an excellent way to spot big game. Since these creatures catch the scent of a kill almost immediately, they congregate around the animals while waiting for their turn at the carcass… which tips off safari drivers to the location of the kill.

Case in point: we spot dozens of vultures around these trees. We circle for a minute or two before spotting the kill — these cheetahs may look innocent, but they’re hiding a secret…

Can you spot blood on this cheetah’s whiskers? Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark Masai Mara.

We drive around the bush and spot the kill:

Each kill is handled systematically — the predator disembowels the prey, tossing the stomach and intestines aside before moving in to devour the meat. It’s a cleaner job than I would’ve imagined.

It’s neat to see vultures up close, with their hunched posture and patient stance. They know they’ll all get a turn when the cheetahs have had enough.

While the rain might’ve seemed disappointing at the start of our game drive, it brings an added bonus — pools of mud for this herd of elephants.

When we first spot them, they are marching in line with an air of dignity that soon fades away…

Unable to resist the call of the mud any longer, the youngest two plop down for a quick roll.

Their mama nudges them to stand up and keep going. Begrudgingly, they do it.

But moments later they are back at it again, and this time the adults join in. It’s a full-out mud bath.

These elephants roll over with the agility of a dog. And they weigh five tons on average!

Okay, playtime is over. Time to get up.

The elephants put on quite a show. This remains my favorite pachyderm encounter to date.

Next up, we spot a one-eyed lion…

He goes from shrub to shrub, spraying his territory. Our driver swerves off-road to bring us closer, but the lion roars and shoots us a dirty glance. We hold back and watch him strut away.

More elephant sightings ahead:

Quick elephant fact — they are a matriarchal species, with adult females leading each herd. When males reach adolescence, they are kicked out and often join up with other bachelors or go solo. An average herd consists of about ten elephants — three adult females and their young off-spring.

I’m so impressed with the Masai Mara and we’ve only been here for a few hours. Very much looking forward to the next two days!

Thanks to Acacia Africa for discounting the 18-day Mountain Gorillas to the Mara tour in exchange for blogging and photography. Opinions are my own.