Helicopter Day

It was another early morning in the Masai Mara.  Excited (and a little nervous) because today was the day for our doors off helicopter ride, weather permitting.

As always, the day started with us finding a location (and getting into position) for amazing sunrise photos.

To get to the rendezvous point for the helicopter, we had to cross the Talek River, which was swollen from the recent rains.  I’ll admit, we were a little skeptical, but Arnold got us across the raging river with no issues.

Once across the river, we found a giraffe that let us get up close and personal.  They make the funniest faces…

Our photo session with the giraffe was cut short when Arnold got the call that one of his guides was stuck in the river!  We drove back to the river and Guts (our photo guide and host) quickly climbed up out the roof and on to the hood of the vehicle.  I’ll let the video speak for itself…

The whole thing took about 15 minutes, but felt much longer!  The 3 guests in the stuck vehicle climbed out of their vehicle and into ours and then they took all of us to dry land before going back in.  They were pretty shaken but unharmed and they were sending a new vehicle for them.  All part of the adventure!

No one attempted to cross the river after that and our drowned radio didn’t work for days!

After the river we still had some time before we had to be at the helicopter; we were lucky to find some beautifully rim lit giraffes with some nice, dark trees behind them.

And more giraffes.  Did you know that the name for a group of giraffes is a “tower”, but if they’re moving its a “journey”?

Finally, we arrived at the air field…

Our ride coming in to drop of the previous group and pick us up.

I’ve been in helicopters before, but never with the doors off!  After checking, double checking and triple checking the seatbelt, it was time for lift off.

The helicopter flight was an exhilarating 60 minutes over the Mara!  We started from the star on the map below and flew north, followed the Ololoolo Eescarpment south, then southeast through the Mara Triangle towards the Tanzania border and back north to the “airport”.  You really get a different perspective from the air…

A herd of elephants with one very large, beautiful tusker…

On the escarpment we flew over several Masai farms.  The Masai measure their wealth by the number of cattle and children that they have.

Nothing prepares you for the sight of the lines of wildebeest, making their way south to greener pastures…

With all that wide open space its odd to see them walking in single file, following the trail.

They look like ants on the move…

These lines off of the road are channels that have been cut for run off when the rains come.

After the helicopter flight we chilled at the tree while the other two in our group took their flight.  When they returned we had our breakfast and then they loaded up the helicopter with the empty gas cans and took off to refuel…

More hyena chilling in puddles…

We met up with the others for lunch on the bank of the Mara river.  This was our view…

After lunch, we were back on the trail to see what we could find.

At one point there were large numbers of wildebeest running.  We thought they might be heading towards the river and another crossing, but they were just teasing us.

The serval cat is much smaller than the other cats of the Masai Mara and they are very rarely seen.  We were extremely lucky that someone spotted this little guy…

Another beautiful day came to a close without taking a single lion photo!  I didn’t know it yet, but we’d make up for that on the next day, our last full day in the Mara.