Kenya - Masi Mara

So, to kick off my year or so of travels I'm in Kenya for a couple of weeks for my Dad's wedding. This has both the good point of giving me a trial run for packing etc (already got a pile of stuff I'm not going to bother taking) and the bad point of getting me used to 5star when I'm more likely to be seeing stars through the holes in my rooms for the next year.
Kenya has been absolutely amazing so far. We have spent the first week in the bush and on safari in the Masi Mara. We visited a local school - very humbling and really demonstrated the level of poverty here. My youngest brother had bit of a reality check when told that some children walked 15km a day to attend the school! He may be rethinking asking Mum for lifts to his friends houses constantly - we'll see.
We've seen a shed load of wildlife (not an actual shed obviously, that wouldn't be very impressive); Hippos, Water Buffalo, Hyena eating Water Buffalo, a flock of over 1 million Flamingo (try fitting them in that shed), Rhinos, Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, Warthogs (nothing like the lion king, these are ugly as sin), Crocs, Wilderbeast, Zebra, Cheetahs, Baboons and more. Nearly worth getting up at 6am for the game drives.
The highlight had to be Friday; up at 4.30am (okay shit start but it gets better), took a hot airr balloon over the Mara for sunrise, chased some Rhino (sensible from the air, not advisable on ground), landed in the middle of nowhere for a champagne breakfast, listened to an American gentleman ask the guys at the souvenir stand if they took visa??!! Look around buddy!!
Then spent the afternoon on a game drive and saw a Lioness make a kill of a Wilderbeast and teach her cubs how to hunt. We were only about 10 ft away which was very cool but I could have forgone seeing her rip the penis off - collective "ooooh!" from the onlookers.
This was followed on Saturday by a visit to a Masi village
I'm pretty convinced they changed the words of their songs as there was some definite sniggering. The 12yr old in our group was very disappointed to have to give back the machete they sold him.
We then took a very small plane to Nairobi (you've never experienced turbulance until you've flown in one of these! Does anyone know what a "Squelch"switch does?) where we ended up watching England vs Kazachstan whilst being serenaded by a very very poor Kenyan Jazz cover band - a very surreal day indeed! And to round it off; Dad smashed his head in the pool - should make for some good wedding snaps!
We're now in Mombasa chilling at a beach resort for the week and holding the wedding. I'll probably post again on the weekend, maybe with some wedding disaster video I can get cash for.
The connection is to slow to upload any photos on this post or to Flickr here but I'll post a link once I've done it.

Hope you're all well -There's a subscription link on this page if you want to keep up to date with my travels.
Karibu! (been told that means welcome but i may have just insulted your mother - sorry)