Before we embarked on this crazy trip, I was referring to this portion of the journey as “the Disney safari” because I thought it was a rich American’s idea of going into the wild to see the animals. I thought our walking safari would be much better. Mea culpa!

In a harbinger of miscues to come, our driver to the airport did not show up on time and we could not reach anyone at Tropical Ice. The hotel was able to get through and 30 minutes late, Sarah showed up and sped us to Wilson Airport in plenty of time for our flight. Turns out our original driver broke down, but didn’t tell anyone. Sigh.

Luckily, the airport is small (read very small) and everything was fine once we arrived. Steven, Robin and I flew on a 10-passenger plane for the 35-minute trip to the Maasai Mara airstrip — a dirt landing strip in the middle of the savannah. Steven, who doesn’t like single point of failure systems, was not happy, but the trip was uneventful (mostly, I believe, because I willed the engine to keep going) and we were dropped into beautiful country. Our Jeep driver for the next three days, Jonathan (one of three Jonathans at camp), was waiting to greet us and get the safari started.

Below is the entire plane, the “airport” and our first animal sightings.

He got us started off amazingly with views of elephants, giraffes, water bucks, baboons, eagles, vultures, hippos and crocs — all on our way to our campsite, Sentinal Mara on the Mara River in Maasai Mara National Park. The river below us was a hippo and croc hangout, but what was even more spectacular was that a couple of male lions had killed a hippo only minutes from camp (and very very close to tent No. 1(about 100 meters) so for once I was more than happy not to be No. 1 but No. 6) so we were able to watch the lions and the feeding hierarchy each day until the hippo was gone.

We slept in a tent, but a tent with a flush toilet. The caveat was that we couldn’t leave the tent or walk around camp at night without a Maasai escort. We rang a cowbell when we wanted to go to breakfast and someone would appear with a spear. Jonathan 2 brought us hot water for showers (basically a bucket with a spigot) and I have to say that it was very weird having someone talk to me from outside the tent to ask if the water temperature was OK.

Jonathan, below, was not afraid to get out of the truck and is a darn good photographer.

The first night, I got into bed and felt something soft and warm at my feet. Wow, did I jump! Turned out to be a hot water bottle. Definitely not needed in the 90-degree weather, especially without warning. During the night, I heard lions roaring, hippos making whatever noise hippos make and what I thought was an elephant right outside the tent. I was a little too chicken to check it out, but in the morning, I asked and was told that, yes indeed, an elephant had decided that the space just outside our tent looked like a comfortable bed. The guards chased it away with their flashlights, but footprints remained.

Our three days consisted of 6 a.m. wake-up and coffee, then hours out in the Jeep with Jonathan admiring the wildlife with a breakfast snack. We headed back for a lunch break and took an evening drive before dinner. I can’t say enough about how fabulous Jonathan was. Not only did he answer our many questions, drive off road to get us the best views, help us get close to a cheetah by waiting patiently and then sweet-talking the rangers who were ensuring no one left the road (except us), BUT, when I dropped my phone and didn’t realize it right away and had given up hope, he retraced our steps and showed up in camp with the phone. Eagle-eye tracker! He even tried to find us a rhino, but the shy guy was hiding in the bushes and didn’t want to come out.

We had heard that hippos were the animals we should be most wary of and I believed it, but it was much easier to understand when we saw one running. They are fast! Also, crocodiles are scared of them. I saw one run a croc across the river and onto the opposite bank where it tried to get all nonchalant and make the hippos forget about it.

After we got it through the chef’s head that I was vegetarian (everything in Kenyan seems just a bit off despite their best efforts — they forget you’re a vegetarian, the food comes out in a weird order, they don’t have something you ordered, etc.), the food at Sentinal was delicious and plentiful. There was a bonfire every night with cocktails. One night the Maasai staff did a traditional chant and dance because it was one of the other guest’s birthdays.

Jonathan graciously shared aspect of his life with us. He is one of 22 kids from one dad and two moms. Four of his brothers work in tourism and most of the family lives in a “village” or family compound in the town of Talek. Both Jonathan and his wife went to college and then returned. They have four children, the oldest of whom is 9 and goes to boarding school. The others will, too. School is now compulsory, but most of Jonathan’s older brothers did not go. He said his dad sent the kids he didn’t like off to school and kept the others close.

Our animal count:

• Lions
• Giraffes
• Zebras
• Cheetah
• Leopard
• Impalas
• Cape buffalo
• Hippos
• Crocs
• Vervet monkeys
• Baboons
• Topi
• Hyenas
• Jackal
• Wart hog
• Thompson gazelles
• Monitor lizard
• Ostrich
• Mongoose
• Dik dik
• You’ll have to ask our resident birder, Robin, about our avian friends

We did wonder what the consequences are for the animals that humans and Jeeps get so close to them. They didn’t seem to mind, but how would we know? Having to stay in the Jeep (the animals see the Jeep as one big item and don’t understand that the people inside are separate so no getting out!) or the tent gave us a tiny taste of what it’s like to be in trapped. For once the animals were free and we were not.

There’s no way I can adequately describe how fabulous it was. The landscape is gorgeous. There’s no light, so the stars are brilliant. The animals are RIGHT THERE. At one point, a lion was heading toward the dead hippo. He was walking around the Jeep and I turned to see where he was. He was RIGHT THERE. Steven, Robin and I kept looking at each other and saying, “This does not suck.”

Even on the trip back to the airport included wildlife. Hippos lazed in a pond covered in lily pads and one got a bit close for my comfort, although Jonathan was completed unfazed. As a plane flew in, Jonathan knew it wasn’t ours and said, “The flight times are not always accurate.” OK then. Ours was pretty much on time and climbed aboard to head back to the Hemingway and on to the next phase of our adventure. Stay tuned for the 100-mile walk that wasn’t.

P.S.: Choosing photos was very difficult. The ones that appear here are a very small sample. We’ll do a photo and video dump once everything’s edited.