If you can believe it, the road heading into the Masi Mara was worse than that to Samburu. There are 2 sections of horrible road - the main road from from Nairobi west and the secondary road to the Masi Mara.

The main road, starting about 80 km west of Nairobi is riddled with potholes and uneven pavement from large truck traffic. These trucks travel from Mombassa (east coast of Kenya) through Nairobi and the rest of Kenya as far as Uganga with goods imported by ship.

The artery to the Mara, if you can believe it, is worse than the road to Samburu. Rick got a sore neck, presumably from being thrown about the bus on this road. It's finally better after about a week.

These lovely prickly pear are from a prickly pear fence that we saw along the way.

These cactii indeed look like candelabra and are found in parts of the arid regions. We saw some while descending into the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and they're more common here in Kenya. Against the pictured village, you can see that they grow into large trees.

Here's a shot of the Rift Valley from the eastern escarpment. This rift stretches from Saudi Arabia to Lake Mozambique. To get to the Masi Mara, we descended into the valley.

Our lodge at the Masi Mara was constructed to look like a Masi village. We lived in 'huts' and ate in a 'dining hut' - quite civilized really. The grounds were meticulously groomed and many cactii grew there. You can see from the picture how well kept and large the plants are.

There were a few hibiscus trees as well. Rick just can't help himself with the close-ups.

During morning and afternoon game drives we stand in the bus and our clothes absorbs the fine dust that the wind and other safari vehicles throw around. We didn't really get a good appreciation for it until we rinsed our clothes. We did, however, wash our faces and ears before going to bed!