Masai Mara Kenya Safari

This pride had around half a dozen lion cubs, all of whom were "friendly", but one particular cub was fascinated by us. For close to an hour he played, bought us twigs and bark, hid behind trees, jumped out to try to surprise us, everything he could think of to try to encourage us to come out to play.

But not five feet away his mother laid, apparently sound asleep. The moment baby got too close to us, she knew. Her eyes would open. She would stare straight at us and slowly, gently yawn. The sight of those teeth was all that was required. Baby played alone.

During our time in the Masai Mara, January 2012, we saw many lions, out in the open and also very well hidden in the grass. On at least three occasions we got within four feet of full grown lions without spotting them.

We often knew lions were close by, but they remained quite invisible. By trial and error, and much patience we learned to watch the swaying of the grass and just watch for any sign of movement which was not correctly synchronised.

After close to a month of careful, patient studying and watching, we actually were able, very occasionally, to spot an ear, or a nose moving against the flow of grass.

The Masai Mara was probably the best animal viewing Safari National Park that we visited, but Amboseli and Sweetwater were pretty much equal in animal viewing terms. If you are planning a Kenya wildlife safari, visit these three.

But be warned, the roads into and out of Masai Mara are dreadful. Many people fly into and out of the game park. We could not as we had a lot of gear with us and so had to go by road. Very, very rough, dusty, dirty going, but would you want to miss these lions?