Within Maasai Mara, the Mara river defines the jagged hypotenuse of the Mara Triangle, shown in the map at left. We must have been at the south-east corner of the triangle, because we were on the border between Tanzania and Kenya, as indicated by the marker in the photo at right.

Click on the map to see a full-size PDF.

I suppose "T" is for Tanzania and "K" is for Kenya?

At this point, George put us in the care of Davis, a park ranger, who would be our guide for the river tour.

Davis took us to the riverbank. On the far side, we saw families of East African hippopotami (hippopotamus amphibius kiboko). This is one of the five subspecies of hippopotamus (six, if you include hippopotamus amphibius kiwi).

The hippopotamus is territorial, and it uses its feces to mark its territory. In order to mark the largest possible territory, the hippopotamus spins its tail while excreting, thereby spreading its feces over a wide area. I have photographic evidence of this, but I'll spare you.

During our brief tour of the river, we also saw Nile crocodiles (crocodylus niloticus). The Nile crocodile is an apex predator and, like the hippopotamus, an aggressive species. But we'd reached the river at noon, and there was nothing happening in the midday heat.

As we left the riverbank, we saw a few examples of the Mwanza flat-headed rock agama (agama mwanzae). This lizard is colloquially known as the Spider-Man agama, for obvious reasons.

These are males; the female's colours are not nearly so flamboyant.

Fun fact from the Maasai Mara web site - if you're a male agama, and you can nod and run, then reproduction-wise, you've got it made:

“Most agamas are polygamous. Males may hold six or more females in their territory for breeding. During courtship, the male bobs his head to impress the female. Occasionally, females initiate courtship by offering their hindquarters to the male and then running until he is able to catch up.”

At that point we parted from Davis and returned to George, who hustled us off in the Mystery Machine. Though we didn't know it yet, George was hoping to show us something truly spectacular.