The idea of safari resorts, like this one in the Masai Mara, in Kenya, is Land Cruisers out on the savanna, a half-dozen tourists with cameras, binoculars and bush hats, a guide/driver … and the big animals of Africa.

Even if we concede that Kenya’s tourist industry is geared to assure we see as many exotic animals as possible from the apparent safety of a four-wheel-drive vehicle without windows or a roof … it still seems impressive that we saw four of Africa’s Big Five animals in a single afternoon.

As well as other big and interesting beasts living free on the grassland of southwest Kenya.

And we all know who the Big Five are, right?

That would be … the lion and the leopard, among cats; and the elephant, rhinoceros and African buffalo.

The Big Five got that name from hunters, perhaps because they were difficult to hunt, perhaps because they are pretty seriously dangerous. Or can be, especially when you are trying to kill them.

In the course of a single afternoon, however, we saw four of the five, we drove right up to two of them and parked 15 yards away. A third was munching grass and seemed oblivious to tourists standing 20 feet away.

A recap of the four (of five) in the order we saw them.

1. African buffalo. Scads of them, mixed in with the other ungulates  contentedly eating grass on the wide, nearly treeless expanse from the Mara River to the eastern hill ridge marking the edge of the conservancy.

The buffalo is enormous. And those horns, which come from a helmet of bone on the males, can do lots of damage. Back in the day, before hunting was banned in Kenya (in 1978), this buffalo definitely was a beast a hunter needed to kill with the first shot, because he may not have time to get off another. As the wiki entry notes, the African buffalo is included in the two or three “kills more people than any animal in Africa” discussion.

Unafraid, pretty much disinterested by the Land Cruiser that pulled up near its watering hole.

2. Rhinoceros. OK, an asterisk on this one. The Big Five originally had the black rhino on the list, and these were a pair of white rhinos, protected/kept by Kenyan park rangers.

Our driver, Ashford, parked the Land Cruiser and invited us to follow the ranger up the hill a bit, and after about 50 yards we came upon two white rhinos. Another enormous animal. Like a living tank. Hippos weigh as much or more, but there is something deceptively soft/squishy about hippos that rhinos lack. Totally. Those two horns, for starters, and then that hide, which looks like it would reject spears and maybe the fangs of predators, too.

They were remarkably calm, however, and tourists were coming in a steady trickle and posing — with their backs to the rhinos.  In the old safari movies you never turned your back on a rhino.

The passivity of these rhinos was unconvincing. I was sure that one wrong move would set these living and breathing armored vehicles charging at us.

3. The elephant. Still being poached for their ivory tusks, but the Mara is not hurting for elephants. Our guide spotted a group of five or six skulking among short trees on a hillside. He tried to maneuver near/close, but the elephants were too sly, and they moved along too rapidly, staying between trees.

“The elephants are shy,” our guide said. Maybe because they are intelligent enough to know that encounters with humans are sketchy propositions. Maybe because one of the beasts was a juvenile.

4. Lion. This was just bizarre. Lions tend to chill out back in the bushes, somewhere, but because it was mating season we saw a male and female in, uh, very close contact, out in the open, apparently oblivious to the three vehicles that pulled up to park and watch.

Our guide was on the lookout for these two, because he had seen them the day before, or maybe it was during the morning. He saw them out in the open as we were pulling away from 20 minutes looking at two cheetahs lying on the grass, apparently after a recent meal, doing absolutely nothing more ambitious than grooming themselves.

My impression is that male and female lions aren’t often in proximity, but this was a special occasion, and in one picture frame you could get the faces of each, the male’s surrounded by the famous mane.

And it seems more than a little weird that we were 20 yards from the two of them, sitting in vehicles either animal could easily jump into and, in theory, maul us. But they had other priorities, and as it went quite dark we drove off, leaving behind the “honeymooners” (as our guide insisted on describing them) so we could get back to the lodge before it got too dark to drive.

The one of the Big Five we missed? The leopard. And the leopard is hard to find, let alone shoot. “Nocturnal and secretive” is used to describe the leopard, and our Land Cruisers may not set off alarms for most animals, but a leopard hiding in the bush might see it differently.

Other big animals we saw today: A half-dozen giraffes, wildebeests (in scads), warthogs, zebras, mongooses, a jackal, several varieties of antelope and, of course, hippos and crocodiles, both of which can be seen (from the comfort of our lodge) down in the river.

The herd animals behaved as I thought all animals would — getting skittish and heading in the opposite direction. The exception being the African buffalo, who seems to fear nothing, and the warthog — not a herd animal, but a beast that ran when the Land Cruiser got within 50 yards. And the elephants, who steadily moved away from us.

Meantime, the rhinos, the lions, the cheetahs, the giraffes … seemed only occasionally aware of the existence of people mere feet away. A strange sensation.

A remarkable afternoon/evening. Like an inside-out zoo. With the animals able to move around, and the humans huddled inside their vehicles.