The Mara

Another bone-jangling journey later, we arrived in the famous Masai Mara National Park, or as us in the know like to call it, 'The Mara'. We just had time to pick at a decidedly mediocre buffet lunch at the potentially pleasant, but unfortunately not quite built yet, Sentrim Masai Mara Lodge, before heading out on our late afternoon game drive.

Having already had pretty good sightings of all the big five with the exception of the leopard, we were on a cat hunt. The day was overcast, and the temperature pretty chilly, perfect conditions for finding some active cats. After a couple of hours with nothing much more than antelope (although it was an excellent selection with topi, haretebest and eland added to the usual impala and gazelles), the radio crackled into life and our driver started to pick up speed – the chase was on. Before long we had joined a large pack of safari vehicles huddled around a pride of lions. There were eight in total, including two males. We watched the larger male lounging until he got up stretched, yawned, dedicated and preceded to where the results of an earlier kill, a rather sorry looking half eaten zebra lay. He munched away, completely unperturbed by the thirty or so safari vehicles crowed around. After having a good fill, he dragged it over to the ladies, although he still didn't appear inclined to share the feast, and a short but vicious looking spat ensued. Unfortunately the sun was starting to go down, so we had to start heading back to the lodge leaving the cats to their dinner. There was just time for a bonus cat spot on the way back when a serval, small but very cute spotted cat, crossed the road in front of us.














The next day, with pack lunches at the ready, we headed out for a full day's game drive. Again, cats were top of our list and we soon found another small pride of lions. Having had our fill, we moved on only to find two black rhinos, one adult and one young, making their way across the savannah – very impressive.












The famous migration of the wildebeest had already started, and based on the numbers that were in the Mara, it looked like many of them had moved north already from the Serengeti. Driving through the vast herds of wildebeest, interspersed with zebra, you could almost here David Attenborough whispering in the background. No wonder the lions all look so healthy and on the plump side, this place is a veritable smorgasbord. Not soon after leaving the herds, we came across another group of six or so lions. This time, they were proudly lying around in the sun, sleeping off the three wildebeests that they had devoured, whilst one continued to polish off the last of one of the carcasses. Luckily this time we were first on the scene, so we had the lions practically to ourselves and were able to get very close.














Unfortunately it is pretty difficult to actually see the classic wildlife documentary moment of the wildebeest actually crossing The Mara river, but we did stop at one of the spots were this happens. It also gave us the chance of a much needed stretch of the legs, a closer look at the river's resident hippos and crocodiles, and have a bite to eat whilst fending of the baboons.














After lunch, we were committed to finding some cats with spots. Although the elusive leopard continued to remain, well, elusive, we did find ourselves a gorgeous group of three cheetahs, very close up. Unlike the lions, they were much more aware and nervous of the vehicles, so after taking countless photographs, we moved on to let them get some peace.














On the way out of the park the next day, we passed by five or so armed park rangers herding some cows out of the park. They had confiscated it from the Maasai who had brought them in the graze against the rules. Indeed we saw quite a few herds within the park and also stopped to talk to a young Maasai herder. Whilst his spear was very sharp, he seemed much more concerned with the whereabouts of the rangers than the lions.














We were sorry to be leaving The Mara, but very satisfied with what we had seen, in particular the cheetahs. It was busier, in terms of number of safari vehicles, than most of the other parks that I have visited, but you can see why. The scenery is beautiful and the animal concentrations were very high, especially of lions. It is also possible to get off the beaten track and feel like you are in the wilderness, although when an exciting animal is found you don't stay alone for long.














Comment on First African Dream Tours: When Kiri and I booked our safari we found the choice of companies, and the lack of reliable information on them, somewhat overwhelming, so I thought it would be useful to add a few comments on the one we chose. In the positive side the price of our trip was pretty competitive compared to the competition. All food, game drives and mineral water were included in the price of the trip. The lodge at Amobseli was excellent and the one in The Mara was good, although it will be better when they finish building it. It was, however, a disappointment to have to stay in town in Nakuru and it wasn't clear whether this mix up was the fault of the hotel or the tour company. Our guides were professional and friendly and our vehicle was reasonably comfortable and very reliable, although if I were to do it again I would prefer a 4-wheel drive. We managed in The Mara with 2-wheel drive, but if it rained things could get pretty tricky. One real advantage was that there were only the two of us in our vehicle. This great for the game drives as you can go at your own pace which is great when you like to take as many photographs as I do. Other than the Nakuru accommodation, the only real problem we had was that the deposit we paid via Swift never arrived. We still need to follow this up, but I'm not convinced we will get it resolved.