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| Leopard cub |
We landed in Jomo Kenyatta International Airport early in the morning. After stopping by the airport office to sort out my luggage that was left behind in Changi Airport due to the flight delay, we were picked up by a driver organised through the Maasai Mara campsite accommodation we booked. I gave the accommodation's phone number for the delayed luggage report and by the time we reached the campsite, the airline/airport staff had already orgnised for my luggage to be sent to Keekorok Airstrip to be collected the next day.
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| My unaccompanied luggage arrived in style |
We found our accommodation from Booking.com and stayed in Talek. The campsite we booked, Olkinyei Mara Tented Camp was just outside Maasai Mara's Talek Gate. Our booking was full board and we booked airport pick-up and game drives with them.
We are not big fans of organised tour groups though there are places where it is a necessary. We read stories around self-driving around Kenya and may have scared ourselves a little so our plan was to engage a driver to get around. We took a chance and asked for them to organise a driver for us too. Luck wasn't on our side this side as the driver/guide was very poor even though all other services we had were excellent. Just to be clear - this poor driver/guide is not our guide in Maasai Mara. The guide assigned for our game drives in the Mara was excellent.
We were unsure if we would be too tired for an afternoon game drive on the day we arrived. By the time we had lunch and decided that we wanted to go for a half day game drive, it was passed 2 pm and the campsite recommended if we wanted to visit a Maasai village instead as one needs to leave the national reserve by 6 pm. So we visited a Maasai village on the day we arrived and 2 full days of game drives during our stay in Maasai Mara.
Dinners and lunch on arrival day was at the campsite, all other meals were picnic meals at the national park. Dinners were 3 course meals and there were no repeats of food served on the days we were there. They were delicious so we finished everything even though we were stuffed.
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| From L to R: Day 1 to day 3 |
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| Picnic lunch photo where food isn't obvious because I'm too short |
Maasai Village Visit
We were driven to a Maasai village and were greeted by one of the villagers who acted as the guide around the village. We were told that they are members of one family, some are step siblings but still one family. It started with a dance, followed by a 'jumping competition' among the men, and then showed us how to make fire. After the demonstrations, we were shown the inside of one of the mud houses which had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. The visit ended with selling of souvenirs/trinkets by the villagers which we didn't end up getting anything.
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| Jump! |
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| Gadget to start fire |
Maasai Mara
The national park opens at 6 am, so that was the time we started our game drive. One can also take hot air balloon but we didn't.
We are happy with just seeing the animals in the foreground of these balloons at ground level.
We visited in early September but the stars didn't align and we missed the Great Wildebeest Migration. That said, Maasai Mara was still the highlight of the trip. Safari against the vast scenic expanse of rolling African savannah plains hit differently.
Across the 2 days, we saw 4 of the Big 5 in Maasai Mara - short of the rhinos which we later spotted at the Lake Nakuru National Park.
We caught the lion had his meal with jackals and vultures hovering around waiting for any leftovers.
A lioness walked passed our jeep to quench thirst after feed.
A lion looking towards our direction and roared. Our guide said he was calling for his family. We left as the lion seemed to be angry at the end. Not sure if our guide was pulling our legs but we did see a pride of lions after.
'Safari is like fishing', said our guide.
We waited for a leopardess and her 2 cubs to wake up, saw the cubs trying to follow their mother to another location. The smaller cub had difficulty trying to climb up a small slope and tried different ways to follow the mother's footsteps. We were all rooting for this little cub.
Later we found the leopardess at another location, it was thought that she might start hunting but she ended up sleeping, without the 2 cubs.
Elephants in pretend fighting.
The African Buffalo that interestingly isn't part of the big 5 ugly animals. We were close to this buffalo when we asked to get off the jeep to mark our territories. We were told by our guide that it wasn't safe as this one was too near.
At a nearby river were these hippopotamuses semi-hiding in the water. We didn't know at that time that these were as good as we can see them till the river cruise in Zambia.
Looking at 5 cute cheetahs lazing in shade with a restless one that ended up rounding the jeeps around.
We didn't see the Great Migration but we saw many wildebeests, zebras and impalas. We saw a small queue started to form but the migration was not meant to be. Our guide also drove us to see zebras and wildebeests crossing a river as minor consolation.
We looked into Tanzania from the border.
5 impalas jumped across a small stream, one after another as if giving us chance to take a good picture, but I still got a blur one.
Caught a stationary 'Kenyan Express' aka Pumbaa aka warthog. They are fast!
One of the national birds in Kenya - the lilac-breasted roller.
Our second day game drive ended as it started to rain closed to 5 pm. As the guide/driver drove us out of the Mara, a full rainbow was in sight. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Mara, it was magical and we talked about returning even before we left. The African safari is something to be experienced.
Side note: To go or not to go?
4 comments
Planning to go Kenya too this year. By the way, wondering why the tour guide/driver was very poor?
ReplyDeleteI heard AA tickets are very decently priced. Just to be clear, our guide in Maasai Mara was superb, which was part of the reason we really enjoyed Maasai Mara.
DeleteIt was the driver/guide who drove us around after Maasai Mara to other national parks who was very poor.
Here are only some examples as to why he was very poor.
- he told us to that we would leave from the hotel at 4pm when the park closes at 6 pm, and the drive itself would take more than an hour which leave us with no time to do much
- when we didn't see any flamingos, he didn't make any effort to locate a location where we could go. We had to ask the hotel ourselves and tell him.
- many times when we were still standing on seats to take photos (open roof jeep), he would drive off without giving us any notice
- in his opinion, we only need to see rhinos and flamingos in Nakuru NP, so he didn't stop for other animals at his own accord
- also in his opinion, the only thing worth seeing in Amboseli NP is elephants against Kilimanjaro Mountain so that's the only thing we need to see.
- he didn't give any explanation or information on the animals, constantly on his phone and didn't stop when animals were spotted, unless we asked him to or other jeeps were there already
- he 'threaten' to leave us at one of the NP when we asked for a game drive to start earlier
- he offered to send someone to Nairobi in the private jeep that we paid without letting us know in advance
We have given feedback to the person who organised/assigned him to us and they have assured us that they will not engaged him anymore. So fingers crossed.
That's an amazing variety of animals you spotted! Do you know if this is typical for a 3-day safari at Maasai Mara? Or if you were luckier than most ppl?
ReplyDeletei'm not sure but on day 1 we waited for a leopard that was hiding behind some bushes quite a distance away. We only saw a glimpse of something that was questionable if it was actually a leopard.
DeleteThere are a lot of animals in the Mara though so i think most people would see them if they are there for 3 days.