I woke at camp before dawn, curious to see where we would find ourselves. As you recall, we had arrived at what we had not been certain was the right camp, in complete darkness. As the morning light crept over the horizon I was treated to a wonderful vista of the Mara river stretching out below.
It seems the campsite, which we did establish as the correct place, is perched at the top of a large hill keeping watch on the Mara river some distance below. The approach to the camp is from the gently sloping back side of the hill, so when driving in at night we were vaguely aware that we had been ascending, but we didn’t realize how much.
Wandering around the camp I half expected to find the actual clearing not far away and we had just missed it in the dark, but it wasn’t the case. It appeared this camp had not been used much, if at all, this season, and with all the rain the grass was still high. There was enough room for us, but it would be cozy if more campers arrived.
I read that this used to be one of the private camp sites that are often booked to tour operators setting up luxury tented safari camps, and in that case I think the tour operators often clear the grass before setting up. That had clearly not happened this season, but we had enough room and found some ashes from an old fire to confirm we’d found the right spot.
We proceeded with our usual bush routine, making tea and coffee and we watched the sunrise. After that we were off on our first game drive in a while, and in the first few minutes happened across a small herd of elephant. Down towards the river a guide in a safari vehicle pointed out a leopard in a tree to us, an amazing start for the first hour of game viewing, the Masai Mara was really impressing.
We wandered along near the river making our way north to where we’d seen our brief glimpse of lions the night before. Along one of the dirt tracks we met a ranger in one of their tiny but capable 4×4 Indian jeeps. He said he heard on the radio that lions had killed a buffalo and he was going there now, we were welcome to follow him. Fantastic.
It’s been great how welcoming and open the rangers and safari guides have been to us. I could easily see how self drive tourists might not be well received by safari guides, as we have elected to not utilize their services, and how the rangers might prefer not to deal with amateurs like us instead of the regular guides, but in every park we’ve been to guides have been really hospitable, asking if we’ve seen or this or that sighting and giving us directions to interesting animals. We too make sure to share good sightings, and we’ve had the pleasure of directing others to prides of lions, hunting cheetah and a crash (one of my favorite collective nouns) of rhinos.
The Masai Mara Conservancy is one of the few parks that allows, with restrictions, off road driving. It is only allowed in areas designated as low use zones and even though only for predator sightings. The buffalo kill the ranger directed us to was one of these, about two hundred meters off road.
Also in the Mara only 5 vehicles are allowed at a sighting, so if you are the sixth car you have to stand off and wait your turn. Rangers supervise high profile predator sightings and enforce a 10 minute limit if there are more than 5 cars, so that new cars can get their turn. This means that each car could have as much as 50 minutes at a particular sighting as each car waits 10 minutes, the car that has been there the longest leaves and a new car moves in.
In this case there were already a few vehicles on site, and we were the 5th vehicle to arrive. Two large male lions on a buffalo carcass. Approaching the kill we had to traverse some muddy terrain, and the land cruisers (all the safari vehicles, with the odd land rover exception, are land cruisers) were jockeying for position so their clients could get the best view, but also driving around two vehicles that were stuck in the mud. One guide asked if we could try to help tow them out, as “we had better tires”.
We were certainly game to help, but it seemed funny that with all the professional guide vehicles around that they would ask a relatively unknown entity, a random self drive vehicle, to aid in recovery. Perhaps they didn’t want to inconvenience their clients? Anyway, we set to work.
We took a 4×4 class in Cape Town prior to this trip, and some of that time was spent on recovery, but this was our first real recovery. They were simply stuck in the mud, tires spinning. The driver of the safari vehicle, Jenny and I were all out of our car looking at the rigging of how to best hook up the tow wire. This is all happening in the vicinity of two large male lions, naturally, about 15 meters away. But the ranger was there looking over it all, and even though being out of your car near wildlife is against park rules and of course dangerous he said nothing.
There was a lot of people there, so we assumed that if the lions started taking an interest that the ranger would speak up or people would let us know. Everyone, guides and tourists alike, was taking an interest in the whole scene, stuck land cruisers with stranded guests, guides and muzungus (us) out of our cars to sort the whole thing out.
They had a tow wire, but no way to attach it to our vehicle, only to theirs. We have a recovery kit so we shackled a bridal into our vehicle and shackled the whole works together. This is not, of course, how they teach you to do a recovery. With the forces involved this is potentially very dangerous, a snapped wire or recovery rope can be deadly, with the elasticity of a broken wire or strap able to whip itself or a shackle through the air at lethal speed. But we didn’t start with a snatch recovery, (where you deliberately leave slack in the tow strap to utilize the elastic force to jerk the stuck car out) just simply trying to tow the other car out. From our day jobs at sea both Jenny and I have a lot of experience with rigging and heavy loads, making this sort of thing almost familiar territory. Except the lion part, that’s not normal.
Jenny stayed out of the car and directed the guide and I on our positions and timing and we towed the first vehicle out, no problem. After this there was some more jockeying around to get us to the back of the other stuck vehicle, which we learned had unwisely ventured into the boggy conditions with his 4×4 not working, so no surprise he was stuck. This time around it took a few more tries, Jenny telling us to go this way or that, watching our rigging and also keeping a wary eye out for the lions.
About half way through the second recovery attempt another safari vehicle pulled up full of tourists and they were pointing at a hump of grass pretty close to the front of our cruiser, while silently mouthing the word “l-i-o-n”. I could see what I was sure was a rock amongst the grass, but upon closer inspection it was indeed another male lion, sleeping off his buffalo breakfast. Whoops. So Jenny, the guide and I had all been out of the car almost right next to this guy.
This is the sort of thing that isn’t in the rule book when you set out. Recoveries are not planned, and nor are wildlife encounters. What do you do? With experienced guides and a ranger looking on we felt that they would have told us to stay in the car had it been particularly unsafe, but still it does give us pause. After we managed to get the second car out we got a few minutes to settle down and actually take a look at the kill and the lions.
They were sleeping, so not much action for a wildlife sighting, but considering our recent efforts that seemed good. The ranger drove over afterwards and asked if the guides had offered us any money for our services, but I think he was joking. Still, I think he thought they owed us one. For our part we are happy to try to give a little back for everyone being so welcoming in their park. First recoveries under our belts, we hope that the next time we tow someone out it will be a more relaxed affair, with no predators in attendance.
The rest of our day was less eventful, but the Mara was proving to be an excellent game park. On top of that the landscape is stunning, and from almost everywhere in the park you have a wonderful view of open savannah dotted with trees leading up to the escarpment that is the western boundary of the park.
We managed to arrive at our campsite at a reasonable time in the evening, and enjoyed a more relaxed dinner. Still though, with the grass being so high it wasn’t the most chill place to camp, I would prefer to be able to see a bit better from camp. The high grass makes for perfect cover for hunting predators.
We heard hyenas in the distance, but no lion that evening. Of course I always question whether it’s better to hear lions close by, or to not hear them. At least if they are calling each other you know where they are and that they are not hunting. It it’s silent, well, then either there are no lions, or they’re hunting. What are they hunting is the question.
The next morning while we were waking up and making coffee I heard something in the trees about 50 meters away. Just a little rustle of branches, not much. A couple weeks ago in camp I had heard something and I got a little jumpy it turned out to just be a gennet, a sort of largish spotted catlike mongoose thing and nothing to be afraid of. So this time I was brave and I blew it off. “Probably just a gennet.” I told Jenny. About 20 seconds later an elephant stepped out of the trees. Several of the places we had camped at further south have had people killed in camp by elephants. Not worth being alarmist, but an animal to be cautious about.
I shinned my light at the elephant to make sure he knew we were there, and I think both the elephant and I had a moment thinking “Is this going to be okay?” And after a tense 20 second pause where neither of us moved, he decided that yes, it was going to be okay. He stayed were he was and started grazing, keeping an eye on us.
We did the same, well, not the grazing part, and packed up camp in a hurry just so we could leave him undisturbed as soon as possible in case he decided to change his mind.
Game driving around that day an land rover with just a driver and a cameraman pulled up to us. It turned out the driver was South African and he’d seen our SA plates on the cruiser. He seemed a little disappointed to learn that we were American, but he warmed after few minutes and we had a nice chat.
It turns out he is one of several drivers for the NatGeo Wild Safari Live TV program. They broadcast live wildlife sightings from the Masai Mara on their show. He was very friendly and even gave us some great tips on where to look for cheetah and lions for later in the day. We ended up meeting him and one of the other NatGeo film drivers several times over the next couple days and every time they impressed us with their friendliness, willingness to share knowledge about sightings and their obvious enthusiasm for the wildlife.
We decided to try to spend a day in the Masai Mara Reserve, the adjacent park of the park that is managed by Narok county instead of the Conservancy. To do this we drove down to the Mara Bridge. Park fees on either the Conservancy or Reserve site cover entry into the other side at no extra cost. We learned that they park fee ends up going to whichever side you are spending the night on.
We asked about camping at Sand River Public Campsite on the Reserve side and they said it was closed and launched immediately into a sales pitch for a camp his friend had just outside the gate. I had read rumor that Sand River might be closed, but had forgot to look into it more thoroughly before arriving. Since his sales pitch for his friend place seemed a little out of place for a park official we decided we’d just game drive our way to Sand River ourselves, to check just in case it was open, and if not we could make it to another camp in time.
I’ve read online that the Triangle (West side) portion of the park is much better run than the Reserve portion, but I wasn’t sure what this meant. We proceeded into the Reserve, and soon the road deteriorated. Not too bad, but certainly not the near perfect marram that was in the Triangle. More potholes, small washouts, narrower, bumpier. We got off the main road as soon as we could and made our way down one of the many bush tracks.
Soon we were all alone exploring the Masai Mara, wonderful. The grass was tall and made picking out the track hard in some parts but we made our way along towards Sand River. One point another safari vehicle was ahead of us but he turned back at a long stretch of mud. Feeling a boost of confidence in our 4×4 skills, after our muddy recoveries and some other patches in the park, we made a run at it. Low range, rear diff lock and steady pace. Sure enough the Honey Badger (as we’ve taken to calling the cruiser, christened by our friend the Zamerican) didn’t care about the mud and we were through.
As we ventured deeper progressed slowed. Do you sense a theme here? As usual we were deeper in the park, later in the day than we probably should have been. Its at about this time that we see each new obstacle, a small river crossing or muddy donga, as the thing that potentially gets us stuck in the bush for the night. But the Honey Badger doesn’t care! And sails through each obstacle without question.
We do eventually arrive at the Sand River Ranger post and ask about the campsite. What followed typified many conversations we’ve had on our trip. Not specific. Not direct. No real clear answer, but problem solving just the same. Everyone always makes time to talk, which is nice, but often that chat seems to get you right back to where you started, it just takes a long time.
Us: “We heard that the campsite here is closed, that’s too bad.”
Ranger: “You want to camp?”
Us: “Well yes, but we heard the campsite is closed. Is it not?”
Ranger: Long pause. “Maybe. It is probably closed. But let me check.”
Keep in mind we’re in the middle of no where, and the rangers posted here don’t even have a car, they’ve been dropped off to keep watch on this part of the park on foot. The campsite is about 100 meters away, but still he doesn’t know if the campsite is open?
Boss Ranger: “You want to camp?” …and so on.
Eventually he offers to let us camp, and we are suspicious that this is maybe not totally on the up and up. But as our bush track, and our conversation, took us far longer than we thought it was late in the day to try to make it to another camp site before dark. Not wanting to repeat our nightfall arrival from the first night and as we had the rangers blessing we decide to camp.
Its a beautiful site on the river bank just east of the ranger post. There are no facilities, and the grass is very high except for a tiny spot, and even then it’s more grass than is comfortable to walk in. We’re wary of snakes, scorpions and ticks in the grass, so we get out our panga (machete) and have a go at trimming the grass in the African fashion.
I’ve watched this many times, people cutting grass with a panga or jembe knife (if I understand the distinction correctly, the jembe is a panga when the blade is bent at the end for the last 4 inches or so, making cutting grass easier). It seems I do not have the knack. It is sweaty work, particularly if you’re not good at it, but after 20 minutes or so we have a little clearing cut back and we’ve exposed some ashes from an old fire, so we declare camp made and settle in.
That night we hear lions not so far away, and we enjoy another wonderful African night in the wild. It was lions calling again in the morning, and we set out in hopes of finding them. After some casting around on the available tracks we can’t find them so we head up towards Talek gate. Normally solitary or in groups of two or at most three, the largest documented coalition of cheetah, five, is often sighted in that area so we thought we’d have a look.
Again the roads are a little rougher, and the distances farther in this side of the park. Also game is less dense, but I suppose on the Triangle side wildlife is hemmed in by the escarpment on one side and the Mara river on the other. We didn’t end up finding the cheetah, but we did hear about a pride of lions from one of the guides so we go and investigate.
We found them, easily spottable by the huge group of vehicles near them. Here again we saw the difference between the two parts of the park. On the Conservancy side it’s no more than five vehicles per sighting, and here were five lions sleeping in the grass and there were over a dozen cars on them.
Not doing anything inherently irresponsible, but after a while joining the fray we decided to head back to the Conservancy side for our last night.
There was some haggling at the gate about where we had camped the last night. The guys at the gate, who had told us the Sand River site was closed, oddly weren’t too surprised that we had camped there, but were distressed that it wasn’t in their system. This further confused us, as if it was in their system, then why couldn’t we camp there?
After a while discussing the whole thing we sorted it out and we were on our way, planning to go to Eluai camp that night. There is a wonderful picnic site under a tree south of the road not far from the Mara bridge and we stopped for lunch. From the picnic site, using binoculars we could see a pride of lions sleeping, and even further off a cheetah. Remarkable.
Lunch was over and we decided to see if we could get closer to the lions or the cheetah. On our way down one of the smaller tracks we saw another one of the Safari Live filming vehicles, which we figure is a good sign that we’re in a good spot. Sure enough, the cheetah was working her way closer to a herd of grazing gazelle and impala.
We were incredibly lucky to witness the cheetah, reportedly a mother with cub near by, hunt and take an gazelle. It starts slowly, her perching on a termite mound from far away to get a good view of her prey. Then she works closer, pausing often to take stock. Closer still she started to slink, dropping her head into the line of the grass and smoothly advance. And in almost no time at all she shot out of the grass and the whole herd is running. There were so many animals it’s hard to imagine she could fail, and she didn’t. I read later that only something like 20% of hunts are successful for a single cheetah. She had it this time though, and everyone watching was really pumped up and stoked to be able to witness it. Even the film crew team was really into it and presumably they get to see more of this than most.
Our last night in the Masai Mara was another good one. Even the last couple hours of game driving that night and the following morning revealed more lions, more elephants and lots of other good sights. If you’re interested in conservation and the challenges that parks face I would highly recommend reading a few of the Mara Conservancies monthly reports. They are fascinating and have details about real challenges parks face about poaching, security, weather and many other interesting things. Often it’s easy to read “poaching is a problem” but reading the nitty gritty I found very educational. Check it out here: https://www.maratriangle.org/november-2016-1/may-2018
It was time to continue on. Our stores were running low and we were ready to try to take a proper shower, fuel up and head to the Serengeti. Frustratingly you cannot cross from the Masai Mara to the Serengeti by the road connecting the parks. They parks abut each other, are part of the same ecosystem and are divided by the Kenya Tanzania border. However the border post there has been close for sometime for to political reasons, so we will have to drive out and around to enter the Serengeti. Trying not to rush, we camped at the Mara West campsite on top of the escarpment, just outside of the park.
The next morning we didn’t have too big a day ahead, something like 250 km to Ndabaka gate, the western entrance of the Serengeti. We took the C13 road west from the Oloololo gate, via Lolgorian (there is probably decent provisioning here if you needed it) and turning towards Isibania at Kehancha. It’s mostly a decent marram road, with a small part in the middle being paved. It was 2 ½ hours to the border for us, so others could probably do it faster.
Border formalities were easy, check out took only a couple minutes. Checking in took a while as there was only one customs officer working and he had to process a few truck drivers first before issuing our TIP ($25 USD). Note that you can renew a TIP twice, for a total of 3 months, if need be. After that you need to exit the country and reenter. If you’re on a carnet you can stay for up to one year.
Back on the A1 south the road was easy going. We decided camp at Tembea Mara in Bunda. We needed to buy some food and beer before heading into the Serengeti and asked them where to go. After establishing that we didn’t speak much Swahili and they didn’t speak much English they decided to just send one of their staff with us to the market, pretty funny. Even in the market we struggled a bit to find beer, eventually we did but it was pricy. The trials of remote travel!
Back at camp we were the only people there. It’s a nice spot at the foot of a rocky hillside, but sadly no flat parking for us in our roof top tent. After some messing around we managed a flattish set up, but not ideal.
We flaked out on dinner and ordered a good pizza from the restaurant. As we’ve seen many times in our travels around the world, first you order your food, then the wait staff call someone on their phone, after a while a motorcycle shows up with a shopping bag with the ingredients they need to cook your meal. Not the fastest, but at least you know the ingredients are fresh, so good with me. Maybe the best pizza of the trip so far, but frankly the competition has not been fierce. I’ll continue my comprehensive pizza survey as we go and report back. Other camp report…Toilets were nice, but the shower is not, pretty gross and smelled like a urinal.
The next morning, with high expectations, we were off to the Serengeti.
Logistical Notes:
Park fees to camp in the Mara Triangle were $70pppd entry, $30 pppd camping for public camping. And 700 Kenyan shillings vehicle fee, strangely this has to be paid in shillings, the rest is in USD or credit card. Private campsites were available for $40 pppd, but at the Oloololo gate they said they had to be booked two weeks in advance. On their website it says there is also a $100 booking fee on top of that. There is mention of a $400 booking fee as well, but that is for commercial operators only.
-We checked out the Dirisha private camp site, it looked wonderful, right on the banks of the Mara River in the trees.
-The other public campsite is just east of Eluai, in the trees. Eluai has no shade to speak of, so this might be preferred if it is very hot. It also has basic toilets, though we didn’t look at them.
Mara West Campsite: in our opinion, totally fine, but not that great. There is something about staying somewhere that is close to greatness that is somehow more off putting that just staying at somewhere unremarkable. They wanted to charge us $30 pppn, which it is just not worth. We haggled to $25 pp, still crazy, and I suspect you could get less. Nice ablutions, hot showers. Camping is on a grassy lawn with no place for a fire and zebra droppings all over the place. They are right on the rim of the escarpment but oddly they only have a limited, but nice, view. Restaurant was expensive so we cooked ourselves. Staff was very friendly.
