Hanging Out in the Masai Mara

It’s fair to say I love wildlife photography. So you can imagine how excited I was to get the opportunity to host a tour to Kenya and Uganda. Not only host, but host as a photographer. Let’s just say I didn’t take any convincing.

After an overnight stop in Nairobi our group of five intrepid travellers, our tour guide Jaros and I hit the road. And after several more hours, we were still hitting the road. Actually, I think we were still in Nairobi. Such is the traffic and size of Nairobi that it seemed to take an eternity just to escape the capital city.

It’s tough going in that kind of traffic. But our group was pumped. We were off to the Masai Mara – the “Mara”!

The Masai Mara, a game reserve of about 1500 square kilometres, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Kenya and one of the best places for wildlife viewing in Africa and is home to the Big Five – lions, leopards, rhinoceros, elephants and buffalo.

The Mara is the Kenyan section of an eco system that is continuous with the Serengeti (in Tanzania). It is the site of the annual wildebeest migration and of all the places I have been, the best place to view wildlife.

After another hour or two on the road, we were exhausted. But like a mirage Narok appeared before us and it was time for lunch. After a short stop, and now feeling well rested we hit the road again.

The Masai Massage

Narok is about the half way mark between Nairobi and the Masai Mara. But if we thought the road was tough before, now the road gets really rough. If you’ve seen the Long Way Down by Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman, you’ll know what I mean. These roads are full of deep crevices and ditches – ahh the “Masai massage” in action. It’s a tough drive to the Mara, but well worth it. If you’re cashed up you can take a charter flight and avoid the

drive. But where’s the challenge in that? Not far out of Narok we started spotting wildebeest here and there and rapidly the numbers increased. We still still a couple of hours drive from the Mara borders.

First Sighting

It was late afternoon and we were getting close to the lodge, when Jaros yelled out “look over to the left”. A female lion with two cubs was relaxing in the grass. We were still not in the Mara yet. By the time we got to our lodge (which was actually a selection of luxury permanent tents) we were ready for a shower and a cold beer. But we were finally here.

The view from the dining area of our accommodation was spectacular. It took in the Mara river, with herds of hippo wallowing and giraffe wandering along the banks. It was breathtaking.

We were up early the next day and all eager to begin a full day tour in the Mara. As we drove through the conservancy toward the Mara, Jaros pointed out the wildlife to us, it was a “Masai giraffe to the left, a hyena to the right”. And in the distance, wading in the marsh we spied a large elephant. The morning saw us observe a large herd of elephant, mongoose, lion, buffalo, crocodile, hippo and baboon. So that’s three of the big five, and a whole lot more in a single morning.

Bumps in the Road

But not everything goes smoothly when you’re travelling, and that is definitely true in Africa. Our wildlife viewing took a turn for the worse when our exit path was blocked by another vehicle while waiting for a possible wildebeest crossing of the Mara River.

We took plan B but as we navigated our way around the other van we landed ‘leaf spring deep’ in a warthog hole. Let me tell you, the middle of a game reserve in the middle of Kenya is not the place you want to get bogged. After trying two high-lift jacks, to no avail, we had to be snatchstrapped out. Only to land the whole axle in the warthog hole. More snatch-strapping and we were out again - just. It had been a big morning!

Leopard’s Lunch

After a quick lunch we returned to the Mara River to see if we could see a wildebeest crossing, this is after all, one of the highlights of a trip to the Masai Mara and the only place you can witness this natural occurrence. However, while driving back to our ‘spot’ on the Mara River, we had spied a fresh zebra carcass up a tree - a sure sign there must be a leopard nearby. When the wildebeest still refused to cross the Mara River, our group decided to head back to the tree we had seen dinner in and wait. By this time the tree had about 15 cars around it, all watching and waiting, so we took a spot, crossed our fingers and waited patiently. It actually wasn’t long until the leopard appeared, walked up to the base of the tree, posed and climbed up to the carcass.

Family Affair

I was blown away. Leopards, while not rare, are really good at not being seen. So this was just amazing. But there was still more to come. Another leopard. It turns out, the first leopard was a cub (almost full grown), the second was the mother.

I’ve been to the Masai Mara before and spent time in other wildlife reserves throughout Africa, but it was an amazing experience to see these two leopards greet each other. The cub disappeared back up the tree, while mum did a quick last minute scout of the area, then followed her baby. You couldn’t wipe the smile of my face. Yep, gotta love the Masai Mara. Adrian Duncan is a Melbourne based photographer and tour host. He travelled to Kenya with Two’s a Crowd and RAW Africa Ecotours.