Masai Mara Safari

A trip to Kenya would not be complete without a trip to Masai Mara - the Kenyan side of the famous “Serengeti”. Keith especially deserved a great safari as he has a) taken care of the kid the entire time we’ve been in Africa and b) did not get to go on an awesome safari last time we were in Africa because his future wife got malaria. So I was bound and determined to provide an excellent safari experience and figured the reserve where “The Lion King” was based upon would be the perfect spot. Kenya is also the home of the late Karen Blixen who’s life was the basis of the book and movie “Out of Africa” so a lot of the safari experiences in the country reflect the style of that time (circa 1920) large, luxurious canvas tents in the middle of the savannah – something we were also pretty keen to experience. So after heavily researching this topic I booked us on a 4 day / 3 night safari at Mara Timbo Camp (www.maratimbocamp.com).
We choose the fly-in option because it was easier and cheaper with an infant and actually turned out to be the best option for us by far. We flew out of Nairobi Wilson airport which is this small local airport for essentially safari holidays and fly-out medical personnel so I was very happy and we hadn’t even left the airport. We boarded a 12 seater Twin Otter plane (Keith pointed out that they likely make these somewhere else as Africa doesn’t have otters – coincidentally the Canadian North also flies the same small planes) with the mtoto in tow who promptly fell asleep as we flew into the air. I had never really thought about this but flying over the East African landscape in a small lightweight aircraft really makes you feel like you are going somewhere remote and exciting which we were. We made one stop at another small airstrip in the Mara before getting to our airstrip at Kechwa Tembo. There our bags were taken out of the nose of the plane and we were greeted by camp staff who took us on our first game drive. The Masai Mara is unlike any other park I have ever been to because it is SO green. This area of Kenya started receiving rain about 3 weeks ago and our naturalist Kinata said that after 3 days the entire 1,000 sq km turns green. And not a little bit green…bright green. It’s like someone took the Emerald Isle’s emeralds and planted them in Kenya and put some African animals on top. With how blue the sky is here it’s like someone took the colour contrast button and cranked it right to the max. It’s amazing. Quite literally from the air strip to Oloololo Gate of the Masai Mara game park we saw: zebra, water buffalo, warthogs, giraffe and impala and we weren’t even in the park yet. Cian’s response to all the animals (especially the zebras which we think are his favourites) is a very loud and excited “Aaaahhhoooooooo”. It’s adorable and makes everyone else smile too. I’m so glad that even though he’s so small he can still enjoy the safari.
Within the park we saw all sorts of animals including a pride of lionesses and a male lion with his leg up on a solitary tree relaxing in the shade. We had lunch with the hippos that day and that made our way to Mara Timbo camp. There we were greeted with hot towels and our personal butler Constelata immediately took the baby. All of the wait staff are women here to promote female employment and empowerment (which is of course another reason why I chose this camp). They gave us the family tent which has a huge luxurious bed, desk and trunk in the main area looking like something out of 1912. There is an adjoining bathroom with his and her glass sinks and a shower with a huge showerhead and a tree trunk post and then there was a little adjoining room for Cian with his own big boy bed and a mosquito net. Outside on the veranda was a big river-rock tub (a huge selling feature for all three of us bathlovers), a porch swing, a dining table and a small couch. From the porch you had a beautiful view of the trees and the Mara river with the sounds of the hippos and bright­-coloured birds flying by. We relaxed at our tent in the rain until supper and then headed off under the umbrella with our askari (security guard) to have a lamp-lit supper which was absolutely excellent. Cian was so exhausted he almost fell asleep sitting in his high chair drinking his bottle and promptly fell asleep when we got back to the tent to tuck him in.
The next day we woke up for a 630am breakfast – that’s right Keith woke up 600am on purpose and stayed awake, it’s shocking. They had arranged our dining tables out by the river and we had a beautiful breakfast while watching the hippos and the sun pop their heads up to greet the day. Conselata watched Cian while Keith and I went on a game drive and saw lots of animals including hyenas and cheetahs which I had never seen in the wild as well as two black rhinos. There are only five rhinos in the Masai Mara park due to previous problems with poaching as the rhino horn is used as an aphrodisiac – the thought is the rhino’s horn is always erect and therefore…you get the idea. Anyway, they are a very shy animal and extremely difficult to spot so we were very lucky to have seen them. We also saw about 100 hippos bathing and lounging in the mud along the river in the park – I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many hippos together at one time. That day we had a picnic lunch up on a hill overlooking the whole park with zebra grazing nearby. It was amazing. We came back from the drive and Conselata greeted us without Cian, after an awful story from our guide about a baby that had been taken from another camp by a hyena I was a little stressed. She laughed and said he was at the bar – if you’ve been reading the blog you’ll know that it seems our kid is often found in the bar, an experience I do not think will be limited to his first year of life. There he was sitting on the bench with the bartender watching the hippos – he greeted his parents with a smile. He had spent the whole day with all the camp staff. One of the security guards who had taken a real liking to him took him up to the staff housing and he taught him a Masai song and a Masai dance – they were very good friends. It’s so nice to see how wonderful people are with him here. That night we hung out at the bar with David and Linda, a lovely couple from the UK and the only other guests at the camp before another wonderful dinner, this time under the stars with a bonfire and lamps in the trees (gorgeous!) before settling in again for an early night.
We opted to leave even earlier the next day – leaving for safari by 6am. I’m a big fan of seeing the sunrise in a foreign country and this one surely did not disappoint. We brought Cian in his blue zebra-stripe pajamas and watched the sun rise over the hills of the Masai Mara – it was gorgeous. The sunrise made me completely forget about the hippo that had tried to charge the car only minutes before (never get between a hippo and its baby or the river and we had done the latter – the guide said it was fine that he was just trying to get us to move). We had breakfast on the hills watching the zebra and jackels and a family of elephants descend from the ridge. It’s amazing for such a big animal how they can just suddenly appear. Cian was a big fan of the elephants – letting out a resounding “Aaaahhoooooo”. We got to see some very close-up too which was great fun. We also saw some cheetahs playing and watched them run around and saw a lion hunt a warthog. They are very lazy creatures and gave up extremely easily and settled in for a long nap after its half-ass attempt but not before walking right in front of the car (Cian really liked the lions too).
After a wonderful lunch we had a relaxing afternoon and I went to the massage hut for a full-body massage up in the trees. It was the most relaxed I’ve been in a long time – it was incredible to watch the river and hear the sounds of hippos and birds and get pampered for an hour. It’s amazing how now that I’m a mom I’m so happy with even just an hour to myself to relax (my mom is probably laughing right now).
That night we had another lovely evening under the stars at a lantern-lit supper. Linda had mentioned Gin and Tonics and I had forgotten those were my favourite safari drink ever since my dad and I had them in Malawi on the sunset cruise on the river so it was really nice to relax in the evening and have a nice meal. We put Cian to bed and settled in for the night knowing that we didn’t have to wake up at a ridiculous hour the next morning.
It was so nice to wake up to the sunshine – we leisurely got ready and headed out to the riverbank breakfast awaiting us. The sun was warmer than usual (go figure since it was later than usual) and we had a lovely breakfast and Cian played with his staff friends. We chose to just relax at the camp that day which was brilliant because with all the windows open in the daytime having a nap in the luxury tent was a whole new experience. I’m so glad we got that day to ourselves, the only guests at Mara Timbo, relaxing like royalty.We returned to Nairobi boarding the lightweight plane right off the airstrip while zebras looked on. This trip required a few more stops before heading to the capital and was a bit bumpier so Keith, not well known for his iron-clad traveling stomach, had a bit of a rougher go of it. There were a couple of young girls (maybe 6 and 8) on the plane who were total princesses and cried uncontrollably after the descent. Their mother pointed out that Cian was perfectly fine and far younger than them – yay my little traveler – he just watches out the plane window now on take-off and landing he doesn’t even need a bottle. Keith did well and did not have to remove his air sickness bag from the aircraft so all in all it was a successful plane trip and a wonderful vacation.