2 days in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Part I

Jambo! Jambo!

Seeing smiling faces and hearing “hi” in Swahili was the first thing of our safari day no.1, feeling happy and anxious at the same time for what’s about to follow. We left the capital quite tired at about 07.30 to Maasai Mara National Reserve, located at the Tanzanian border, after spending the previous night at a hotel in Nairobi as we landed late from London. The program for our first day in Kenya included an exhausting drive of about 6hrs with the necessary breaks and an afternoon safari! Yay! Crossing the famous Rift valley, we finally reached the difficult road to the national park together with the team of the local agency Wilsons Travels, our tour leader Gerald and our driver Francis.  

The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a huge wildlife protected area, neighboring the Tanzanian game reserve Serengeti and covering about 1500 km² in SW Kenya. It is named after the ancestral inhabitants of the place, the Maasai tribe and consists of huge savanna areas with mountains, lakes and the Mara and Talek rivers. The reserve is worldwide famous for its rich fauna with dozens of species of wild animals, such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, zebras, giraffes, gazelles, hyenas, jackals etc. (and yes, we met almost EVERYTHING!!). It is also known for the Great Migration of gnus and other small animals every July – October from Tanzania, so this was the main reason why we visited this park, although in the peak tourist season. The animals of the “Big Five” also live here, the most difficult animals to be found during a game drive: lion, leopard, African elephant, African buffalo and black rhinoceros. Hippos and crocodiles are easily visible in the rivers and in general the landscapes of savanna where you roam during a safari are totally breathtaking!   

Τhe great migration takes place during the dry season of the country, so the whole park is also dry, with a lot of dust and high temperatures. Driving towards the Maasai area, natives wearing their traditional outfits were found everywhere, waiving us, while their children were running after our vehicle smiling and yelling. The road was very difficult and tiring, actually unmade road suitable only for 4×4 vehicles. A lot of visitors choοse to fly to the park from Nairobi, in order to avoid this unbearable road, but we are adventurers…. Well, the endless ups and downs as if sailing in the middle of an ocean with strong winds, together with the road dust entering our nose, ears and eyes, since the windows were open to take photos, caused me nausea and yes, I felt like hell! We took a break for a while to relax, as the men of our gang were laughing at me, however that was a great opportunity to change my seat and from the back of the van I moved right next to our driver. Well, I could see everything better now: images of the everyday life of the locals in the middle of nowhere and a huge desert area around us with little vegetation, mostly bushes and acacias. There were houses, shops, motels, all handmade and sloppy structures, the locals were carrying food or clothes or they were grazing their cattle and even their children were taking care of their cows. Meanwhile, free wild animals, mostly gnus, zebras and giraffes started to appear…and we didn’t even enter the park yet!!

So, we were at last in front of the heaven’s gate…hmm.. sorry, I meant the Ololaimutiek gate of the park… The ladies of the tribe were waiting patiently to sell their handicrafts to the tourists, who had to stop there to pay the entrance fee. Everything was set for us by our tour leader, so we were off to check in at our Mara Sopa Lodge. At an altitude of 2,100 m. and a distance about half an hour from the main game drive area, this beautiful African-style lodge with the cute bungalows and the pretty public areas was our home for the following 2 days. More decorative details on the following photos, off to our evening game drive now…..

A half day game drive was our first touch with the African nature. The safari area closes at about 18.30 as the sun goes down, so we had plenty of time to “hunt” free wild animals and enjoy the stunning African sunset until then. Crossing huge areas by our van looking for the animals, I couldn’t imagine that you have to be extremely lucky for that. There were plenty of gnus, zebras and gazelles around, from the moment we left our lodge. What about the rest of them though, especially the predators? Luck, just luck! Thankfully, the drivers of the safari vehicles use radios to communicate with each other, so when someone finds an animal, he informs the rest of the drivers and the vehicles gather all together at that place to observe the animals. On one hand this is great, while your driver may miss something and thus you can be informed by the others and run for it. But on the other hand, a lot of vehicles may gather around the animals causing them disturbance or fear so that they may finally leave. And trust me, some predators are so difficult to be noticed within the savannah, as they can be camouflaged easily so that their colors match the surrounding nature. However, the animals in general, don’t seem to bother at all if you don’t get too close. Being in their natural environment, they are aware of their real enemies, what animal will hunt them to feed and who is going to just stand close to them. Giraffes were staring at us with curiosity, gnus, zebras and elephants were ignoring us unless we approached them and lions…hmm… they probably saw us as their dinner, but they are too lazy even to move a muscle before dusk…

There are no words to describe the feelings while wandering around the wild animals and being a part of their world….

However, it was time to leave…savanna was saying goodbye with an astonishing sunset! It is said that the sunsets are different in Africa… and that is actually true! The sun is hiding behind a vast desert and only the shadowy figures of the trees and animals are visible…. The color of the sky is changing gradually; you can suddenly watch each different orange and red hue! This sunset was unfortunately the only one we managed to enjoy during our stay in the parks, as the weather turned cloudy later. You can’t get enough of this scenery and we honestly didn’t want to leave. But the park was closing and we had to get some rest, as the next day would be even better, having a full day game drive and lots of amazing surprises.