Dec. 27, 2021 - Road trip to Masai Mara
After a short night and a good breakfast at the hotel, Caleb, our driver and guide picked us up on time at 7:00 am and we boarded our safari vehicle in which we will spend most of the coming days. It is again the proven and for photo safaris converted Toyota LandCruiser, which we already knew very well from our previous tours:
Sunword Safaris rebuilds the vehicles (based on the indestructible four-wheel drive pick-up version of the Toyota LandCruiser). Our LandCruiser had been lengthened and therefore had 3 rows of seats for the passengers. The roof can be raised so that you have a clear view all around. In addition, the side windows can be pushed halfway back. We quickly arranged the seating as we had done on previous trips. Harry and Andrea sat in the front, Simone and I in the middle and Luise had the back seat to herself. The photo backpacks were lying ready to hand in the center aisle. The main photographers (Harry, Luise and me) could thus take pictures as needed on the left or right side.
We were very happy to meet Caleb again. We have already been traveling with him twice before. He is a very competent and experienced guide who always found optimal positions with the car for us to watch the animals. He is also very humorous and always in a good mood. We had a lot of fun together.
But now it was time for the long drive to the Masai Mara. On the way to the Masai Mara we crossed the Great Rift Valley again, a deep cut in the African continent that reaches from Israel to Mozambique. Two continental plates are drifting apart here and will split Africa in some time. However, we will certainly not experience this in our lifetime.
During a short stopover we already had our first wildlife sighting 🙂 :
The drive was relatively smooth. By now, the asphalted road to the Masai Mara built by the Chinese is ready. On our first trip to the Mara in 2013, we still had to endure the extremely bumpy ride over a dusty buckle road for 3 hours.
On time for lunch we arrived at the Mara Bush Camp - Private Wing once again. It was now already our 5th stay here. The camp consists of a total of 12 tents for the guests and central tents for the bar, the restaurant and a small store. Weather permitting, all meals are served outside under the open sky.
The guest tents are very large and comfortable. They are elevated on a wooden base and have an en suite bathroom with separate shower and toilet as well as a wide terrace. From there we had an unobstructed view of the river course with many hippos in it. Meanwhile, the tents all have electricity as well and even a mini-bar. At our first stay there was electricity only in the store tent and hot water for the shower was only available on order.
We were welcomed by the camp manager Steve. Because of the still active Corona pandemic, camp nurse Helen first took our temperature. Afterwards we had a refreshing Ice Tea and the usual camp instructions (“You should not walk alone through the camp at night” etc.). Steve had just been in the camp for 2 weeks and we probably knew our way around there better than he did 😁.
We moved into our beautiful spacious tent - the same as 3 years ago - and felt directly at home again. Finally back in Africa, what have we missed this place!
Our tent at Mara Bush Camp - Private Wing
After we were just in the tent and had put down our luggage, we were already expected at lunch. There you must absolutely be present in Africa, because otherwise everyone believes that you are feeling bad! Our previous camp cook, Obi is not there anymore, but Dennis and Joseph are. A fully adequate replacement: The food was again as usual very tasty - “tamu sana”.
In the afternoon we went for a first gamedrive. First we found some elephants, one posed very nicely for a half portrait, note the long eyelashes:
An elephant cow had a still very small young calf with her, which delighted the ladies of the tour group very much:
In very nice light a giraffe and some waterbucks posed for us:
At the end we discovered two cheetahs that actually wanted to hunt. But there were way too many cars around and they didn’t dare. Caleb said that the two were “migrants” from another park and not as used to cars as the other cheetahs in the Mara. They are partly so familiar with them, that they lie down on the roof of the car, like the famous and unfortunately already deceased cheetah Maleika, which even made it to movie fame in the meantime.
But even without hunting, the beautiful light of the approaching sunset again resulted in plenty of photogenic scenes:
In all the scramble of the many cars around, one hit a sharp branch with the rear tire while driving backwards. All that could be heard was a loud whoosh and the tire was flat. A couple of guides (Caleb too) then got out in the presence of the two cheetahs, which initially watched the scene with interest, and helped to change the tire. Finally, however, the cheetahs walked away and everyone was watching the tire change.
On the other side, the greatest spectacle could have been, we all would have been completely unaware of it. At least we still discovered a hyena, which also wanted to take a closer look at the hustle and bustle of the bipeds around the tin cans:
This showed us once again why it is necessary (and mandatory) to always have spare wheels in the parks. When the change of tires was finally finished, the sun had already set, so we made our way back home to the camp in rapidly increasing darkness.
Always be prepared
Following the safari principle: “always be prepared”, I had not yet packed my photo equipment in the backpacks on the way back, when we noticed another movement in the semi-darkness. Shortly before reaching the camp, we actually spotted a serval roaming the steppe in search of food. It was already so dark, that we could see the small cat only dimly with the naked eye. However, I was still able to take some photos.
It’s very amazing to see what currently is still possible with a high-sensitivity camera / lens combination, even in such low light:
Such a photo would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. I have once calculated the shooting data: The brightness corresponded to about 2.5 lux, which is comparable to the light of 2-3 candles from 1m distance!
All in all, I am very satisfied with the yield of our first safari day. That really started off well already!
Evening ritual
The first evening in the Mara ended again like almost all evenings in Africa with us: after a Gin-Tonic at the campfire reflecting the events of the day, we enjoyed the excellent dinner with the obligatory Tusker lager beer and then fell into bed deathly tired.
Since the nights in the Masai Mara can get very chilly, we were happy to find pleasantly warm hot-water bottles in our beds. We slept deeply, it was a really long day!
The alarm clock was set, as always on the following days, at 5:30am, so that we could start after a coffee and some cookies at 6:15 before sunrise with Caleb to a first early morning gamedrive.