Safari in Masai Mara

Already in my first week of being in Africa, I managed to go on a safari. 💪 In Swahili - the predominant language spoken in East Africa (but specifically Kenya and Tanzania) - safari literally means "journey" or "expedition“.
It was also the reason why I came here to Africa. 😌 Although you should do extensive research before you go on a safari, for me it was rather spontaneous. I checked with some people in my hostel and they were really happy. So, I booked the 3-day safari to Maasai Mara with „Lenchada Travels“. 😊

„Maasai Mara“ is a large national reserve in the south of Kenya, which was first established in 1963. it is sharing a border with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Next to lions 🦁, cheetahs 🐆, elephants 🐘 and many other animals it also hosts the Great Migration (only visible from June until September) - one of the ten Wonders of the World.
The area is named in honour of the Maasai people 👭🏿 who migrated 1000s of years ago to it from the Nile Basin and are now its ancestral inhabitants. "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language. It is their description of the area when looked at from afar, because of the short bushy trees 🌳 which dot the landscape. The total area under conservation in the Maasai Mara amounts to almost 1500 square km (580 sq mi) and is located between 1500 m and 2200 m (4,920–7,150 ft) above sea level. It is the northernmost section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, which covers approximately 25.000 square km (9,700 sq mi) in Tanzania and Kenya. And it’s a big tourist attraction: visitor entrance fees alone generated more than 5 million USD annually. 💰
Kenya prides itself with having all animals of the Big 5 living in their national parks. What are the Big Five? Since I cannot formulate it better myself, I just cite a description from another travel blog here: „At one time, the ‚Big Five’ were at the top of hunters' lists, as they were considered the most difficult of Africa's big game to shoot while on foot. These were: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and cape buffalo. Fortunately, it's tourists who do most of the shooting today but only with their cameras.“ (see https://www.audleytravel.com/kenya/country-guid…) ☺️

In the morning of our first day I was picked up at my hostel. There were already 7 people in the vehicle (including the driver) 🚐 I had the honour to take a seat in the front - next to David; our guide (and driver) for the next couple of days. My fellow passengers were Zim & Huani from the US 🇺🇸, Stefan & Kelly from Italy 🇮🇹 respectively Portugal 🇵🇹 as well as Shunjin & Senna from Japan 🇯🇵 We drove for approximately 6 hours into the southern direction from Nairobi to arrive at the Rift Valley. It is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya 🇰🇪 from north to south. By some sources it is seen as part of a "Great Rift Valley" that runs from Madagascar 🇲🇬 to Syria 🇸🇾 It was formed on a geographical upwelling that was created by the interaction of the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian tectonic plates. The valley hosts many volcanoes 🌋 and also some lakes that I plan to visit in the next couple of weeks.
After passing the town „Narok“, we left the tarred street 🛣️ and went on bumpy and sandy roads for the last 1-2 hours of the drive … and they became worse the closer we came to Maasai Mara territory. The last few roads leading to our accommodations were really the absolute worst I have seen so far: deep ridges and countless holes in the sand made it almost impossible to drive there. 🫣David managed it anyways but it took him approximately 30 min. for a distance that could have easily been driven within 10 min. if the roads weren’t that bad. 😩
Anyways, when we arrived we had a late lunch
and then did the very uncomplicated check in: I had booked the budget option for accommodation with the safari. So, I was staying in a tent ⛺️ but not the way you would think right now. It was more like glamping (short for glamorous camping) because the tent was basically merged with a small stone house 🏠 that hosted my personal sanitary facilities (shower, sink and toilet) and even provided a roof for protection against rain - something that would proof to come in handy on the second day of the safari. In addition, I had a very comfy kingsize bed instead of a simple mattress in my tent. 😊
After checkin we had a few minutes to rest before we went on a short 2-hour game drive in the evening. Already during these 2 hours we saw a lot of animals - from zebras 🦓 over giraffes 🦒 and elephants 🐘 to countless wildebeests, gazelles and topis. And we still had a full day to find more animals on the second day of the trip. 👍
From my group, there were only Shunjin & Senna also staying at the „Lenchada Tourist Camp“ (like me). The others were in other mid range and luxury accommodations. So, I socialised 💬 a bit with some travellers from the other jeeps that were staying at the same camp as I did in the evening. I was lucky to meet some Italians which had a compatible cable for the battery charger of my SLR camera 📷 (because I had forgotten that important piece of technology 4 months ago at home 😮‍💨). I bought them a beer in return and was super happy that I had not unnecessarily carried that heavy camera and it’s equipped for the past months with me. It had been a great day already and I had only one more wish for the next - seeing a lion 🦁

On the next morning we got up super early (at 5.30 am) 😴 Luckily, this time coincided with the time I was usually still waking up anyways; due to my jet lag. After breakfast we picked up the other passengers from their accommodations before we entered the Maasai Mara national reserve again. 😃
Unfortunately, I had made a crucial mistake that probably will turn out to be my personal fuck-up of the month (if not even the entire year). 😞 Remember that I wrote about how I was super lucky to find someone who could help me recharge my camera battery? Yeah, it turned out to be all for nothing. All that time I was simply assuming that a storage card was already in the card slot of the camera BUT IT WAS NOT. 😱 I realised only that morning that I had no storage cards with me since I had left ALL my storage cards for the camera in the Hostel in Nairobi. 😭Meanwhile, I have made my peace with that situation and I can laugh about it but in the moment I was nothing but angry at myself / about my stupidity. 😅 I simply did focus more on actually seeing the animals instead of getting the best close-up photos of them. Fair enough.
In the park it felt almost as if we were part of the Lion King movies 🎥 This might have to do with the main characters that we met there. For example, Simba and Pumba are both very literal translations from the Swahili language and mean „lion“ 🦁 respectively „warthog“. In fact, many of the lovable (and some not so lovable) film character's names are from the Swahili language. The drivers were constantly communicating with each other via radio. When ever we heard „Simba“ everyone got excited. 🥳 Soon enough we found a lion chilling in the shade and my wish from the day before was fulfilled. We even saw approximately 10 lions in total that day. Many males and females as well as some calves. As a rare spectacle we even saw two lions feeding on a topi 🦌 that they have just hunted and killed - fascinating and gruesome at the same time. Nature is just brutal. Of course we also saw many more animals like hippos 🦛, giraffes 🦒, elephants 🐘, ostriches, etc. It was simply a great day. 😍
In the afternoon it was raining heavily 🌧️ We were protected in our jeep and the animals didn’t mind either. But that rain meant that all the bad roads in and outside of the national park even got a lot muddier and difficult to navigate. 😤 David did a great job and brought us back into our accommodations but I have heard that some of the other 4x4 vehicles got stuck in the national reserve and needed to be towed in the night. Can you imagine being stuck there in the dark with all the animals lurking 👀 around you? Kind of scary, isn’t it?
It seems to be no joke to drive these roads and that point lastly made me abandoned my initial plan to maybe rent a vehicle and visit some other parts of the country on my own. 🤷‍♂️

In the morning of the third day, we had the option to visit the Maasai village that was close by. I skipped this opportunity because I was too tired 🥱 to be at 7.30 am at the meeting point (with all my bags packed) and I will probably see some Maasai villages in the coming weeks anyways. I was supposed to be picked up at 9.15 am from the camp but David didn’t show up. 🤔 After 30 min. of waiting I asked the camp employees if they knew what was going on. There was clearly something wrong and after a phone call it turned out that David was stuck in traffic because other cars had difficulties to navigate the muddy roads. 🙄 It wasn’t until 10 am before I was picked up at the camp but I didn’t mind - I had no other plans for the day. 🤭 After me, Shunjin & Senna were picked up from the Maasai village and eventually Zim & Huani from their resort.
The roads were terrible. 😣 If there was one thing that should be improved in this trip then it would be the roads in the Maasai Mara. I was not able to find out why these roads are not being taken care of. But somebody should really do something about it! 🤬 We left these roads behind us and were on our way to Nairobi - at least most of us. Stefan & Kelly went on with their safari. They had booked 2 more days at Lake Naivasha and Nakuru - some places I still want to go but since I am not as pressed for time as them, I will take it slow and spend probably the next week there. 😌 This time I was the only longterm traveller in my group. Stefan & Kelly would already fly back on Tuesday after finishing their safari which marks the end of their 3 weeks trip through Tanzania 🇹🇿 and Kenya. Zim & Huani actually live here in Kenya 🇰🇪 for an extended period until 2026 and just did the tour as a weekend trip. And Shunjin & Senna have just graduated🧑🏻‍🎓and were just using the time to travel the world before they had to start working. They told me that they were on a 10-day (!!!) trip through Kenya, South Africa and UAE … crazy Japanese. I guess that is their version of a gap year 😂
Anyways, I wish all of them a pleasant journey and a safe trip back home. I am happy that we were able to experience the wilderness for a short time together. ☺️Read more