Eluai Public Campsite, Mara Triangle

On our drive out, to the Mara Triangle, we were following a motorbike taxi that one of the lodge’s staff members was taking into town. Unfortunately, they must have hit a bad bump and she came off the bike and scraped herself up. Luckily, we have a good first aid kit and were able to help her clean and bandage all her cuts. Nothing too serious, but she didn’t want to get back on the motorbike so we ended up driving her to the nearest town (which was unfortunately on the hellish bumpy road). We hoped to have generated some good karma to protect us from tire problems on the hideous roads.
When we got to the Mara Triangle gate a few hours later, we were instantly impressed with how well run and friendly this private conservancy is. They had handouts of rules, sold excellent maps, accepted visa cards, and were really helpful and proactive in offering advise about the park and the best campsites. Best of all, we had heard it was compulsory to hire 2 armed rangers to accompany us to our campsite, but this turned out not to be true.
We’ve been so lucky to have visited so many iconic national parks, and we worried our expectations for the famous Mara might be too high. Not to worry! The Mara has become our favorite park so far. It’s incredibly beautiful, packed with wildlife and the roads are perfectly maintained. Some of the highlights of our time here:
• Seeing so many lions – including a group of 4 males stalking a buffalo and another large group of cubs resting on a rocky outcrop
• Best cheetah sightings ever! One day we saw a cheetah lunching on an impala, another we actually saw 2 cheetah stalk, chase and kill a young wildebeest, and on our last day, we pulled out of our campsite to encounter a cheetah sitting on the road ~100 meters from where we’d been sleeping
• Excellent elephant, hippos, eagles and massive herds of all kinds of grazers
• Beautiful campsite on a bluff overlooking the Mara River that we had all to ourselves for 4 nights
• Liquid lunch at a fancy lodge. We enjoyed our first dirty martini and cold wine for ages with a beautiful view over the park
• While packing up one morning, we looked up to realize we were being watched by several buffalo on the edge of our campRead more