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Maasai Village

We drove 5 hours (250 km, via Naivasha and Narok) from Lake Elementaita to Masai Mara, the part from Narok on a very dusty and bumpy dirt road. We stayed in a cottage at Sentrim Mara lodge near Sekenai gate (15 min drive). On the first day we didn’t go to the park, but visited Maasai village. We arrived before other tourists, which was great as we were alone in the village. Maasai warriors performed traditional lion hunt dance which is now a tourist welcome dance and competed in  jumping.

Performance at Maasai village

Older tribesmen made fire using 2 pieces of wood, women were singing and selling crafts. There are 2 villages near Sekenai gate – one relatively clean with new clay houses  that tourist visit and another with older houses and lots of garbage. It is show for tourists and, but we liked the experience: we learned about traditions, food, way of life of Maasai. The community benefits not only from village visits, but also because Masai Mara Reserve is on their land, managed regionally and lodges employ local people. All children go to school. Our 18 year old village guide (high school student) wants to study management and economy. He joined others for the dance. It looks like a picture from the past, but we learned something about where the community is now. Very easy social interaction.

Whole day game drive to Masai River

Next day we had all-day game drive to Mara River hoping to see the crossing, but big herds crossed earlier this year and already moved on. After recent rains and everything turning green again, some groups wanted to go back, but were spooked by large crocs waiting in the water. It was fascinating to see migrating groups of wildebeest (gnu) and zebra even without river crossing. We had picnic lunch under a tree. Masai Mara has greatest concentrations of wildlife and we saw wildebeests, hartebeests, topi, elands, gazelles, impalas, buffalos, zebras, hippos, elephants, Maasai giraffes, warthogs, banded mongooses, Maasai ostriches, secretary birds, marabou storks, vultures, bee-eaters and many other birds. I wanted to see cheetah and we found one resting in the bushes, we observed him closely for a while and there were no other vehicles around, it was great and very peaceful. Than we saw a group of cars and there was a huge lion pride (~30) with buffalo kill and watching another buffalo, but they didn’t hunt as they had a lot of food already. Adults were resting, but some cubs got hungry and started eating, mom followed. It started raining on the way back, the ground got muddy and slippery (safari mud skating), and we were stuck for a short moment, but our driver quickly  found a way to escape.

Game drive to Mara River

Next day, we visited another lion family, cubs were vary playful in the morning. We drove to Tanzanian border and bridge on Mara River, where we did a guided walk to see hippos and crocks – lots of them. It was nice to be on foot, but our guide/guard (park ranger) was tense and the walk was very brief. Again we had picnic lunch and went to the same crossing point as the day before. Large herds gathered on the banks, but they didn’t cross and we didn’t want to spend too much time waiting. We drove off and saw the most stressed male lion with small wound under his eye and little later two very relaxed males having afternoon nap. We saw migrating herds and many other animals. For a long time each day we were searching for leopard in the bushes, but we didn’t find any.

Game drive to Sand River

The last morning in Mara was the best. We didn’t want to search for any animals, but just drive slowly to different places than before and observe whatever comes by. First came black rhino, very rare in Mara. We went toward Sand River and didn’t see other cars for the rest of our morning drive! Soon we saw two spotted hyenas, for the first time. Then I spotted 2 lionesses, they were watching gazelles, antelopes and warthogs in a distance and seemed to be ready to hunt. But after a while they lied back and we drove off. When we were coming back 45 minutes later, lionesses were returning from unsuccessful hunt, one of them limping. Next we went to beautiful rocky hills with some wetlands and lush vegetation, and no tourists around. There were no unusual animals there, but many grazers, including reedbucks that we didn’t see before, and large colony of mongooses. We saw Sand River, but didn’t get to the banks since we didn’t take lunch with us this day and there was not enough time. On the way back we saw the most relaxed lion sleeping on his back and we had this sight to ourselves. Young women from our lodge who wants to become a guide accompanied us as part of her training. In the afternoon we drove by lion pride, still in the same place, but now very crowded with cars. We tried to catch up with 2 cheetahs spotted by someone, but they were too far. Instead we watched family of elephants moving slowly across the grass and disappearing in bushes.

Elephant family near Sand River

We saw grazers, elephants, giraffes and as always cows, goats and sheep near park gate.

We left Ol Pejeta early in the morning to spend long afternoon in Lake Nakuru NP. It was 4.5 hour drive from Sweetwaters Camp/Ol Pejeta to Lake Nakuru NP entrance. We stopped for excellent coffee from local plantation and bought some to take home. In the park, we drove along the lake most of the time, stopping and walking on the shores. It was nice to see waterfowl, zebra and buffalo from the ground and stretch our legs. But later in our photos I found a lion sleeping like dead in the grass very near where we were walking! Fortunately, he didn’t see us either or didn’t care. There were huge pinkish pelicans, some flamingos, spoonbills, ibises, Egyptian geese, cormorants, marabou storks, herons, egrets, sea gulls and many other birds. There are no elephants at Lake Nakuru so trees grow taller – yellow bark acacia (fever tree) forest. We saw Rothschild giraffe scratching her belly on acacia bush, a spotted hyena, rhinos, and again many animals we saw earlier. We found lion family (mother with 3 grownup cubs) resting under tree near their zebra meal. It was fascinating to watch pair of jackals trying to steal some meat, walking around to get upwind, but finally wisely deciding it was too risky as the lion was watching. It is very nice smaller park, much more green, with nice landscape and views over the lake, nice even without huge flocks of flamingos which no longer come here because of high water level. We stayed for the night on the shores of another Great Rift Valley soda lake, Elementaita, at very beautiful Sentrim Elementaita lodge. Our huge cottage had balcony overlooking the lake.  Dinner was served in open-air restaurant with very dim candle light not to attract clouds of non-biting but annoying insects from the lake (waiters were using flashlights). Beautiful mountains around the lake and hundreds of pink flamingos gathering in the morning at the far end of the lake.