Reply To: Review: Kenya and Uganda safaris

[Gordon]

Maasai Mara NR,
Date of visit 25th & 26th August 2024.
Overcast/Sunny.
Weather – morning around 16c – 18c.
Afternoon – 23c – 26c.

Note, the Amboseli park fees were challenged in parliament, and they were not increased, so remain at the same rate as 2023. But the Maasai Mara fees have increased to $200 for 2024 from $80 for peak season, a large increase! Off peak fees have hardly changed.

Also the previous 24 hours day ticket to enter the park, has now been reduced to 12 hours, everything it’s electronically checked once you purchase your park ticket, as when you leave your accommodation within the park on your last day, you are stopped on the main road outside by officials, who scan the game drivers ticket to make sure you have left the park, and not stayed within it.

There are many fines for certain things, our driver ventured off the track to allow us an amazing picture of a pride of lions eating a recent buffalo kill, this one he got away with, but later in the day, he done the same for a close up of a leopard under a tree, this time the rangers where watching from a distance, and he was followed and stopped, along with 3 other game drivers and they were fined 10k KES around $80 each, this would rise 3 fold if not paid, along with a park ban! This was paid before we entered the park on the second day day.

We arrived at the Maasai Mara Sopa lodge around 1pm, check in was quick, fruit drink and scented wet flannels were offered, and eagerly accepted after a 6 hour drive from Lake Naivasha Sopa lodge. The last 1.5 hours was a bumpy dust track off the main road, with broken crumbling ducts over small rivers to navigate over, a true back breaker! We were in a Toyota Land Cruiser, which I guess softened the blow a tad.
This particular lodge was a let down, compared to the ones in Amboseli NP and Lake Naivasha, the lodge was very basic, and a very steep incline to reach our room, plus power was turned off between 2pm & 5pm because the site was powered by a generator. Staff were pleasant and the food, breakfast, lunch and dinner was a buffet affair as at every lodge. The bar area was pleasant, with a very large open fire lit every night.

There were baboons and small deer wandering around the lodge but nothing like the spectacle that we witnessed in Sopa lodge, Lake Naivasha.

We had our first game drive that evening 4pm to 6pm, we witnessed a pride of lions eating its recent kill, also saw many bush elephants, loins, Gazelle & thompson gazelle, buffalo, zebra. Meerkats, Giraffes.

You can’t appreciate how big this reserve is until you’re in it! There were signs saying “**** Lodge 80 km, this way” (still within the reserve) with an arrow pointing in the direction. The reserve is big enough that unless there is a call over the CB radio that there is a photo opportunity somewhere, you only see another vehicle in the distance, or in passing on the same internal track.

We returned to Sopa lodge to rest for the evening, we started out on our second game drive at 7am the following morning, after breakfast, the lodge packed us a lunch, there were a few options to choose from, egg, meat, vegetarian,
All with yogurt, crisps, biscuits, wraps, apple and orange, fruit drink, tissues, wet wipes.

We had this lunch on a blanket in an area that was deemed safe, around 12pm under a tree that protected us from the sun, a great photo opportunity, to show that you had lunch in the Maasai Mara!
I’ve no social media accounts so the insta perfect picture was wasted on me 😂.

There are 5 main entrances to the reserve, obviously, we took the nearest one to our lodge (not sure of the name of the entry gate, though)

As with every reserve or NP you get bombarded with Maasai people at the gate, selling their wares, while the driver goes to obtain the entry pass, you can opt to purchase, or if you politely say no thank you, after a few minutes, they get the hint, and move onto the next 4X4 in the line.

We found a mix of cultures, mostly Chinese, they loved their cameras, with telephoto lenses, some, well deserving of a tripod rest to support them! Also Americans, and a fair amount of British,

There are armed guards, on the hotel exit barrier, and at the park entrances, something we never saw at Amboseli NP.

We entered the park around 7:30am, we saw the same amount of and type of animals we had the good fortune to see, on the previous evenings game drive.

We also witnessed a leopard lying in a tree, and hippopotamus and crocodile in the Mara river, we also saw a female lion with 3 cubs, and three male lions resting under a tree, then moving, while roaring. A day and a half was enough to see everything in the park, we were told we were particularly lucky to witness a pride of lions eating a kill, as they normally hunt approximately once a week.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0420nb7uXrmEtl-zZ5MV6ySCA

https://share.icloud.com/photos/062Pp0BlKv4xJ7mqEhoJ7Ms2A

https://share.icloud.com/photos/030LOa5v6ZZ_U3D0TOKZ_Kmhw

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e8QZYkO5Y26Bmsr3328LEH7Q

There are of course many companies offering services for safaris in Kenya, so you just need to look at the reviews, and make an informed decision which one suits your tailored needs, and budget, all the companies are very flexible. We used the below, for a start, which is a kind of comparison site, and hugely helpful.

https://www.safaribookings.com/tours/kenya

We opted for peak season, as we wanted to witness the great migration, but unfortunately for us we were disappointed, as it had already occurred, this cannot be guaranteed, as there is a big time window, and also depends on the rains, if you do witness it, consider yourself to have hit the jackpot of experiences in Kenya.

We will be flying to Uganda, in a few days, on a second safari trip to QENP, Kalinzu Game Reserve, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for game drive en route in Ishasha sector in search of tree climbing lions, Mountain Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable rain forest, and transfer to Lake Bunyonyi for an evening boat cruise. Once completed, we will pass through Rwanda, and take a Rwandair flight back from KGL to NBO. This saves 6 hours travelling back to our entry airport of EBB in Uganda.

I will report on the Uganda trip once completed.