After days of island hopping, we finally made our way to Nairobi to start our long-awaited safari! We arrived at 1:20 AM but we needed to wait for our friends (Sokunna and Brian whom we went to South Africa safari together and Brian’s son TJ) to arrive at 5 AM. We waited at the luggage claim area, there were some chairs and restrooms there so not too bad. Luckily, there was no flight delay so they arrived on time and we walked out. Our guide/driver, Nicolas, was there with my name on the sign. We walked to the “parking lot”, it was so dark out and there was our safari truck with the company name and logo – Spirit of Kenya. I booked through Souls of Tanzania (they are sister companies). The safari truck has 4 rows which can fit up to 8 people, we only have 5 plus the guide/driver so we have plenty of room for our luggage and move comfortably around. The truck wasn’t the newest or the most luxurious, the last two rows’ seat belts weren’t working either, but it was adequate.

Getting out of the airport was so much traffic and we saw our first African sunrise, it was beautiful. Once the sun was up, we could see Nairbo city – very busy with people walking on the “highway”. After a few miles of paved road, we were completely on the gravel road for the whole way to Maasai Mara – 5+ hours of drive! The road is very narrow and shared with big commercial trucks! We passed by a flipped-over truck on the edge of the mountain urg! Our first rest stop was here, a “great view” of the valley below.

There were souvenir shops but we didn’t have local currency so we didn’t check it out in detail. We continued on and I fell asleep even on the bumpy road, that was how tired I was. The next rest stop was a plaza with a huge souvenir store where we could use the bathroom for free and a coffee shop. The toilet hardly can flush but at least they were sitting toilet, not the squatting ones. We checked out the souvenirs but none have a price which means need to haggle. I asked the price for a magnet, guess how much is it? $18 USD, crazy, even if I haggle down by 50%, that’s still $9!!! They think Americans who can afford a safari are rich like that LOL!

We drove past many smaller towns and villages and the conditions there were very 3rd world country, I was so sleepy that I didn’t take any photos so wait for later posts on those pictures. As we got closer to our lodge – Saruni Basecamp Mara, there was a larger town with schools and shops mostly repairing safari vehicles. We arrived Saruni Basecamp Mara just before noon and here’s their “lobby”.

The staff greeted us and took us to our tents, we had two tents next to each other. Our tent was hot in the afternoon but had relatively good wifi, fast enough for me to do some work and join some meetings. The bed was comfortable, Jason checked behind and underneath the bed to make sure no other creatures.

The shower area and they have running hot water, the water flows down to the ground underneath the wooden “floor”. It looked dirty so we showered with our flip-flops on, a must-pack for the safari!

Next to the shower is the bathroom area, sitting and flushing toilet 🙂

The shower and toilet were separated by the curtains and the vanity. Glass re-fillable bottle water is provided for brushing our teeth.

Our tent was okay, we originally booked the JW Maasai Mara for 2 nights (redeemed with Marriot points) and 1 night at Saruni Basecamp Mara but due to the terrible flood that happened in May/June, the hotel was temporarily closed so they canceled our reservation a month prior to the trip 🙁 We were scrambling to find another camp as many camps were impacted by the floor so luckily Saruni Basecamp Mara has availability.

Our camp was next to the river but the views were partially blocked by trees and scrubs.

Our room was so hot that we decided to hang out at the restaurant, the view of the river was nicer there. No crocodiles there but occasionally we saw giraffes and antelopes across the river.

Lunch starts at 1 PM, it was late to me, I guess to align with safari game drives. A big difference between safari camps in South Africa versus Kenya/Tanzania is that game drives are mostly provided by your guide/driver instead of by the camp, thus the price differences.

As we were seated and waiting for our food, a monkey showed up, he surely knew it was time for lunch!

When the bread arrived and we were chatting, the monkey jumped out of nowhere and quickly grabbed one with his mouth and another one with his hand and took off!!! WOAH he was so fast!!! He came back another time and stole bread from another table! We were sure out in the wild 😀

For lunch, we had vegetable soup that tasted better than I expected. Karibu means welcome!

Like Mauritius and Seychelles, Kenyan cuisine is influenced by India as well, lots of curry-based dishes. There were two choices of meats and one vegetarian, I had the chicken and it tasted dry.

Their pudding was much better.

After lunch, we had time to chill out until 3 PM to start our first game drive in Maasai Mara! Nicolas had prepared the vehicle for the game drive (pop-up roof and opened up the back two rows) and changed into his traditional Mara clothing!

The drive from our camp to the park entrance was 15 minutes or so, we briefly stopped for Nicolas to complete the paperwork at the gate and a few local women came close to our truck to sell us handcrafts: beaded jewelry, sculptures, etc. First, she said $20 for the necklace then she quickly dropped to $15 then to $10 USD. We didn’t buy any but good to know the prices.

Minutes after we entered the gate, we saw zebras and antelopes in open plains…another major difference than safari in South Africa!

Nicolas drove us to this tree and circled around a few times; he said food is up there so the leopard is around. What food? I couldn’t see it until now staring at this picture, see the bottom left section if you can see it!

We went into the bushes nearby but had no luck of finding the leopard. Like in South Africa’s private conservation lands, off-road is allowed in the majority of the Maasai Mara so we got really close to the animals!

Next, one of my favorite animals – giraffes. We swore that the giraffes here were shorter and smaller than the ones we saw in South Africa, we guessed it was because not many tall trees here!

Nicolas was on his phone most of the time speaking in his native language so we had no idea his conversation. His English was okay for general conversations but not in-depth knowledge of the animals or their behaviors. This was lacking versus the professional guide we had in South Africa! However, he drove super fast and got us to places on time to see the animals found by other guides. Some guide located the leopard!

Quickly, he walked back into the bushes that it was hard to get an unobscured photo.

After a few minutes, he was still in the bushes so we left. Nicolas asked us what animals on our list to see since we had been to South Africa so it wasn’t our first time on safari? We said we didn’t see the cheetah in South Africa so that’s one of our top in the list.

We didn’t expect the next animal we saw was a cheetah, not just one, it was a family of 5!!! Woah!!!

They started to walk and the cubs ran and jumped over each other, it was quite a sight!

I guess it was the mother always on the lookout?

We followed them, hoping to see a hunt…Nicolas said likely not, it wasn’t time for their meal yet.

The three sat and looked at the same direction, I had to crop from my 70-200 mm for this pic. Sokunna brought her 100-400 mm so we got the distance covered.

After half an hour or so, we moved on and more antelopes.

Then, I assumed Nicolas got the call, he drove to a pair of lion and lioness. The lion always looked so majestic! Didn’t look like a hunt is going to happen either so we moved on.

We drove across a bridge and the river beneath was filled with hippos! One opened its mouth so wide that we could see the sharp teeth! We saw hippos in South Africa very far away so it was exciting to see one up that close.

A wild dog? Sorry I am not so good with names so I might mislabeled one xD

More zebras and the open plains. Kenya looked very different than what I had read about, I wasn’t expecting it to be as open as this. This looked more like Tanzania in my mind from reading.

Nicolas drove back to that tree and now there were like ten safari trucks underneath the tree so for sure something was going on up there! Look the leopard was eating his early dinner!!! It was so hard to believe how it climbed up there dragging an antelope with his mouth!

The antelope looked like an impala?

Who would’ve known a leopard was up in that tree eating the impala?? We were very excited to see this on our first afternoon in Kenya!!!

The sun was setting and the storm clouds rolled in but one opening for the bright orange glow from the sun peaked out.

Then, it started to rain so we closed our roof quickly and made our way back to the camp. Massai Mara closed after sunset so we needed to get out, the tour company could get penalized if getting out too late according to Nicolas. It got cold so fast after the sun was set, I wished I have packed a light windbreaker or jacket!

Once we got back to our camp, we were escorted to the restaurant for our dinner, escort was required when going out at night for our safety.

Soup of the night, pumpkin I think, I like the soup during lunch better. I got “love” this time.

Choices of meat for the night:

I got the chicken, it was much better than lunch. However, I wish the portion was larger, although I could’ve asked for a second plate.

The dessert was more disappointing than the one in lunch and didn’t look too appetizing.

After dinner, we were escorted back to our tent. The tent cooled off by then so it was a relief. However, I did not enjoy showering, the light was dim and I was constantly afraid some creature would sneak up from the spacing between the wood! I did like the hot water warmer bags they placed in our bed, it really kept my feet warm. During the night, we heard dogs barking and at times, we heard something jumped on top of our tent….monkeys perhaps? The first night was tough but we got used to the noises after the 2nd night! My first impression of Maasai Mara – it exceeded my expectation in terms of the number of animals we saw in just a few hours. I love the openness of the savanna, very different than in South Africa.