Hello everyone, hope you’re all keeping well and safe?
It’s been really hard to decide what to post next. Considering the situation all around the world I chose to post a local one - hope it helps bring back love to Kenya once this is all over!
Last year February I spent about four days in the Mara and honestly it was the most amazing experience. It was the best Masai Mara adventure I had because it was not just about spending time with the loved ones - it was about perfecting my wildlife photography skills (obviously they aren’t perfect but I definitely got better).
We drove there with our own car but hired an open land cruiser from Mario Tours & Travel for the days while there. This was epic because we were just 2 in an 8 seater which meant I had enough space to move around to get my shots. Since the car was open I was able to get down to the level of the animal which I realize was holding me back with my Wildlife Photography before - learnt about this from the amazing Wildlife photographer, Gurcharan Roopra (on a wildlife photo mission at Nairobi National Park months before)
We stayed at a beautiful, small scaled, tented camp - Zebra Plains Mara Camp. It was different from the usual Mara stays which further contributed to why it was the best Mara trip I’ve had. When I say small scaled, I mean small, as in only 14 tents. This means maybe a maximum of 30 - 35 guests (rough estimate) when fully occupied. Imagine feeling like you were the only two people in the camp? That’s how it felt as we went off-peak. Oh the best part… it’s unfenced!!! I mean on one of the nights there was a Zebra just outside the tent, as in touching the tent.
As much as you’re staying in a tent, the rooms are amazing and massive. Luxurious amenities from Shower Gels, Shampoo, Towels etc, enjoy the comfort with an amazing view.
Apart from that there was an outdoor shower with a window, you can enjoy the view, maybe see a few animals, while enjoying a hot shower. It was pretty cool, I enjoyed it the most one afternoon when it was extremely hot.
That’s just the room! The rest of the camp is just as open. The restaurant is also unfenced and it has three areas you can be seated - indoor (which is in the tent but still outdoors), outdoor, or on the deck (under the stars). Since it’s a small camp and the only one around the area the light noise was minimum so we could actually see the stars when we had dinner or even while walking back to the tent.
This may sound a little strange for people but it was the first time I saw real fire flies all through the way back to the tent. Again no light, just lamps about every 100m, so you can actually see all the fire flies around. It felt like a scene straight out of Life of Pi. Yes. I know I reference way too many movies but well, sorry not sorry!
Not to forget the beautiful fireplace that we spent every evening after the game drive enjoying sun downers and after dinner before heading to sleep. It was a lovely feeling just being there in the open. Sometimes, you could hear the animals in the distance.
Now Moving On to the Wildlife…
The camp is located in a way that made it easy to transport to different areas in the park if something was spotted. It was just perfect because we saw literally everything!
The first evening we had a short drive, about 2 hours long. Even then we saw a couple of lions and lionesses just chilling around in the grass - thankfully they weren’t too far in from the road (I don’t have a telephoto lens that goes beyond 300mm). One even got up to start walking oh and definitely show off it’s Yoga poses!
The sunset was beautiful, I mean Mara never disappoints when it comes to a beautiful sunset.
Hurt Cub
Healthy Cub
But, the end of the day was really sad. On our way back to the camp we came across a lone lioness with a cub. This was amazing and it was so cute to see the cub play with the Mama. However, just a few moments later we realised they’re still waiting for something.
The second cub emerged from the bushes, only for us to realise that it had a broken jaw. The guide said the cub probably won’t live long because it’s unable to eat. This was the most saddening and disheartening to see! It is the circle of life…
New day and a pretty happening day. I’ll spare the details because so much happened on this day. Read and scroll to see more!
It started off with the best good morning wish from Lorpapit, one of the male lions in the park, and his pride. There was so much love from them and the light of dawn made it an even better sight. I mean we saw them even before the sun came up.
Lorpapit
We did have to leave them though because I really had to catch the sunrise and gosh was it worth it. Look at the pictures below and imagine that about 10 times real and even more gorgeous.
Oh and I’ve got to thank the car in front because they paused perfectly for me! By this I just mean they didn’t move till we started moving which I choose to believe was them posing for me!
Doesn’t it look just like The Lion King sunrise?? (Yeah, I know… another movie reference)
Wandered around the park for a bit, it wasn’t long till we saw the most majestic animal, of course the elephant. While watching it we didn’t even realise there was a leopard on the other side of the bush. He definitely gave us a fright but he also put up a show and made up for it!
That’s not the end. Once he hid away in the bushes we went our separate way. Went on a different path looking for more - we saw a few more lions but they were sleeping and lazy so we moved on. It was about 45 mins later, we spotted another leopard. This one was a female and it was on the other end so we were sure it wasn’t the same. Her name is Bella 2, with her fierce stare and her beautiful coat. She was mesmerising!
I mean just look at that face!!!
Stayed with her for about an hour till she hid away into the bush. Moved on again, searching for more to see. 1 and a half hours later guess what we spotted? Another leopard, a little bit further in the grass but we still saw it, it did cross the road and the cars so we got a glimpse - now this was only 10:42am. Remember I’m not even going into detail because otherwise it would be too long!
We left the camp at 6:00am and in 4 and a half hours we’d already spotted lions, an elephant and 3 DIFFERENT leopards. I mean this itself was amazing and I was satisfied with the trip… it was only the first full day. I’ve never seen this much game as I did see in these 4 hours!
It eventually just slept in the grass, considering how hot it was we moved further. Not too far from the leopard we spotted the 5 cheetahs, but again they were lazing in the grass. IT was way too hot to stay out so we decided to go back to camp.
Left the camp at around 4:00pm in the afternoon. Can you guess what our first spot was?
Yes, leopard number 4 - again a completely different location from the first three. Definitely on a mission but way too many cars disrupted its way. It was sad to see how tourists were just on a mission to see it, it didn’t matter to them that they were blocking its path! It eventually ran and hid in the bushes because what would you expect?
Thought that was it for the day as it was already about 5:40pm but I was corrected. I think the guide really wanted to show off how well he knew the Mara and boy he was remarkable. We spotted the last and final leopard, can you believe that? 5 leopards in a day and all I said to him in the morning was I really want to see A leopard. Had a brief encounter with number 5 and he was pretty old, you could tell. Didn’t stay too long as he simply came out of the bush to cross to the other side.
Now I seriously thought that was it, like it’s time to go back because it was already 6:00pm. But we still spotted something. Haha, don’t worry it was not another leopard! A lone cheetah just chilling, looked a little drunk to me :p
What do you think?
On the way to the camp we saw the same pride of lions as morning, putting on an even better show. The perfect start and end to the day. They were more in the mood to play, the most ideal goodbye.
The next morning was extra early, around 4:30am. I really wanted to try and get a shot of the stars as it would be the darkest time since all the lights were closed. The employees at the camp were the best. I’d told them the night before about my plan and they helped me achieve it. I’m not perfect yet at shooting the night sky, but here’s what I managed to get:
By the time I was done, we were ready to go on the drive, hoping to catch another beautiful sunrise. The day wasn’t as adventurous as the day before but it was equally satisfying, you’ll know why in just a bit.
We didn’t get a chance to see a that magical sunrise like the day before but we did get to see the hot air balloons going up for their Sunrise Safari. More importantly we saw 2 cheetah’s alone in their private space. Now, the guy really wanted to mate but the girl just wasn’t ready yet.
But I did get some lovely sunrise portraits!
That was it with the Cheetah’s because they eventually hid into the bushes. Shortly after we heard on the radio they spotted a rhino. Now, it’s very hard to spot Rhino’s in the Mara - even though it was deep in the bush I got a good view with my eye and that was enough.
After, we spent a couple of hours with the majestic ellies before we headed back to the camp. Because of how eventful the day before was today was very chilled. We relaxed at the camp for a little bit catching up on sleep after the early morning.
We headed back out around 3:30 - it was pretty cloudy and cool. At this point, my only mission was to see Scar and guess what we did! We found him lying down with the rest of his 4 brothers, enjoying that afternoon nap. Since we were satisfied with everything that we saw we stayed with him in the hope that he will eventually get up. Cars passed us and went forward while we sat there patiently.
About an hour later, Scar got up. Just enough to show his face, yawn and head back to sleep. He kept doing this for an hour, you just had to be ready to get the shot.
Another hour or so later two of them woke and moved to the other side giving the perfect pose for a portrait. Since all the cars didn’t really expect them to move we were the only ones there, I had plenty of space to get my angle right and plenty of time to get the right photos.
I got my shots, happy and satisfied. Then came rushing all the cars - now I just enjoyed watching them and left a couple of minutes later when there were too many cars all around. We spent about 3 hours just waiting with them, alone! It was the most peaceful 3 hours of the whole trip!
