African Safari - 2026
Monday 5 October'26 - Lake Nakuru National Park/Masai Mara Game Reserve (Kenya)
An early start as we had over 5 hours to get the Masai Mara's public gates and another 1.5 hours to our accommodation, Mara Serena Lodge. The drive took us up into the highlands at over 2,000m before descending into the Mara, as it's called locally. Once we passed through the initial gate into the "public park", we were greeted with the standard collection of water buffalo, zebras and warthogs. A little further down the road, our 1st close up with an elephant. We then proceeded to the 2nd gate, into the reserve. This was at a river crossing, where Michael our guide, told us there were hippo's present. Whilst he was handling the paperwork, he suggested we take the very short walk to the lookout that overlooked the crossing, where we spotted one. Whilst up there, on the rocks this lizard was happily keeping an eye on me and it isn't hard to see why the locals call them a Spiderman Lizard. Again, we drove towards the Lodge, we encountered literally 100's of zebra's and water buffalo's as well as wildebeest. The lodge is set on the top of one of the many rocky outcrops that are scattered across the vast plains and is rather nice. The view from the room, spectacular and the Lodge itself, very nice, decorated in Masai traditional form.
Lunch was next on the agenda and at 1530, we were due to go on a safari of the Mara. On the way from our room we encountered some cute little fellas, hiding in the rock garden wall, opposite all the rooms on the pathway up to the main building. They are called Hyrax (or Dassie locally) and believe it or not are genetically closely related to elephants. Next, the safari and wasn't that something special. Now, it was a rather warm day and one of the first things we encountered, right on the side of the road huddling in the bushes, was a Hyena looking very hot & bothered. We then came across another type of antelope, a Topi, that has a penchant for standing on top of one of the many termite nests scattered throughout the vast palins and then a warthog in a similar predicament to the hyena. Next up, a giraffe that wanted to cross the road we were on, and did. As we drove further down the road, a huge lion was laying close to the road, obviously very contented with itself. A little further along, a younger lion was just as comfortable. If that wasn't enough, a few minutes later, we came across a leopard who was very comfortable, right on the edge
of the road. The road we were on took us towards a river crossing where a herd of elephants were grazing and upon crossing the river we came across some crocodiles enjoying the sun. It was now time to return to the lodge and as we passed a waterhole we saw a pair of secretary birds but one more surprise awaited us. At dinner we were treated to some traditional Masai chanting. All in all, a great day.
