On one chilly Saturday morning, I packed my bags to go to the Mara thanks to the position I had in this fancy media company but I had to make my way first to the embassy as I had a visa appointment to travel later in the year. So, I decided to leave my luggage behind and first deal with the embassy appointment. After a quick denial of my visa application, I made a decision to make the travel and ease the major disappointment. I took a matatu to town and snaked my way from the jam at Kipande road to Jevanjee Gardens where I was hoping to catch any of the tours and travel van to take me to Narok. I was late for the Mara trip and the team had left already. In the city, I found someone I could talk to after noticing no availability of a van. This stranger informed me I had missed the last one a few minutes earlier. So, how was I going to get to Mara, I Google-ed. Again, I hurriedly made way to Nyamakima at downtown Nairobi and got a shuttle to Narok town, as advised by the first Google result I got. The blog had instructed me to get a bus/vehicle that was to take me Sekanani and not to miss it I had to be there by two. At 2:06 pm I arrived in Narok and the driver who was to show me the directions to the stage disappeared. I walked around shopping for a few clothes for the weekend since I had left my luggage and stopped at a cyber to send some work emails and continued my journey. I found a motorbike rider to ‘Stage Kubwa’ where I was to get my next car and start the journey to Sekanani. The second leg of my trip started at 4 pm and we headed off to the rough muddy off-road.
Not only did the road change but also the environment, the hilly green landscape was replaced with a plain topography that was sparsely populated. The people we passed when we did, you could easily tell they are still true to their traditional ways and urbanization is still a concept they are yet to embrace. They laughed and waved as we passed along but two hours later I started to panic as dusk approached. It was six o'clock and according to the blog I read, I was supposed to have reached Sekanani by now. Just then the driver came to a halt in front of a river and a broken-down car. He explains we have to wait for the river to drain out just enough for his car to cross. Fortunately, it turned out the other passengers were growing weary as well and we dared him to cross it regardless. Luckily, we did cross with no qualms and twenty minutes later we arrived at a small centre called Sekanani.
The driver ordered me a motorbike and we immediately started our up-hill ride to The Spirit of the Masai Mara, a conservancy lodge on the lonely part of the Mara plains. He warned, we were in the wild and would probably site an elephant or a wilder creature but I was to stay put no matter what appears along the way because there was only one driver. I was amused by this fact and the fact that the path uphill was not muddy compared to the other one. We passed one lonely check-point in the wild and before we got to the second one a family of elephants appeared on my right walking across the road in front of us. The leader at the front, I assumed he was the biggest, looked straight to my eye and that was it, I couldn’t stay put anymore it just saw me and was coming towards us I jumped off the bike landing on my side on the dry grass like instinct grabbed my luggage and run.
The Spirit of the Masai Mara
I stopped at two buildings facing each other with the bike driver on my tail and the elephants nowhere in sight. A warden appeared from the building and came to meet us. I was so relieved to realize I was not hurt and had arrived at my destination. I burst into a peal of hearty laughter as we narrated our ordeal to the warden who was sympathetic and informed me they had been waiting for me since my phone had gone off earlier. He assured me he will take care of the bike rider and took my luggage then led me to the main restaurant. At the door, I was instructed to wait for the manager to officially welcome me which she did. Ritva, the manager gleefully thanked me for making the trip to her part of the world and invited me to the table where the rest of the team sat. My dinner arrived shortly, a plate of white rice and chicken stew garnished with parsley and a side accompaniment of tomato salad.
Amid the table conversations, I learned of a night game drive after dinner and quickly counted myself in. Wasn’t I lucky, my first game drive turned out to be a common restriction in most game parks? As we had our delicious orange crème brulèe for dessert, a sudden scream startled us. A group of Maasai clad dancers was making their way around our table. They broke into a song, nodding their heads, jumping high in the air and making a complete circle around our table. At the end of the fourth song, William introduced himself and the rest of his dance group who were also the staff at the Game lodge. Real live entertainment in the wild you do not get on iTunes.
Night Game Drive
After dinner, I quickly washed up and joined a team of two for the game drive. 8:17 pm we sent out to the starry night. I couldn’t hold my excitement and although it was dark the moon played its part, the guide used his torch to look out for any creatures of the night. We first saw the dik-dik crossing the track to the other side. The yellow eyes of the African Scops owl stopped us dead on our tracks as we observed it perched above the tree unaffected by the red-light which was harmless to them, a pregnant dove was in a nearby tree and on another a crown crane whose legs camouflaged with the thin branch so seamlessly. A green bush baby hastily jumped on the ground before we could all sight it.
By this time we had come to the noisy swamp filled with numerous frogs, which was our turning point. We did not see much and was eager for the morning drive the next day. I retired to my room at 9:15 pm.
The Lodge
Spirit of the Masai Mara under Sarova Hotels management is situated in Siana Conservancy in a secluded valley in the Mara natural’s environment. The lodge no.5 that I stayed at was a complete replica of a house, whole with a cable-less living room, huge windows, sophisticated fitting décor, a master en-suite and a balcony overlooking the grasslands of the Mara. The huge windows in the living room and just next to the bathtub gave a view sight even a big inch TV could not pixelate. I made peppermint coffee and sunk in the bathtub taking it all in as sleep tried to drift me away.
Morning Game Drive
I got a 5:45 am wake-up call with a cup of black coffee. Showered and by 6:13 am I was ready for the drive. Covered in a warm poncho that doubled as a raincoat just in case it started to pour, I got to my seat and off the driver and I went. The morning was less chilly than I expected and the sun was rising up in the east promising to shine its rays during the day. We spotted a spotted hyena almost immediately, at the water hole where the driver cum guide explained that they had a camera installed at the water hole which was connected to a screen back in the lodge. What a superb idea! An E-game drive is a future.
Among the small five, the buffalo weaver was the first bird I saw, lonely balanced in a tree branch, and I spotted a couple of long-tailed starlings flying on a branch, a mag-pie, and Blue-eared Starling. A ray of sunshine caught up with a violet starling flying away and I couldn’t help but stare at the bold colours on that small creature.
The woodland savannah stretch had black acacia trees scattered in the vast grassland of Mara. Behind these bushes were the shy bushbucks and the ever-hopping impalas that knew of our arrival before we even arrived thanks to their sensory organs located on their legs near the hooves.
The driver sighted a family of elephants and a herd of buffaloes yonder, which were black spots on a hill to the naked eye. Tingling inside, I waited till we got to the elephants grazing peacefully on both sides of the track. The bull elephant grazes far off from the rest of the family, as the baby elephant followed the mother and two male elephants fought with their trunks as others just moved away swiftly from one tree to the other. Spectacular! We stopped there until the driver nudged me, for us to move on to the buffaloes a few meters away.
We made it to a clearing with a herd-full of buffaloes simply in their element. Others grazed, others sat down in a group looking out to the lands, as one male tried to mate a female but his efforts bore no fruits. Small birds landed and flew away from the buffalo’s neck proving the symbiotic relationship between them; I was caught in a daze as I locked eye with one of these black creatures. Even with their poor eye-sight, I was not convinced it wouldn’t charge towards me at any moment so we moved on to a group of zebras, the blue-jeans impala also known as topis and warthogs strolled along.
Breakfast at the terrace
The drive back to the lodge was characterized by jumping dik-diks and gazelles having their breakfast in the nearby bushes. I was, however, at peace with my decision to go for the morning-drive by myself; it was the best decision of my trip.
We had our breakfast at the terrace outside the restaurant watching the pool and the vast woodland of the Mara. I had oats and yoghurt as I waited for my breakfast order to get ready. Shortly, it started to drizzle and adamant to leave the terrace we just moved back under the restaurant's roof completely under the spell of the Mara. I had my plate of scrambled eggs, baked beans, sausages, and more coffee. The exceptional service from the staff exceeded my expectations and the knowledge they had of their surroundings was incomparable. They were able to answer the questions we had chipping in our morning table conversation every now and then. After the hearty breakfast, the staff together with Rivta the manager converged at our tour van to bid as a goodbye. It was such a short time but the warmness of their welcome left me nostalgic.
For timbu writing competition.