Masai Mara Safari - August 2011

I went on the Virgin Holidays Masai Mara safari with my eldest daughter, who was 16 whilst we were there and my son aged 11. I'm writing this in the thought that it may be of interest to others who are interested in doing similar.  If you have specific questions please feel free to drop me a line at Thecrow at Hoodedcrow dot net or via facebook. 

Firstly the links to the photos (please note, I've resized these, if you'd like copies of the originals please contact me and I'll make the originals available to you):

  • Giraffe Centre, Sheldrake Elephant Orphanage and Lake Nakuru
  • Masai Mara

    • Videos links: (these may take some time to download, they are big, but well worth it!

  • Giraffe Centre - sorry need to work out how to rotate this but a mighty fine video!
  • Giraffe feeding
  • Giraffe kisses! - this'll make you smile
  • Nakuru flamingos
  • Nakuru flamingos 2
  • Vulture feeding - gruesome but good!
  • Nakuru Lodge view
  • Nakuru Lake view

    • Some thoughts:

  • Visas: I considered the trip up to London to get these.  Glad I didn't, the Virgin rep took us, on arrival, past the first bank of immigration people and to another set of immigration desks.  Less than 5 minutes later, visas sorted for the 3 of us.  Don't worry about doing this up front, it is so easy at the airport.
  • Money: got mine changed at Tesco!  Great exchange rate, beat the Post Office.
  • Insurance: Barclays were better than the Post Office (yes I was amazed too, especially as the Barclays Bank staff recommended the Post Office rather than their own! 
  • Virgin use 4x4 vehicles rather than the standard Hiace.  This was a good thing!


    • Things to pack:
  • Mosquito nets: we took three of these are were glad we did. Not everyone had problems but we did hear some people complaining about being bitten.  The only bite we got was my daughter at the Lake Naivasha lodge where there was nowhere to hang the nets!  At the Mara Simba lodge we put these over the beams in the room and the worked fine.
    • Insect repellent: We took a 125ml can of Jungle formula and it sorted us out for the week.
  • Immodium: I took enough to constipate an elephant.  You'd have thought I had shares in Janssen Pharmaceuticals!  As it happened I didn't use them, but being prepared to deal with any issues was reassuring.  We were just very careful to only eat cooked food and were pretty much fine.  The food was actually really good.
  • Calpol: but anyone with kids knows this is a lifesaver.
  • MP3 player: long drives are better with some good music!
       
    Monday August 22nd

    We got an upgrade, the holiday started well!

    Tuesday August 23rd

    Landed, met at airport by Virgin staff who were excellent.  Transfers easy and saw a zebra on the road from the airport!

    Went to Jakaranda.  Asked the rep for a room for 3, as oppossed to 2 rooms if possible.  After somewhat officiously stating that we'd get what we paid for she finally understood that what we wanted was somewhat less than we paid for, 1 room not 2!  At this point it got sorted.  Shame that we couldn't book this up front. 

    After dropping the bags off we went to the Sheldrake Elephant Orphanage.  It's about 1/2 hour from the hotel and the visit lasts at most an hour.  The place is only open 11:00 - 12:00 daily, so they rush you over.  They then drop you back at the hotel to rest for the remainder of the day.  It's a really good plan and lets you recover from the flight.

    Wednesday August 24th

    Early start and off to Lake Nakuru.  A quick toilet stop at the gates to teh park using the local gift shop.  Please note these are VERY expensive.  As much as 10 times more than the gift shops in the lodge, so don't buy unless you really want something and then bargain really hard.  All toilet stops on the trip were the same, you'll quickly get bored of the hard sell.

    Into the park and you start to see big game - fantastic place.  Included both black and white rhino!  You won't see lions here, there's very few left as they got wiped out we were told later.  Even saw a wild tortoise by the side of the road.

    Game drives before and after lunch, well worthwhile.  After which we went to Lake Naivasha Simba Lodge.  Lovely place (though as noted above it's a shame there's no hangings for mosquito nets!).  

    Thursday August 25th

    Another early start and a long 4 hour drive to the Masai Mara. 

    As we approached the lodge I saw what looked like a giraffe head over some bushes, couldn't believe my eyes as we came across a few of them.  Great start!

    Got to the lodge, dropped the bags and then off on an afternoon game drive where we saw loads, including vultures fighting over a wildebeest carcass!  The list of not seen items was elephants, big crocs, hyenas & a leopard.  Other than that tons, couldn't believe how much wildlife we discovered, including lions & cheetahs.

    Friday August 26th

    Early game drive got the elephants sorted as well as masses more.  Still no hyenas, I love hyenas and was getting desperate!

    We then had downtime from after breakfast till mid afternoon.  I sat in cover and watched the hippos in the water behind the lodge and was also lucky enough to spot, on the opposite bank, a family of what was 40+ mongeese troop past.  Also saw on the near bank some huge lizards.  I was watching the water for big crocs but no luck, however we then found out that there were a mated pair nesting further up the river bank behind tents 4 and 5.  Went for a look and sure enough a large croc sitting on her next, couldn't have got much closer.  Awesome.

    Afternoon game drive and I made it clear to our driver that hyenas were a must.  So w went out and found a leopard.  OK, not a hyena but a good spot.  From there he went away from the local area for me to find hyenas and find them we did.  Having gone further afield we also found tons of zebras, biggest herd we saw, amazing.  Also found a herd of elephants with young.  It turned out to be a really good thing that we went so far.

    Make sure you tell the drivers what you want to see for teh last drives, going further out you definitely see more.  Another group told me they'd asked for hippo's and had got some 13 where their driver took them as well as some huge crocs.  Other groups who didn't push their drivers were a little more diappointed as they drove the area close to the lodge looking for random wildlife and actually saw less variety.

    So that was it, all my major sights spotted!  Very happy! 

    Oh and the drivers get fined for being on the Mara after 7:00pm so the sunset shot resulted in a very swift drive back!  Just made it with a couple of mins to spare. 

    Saturday August 27th

    Drive back to the Jakaranda (takes 4-5 hours) and from there we'd paid for an extra day in Nairobi.  So we transferred to the Sarova Stanley hotel.  Bad move, should have stayed in the Jakaranda, not as nice a hotel but less stuffy.  I was really disappointed with the hotel.  They have a Thai restaurant on site but the receptionist told us that my kids wouldn't really be welcome as it was "fine dining".   Really annoyed me and made the place feel very unfriendly.  Nothing I hate more than stuck up places. 

    They also argued about how long we were booked in, it was clearly two nights but they'd only got us down to one.  So they said they'd sort it but set my keys to expire next day (without telling me) which was a pain the next day to get up to the door to find myself locked out my room.  A needless aggravation to sort out.

    Spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel.  Tried to get some cash as I was low but it turns out everywhere is VISA over there and I had Mastercard with me.  Cue reduced tips (sorry to those who I left short!)

    On the way back I'd texted the rep to see if we could get a trip arranged next day to the giraffe centre, which we did on the basis we could pay cash (hence why I tried to get more money). 

    Sunday August 28th

    Giraffe Centre - absolutely amazing, if you're in Nairobi, visit it!  See my pics & videos.  This is the one of the best things we did.  Much better than the elephant orphanage.  Don't miss it.

    After this visit the Rhino Safari guy took us for a tour of the city.  This was very good of him and interesting. 

    The afternoon was a bit wrecked as my sons digestive system failed for the afternoon, so we were a bit trapped but got that sorted out pretty quickly.  Something else that made me question the hotel as it was the only place we had problems.

    Monday August 29th

    Back to the airport for the flight home. 


    That was it, best holiday I've ever had.  Saving for the next one, I'll go back in a couple of years when I've raised the money.  Would sincerely recomment it.

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