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Trip to Masai Mara
"The Mara is a truly special place, and seeing it from a small camp with guiding from acknowledged international experts was the way to experience it at it's best." - Ian Woods, York
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The Masai Mara in Kenya is a place I am drawn back to again and again. This year I decided to take a group of wildlife lovers from Yorkshire to show them why I think it is so special.The safari was so successful I've decided to guide another group next year.
If you are interested in joining me see details of the trip at the bottom of this page.
We travelled with highly experienced and professional guides, Daryl and Sharna Balfour, Phil West and Pierre Burton, whose local expertise and generous hospitality was second to none. We timed our safari to coincide with the world's greatest animal migration, when more than a million wildebeest, gazelle and zebra cross these vast plains in search of greener pasture. Our luxury tented camp was ideally placed to see the dramatic river-crossings when these herds plunge into the crocodile-infested Mara and Talek rivers
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One of the highlights of the trip was seeing this lion swim across the swollen Talek River. It was an extraordinary sight, since lions normally detest water. We spotted it on our very first morning in the Mara, and correctly took it as a sign of great things to come! I've written about this story for the Yorkshire Post 24/9/11. Click here to read the full story.
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We spotted lions every day and even saw some fo the stars from TV's Big Cat Diaries, including chief pride male Notch. Look at how he is determinedly ignoring a cloud of flies.
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There was a pride close to our camp and we spent a lot of time watching them.This yearling was very playful and would hassle the others into joining her in a game of chase. Lions spend 20 hours a day sleeping and sometimes we had to wait a long time for them to wake up and do anything. But it was always worth the wait.
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In two weeks we watched cheetah hunt.
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Leopard slink through the shadows in the Mara, to keep out of the way of the lions. This beauty was hidden in a thicket of bush when we first saw him, but we waited an hour and then were rewarded with this dramatic view of him.
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These elephant herding their young past noisy groups of wildebeest were enchanting. And of course the daily views of wildebeest herds amassing on the plains took your breath away.
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We stayed in a luxury tented camp and were attended by a cheerful group of staff who produced gourmet meals every night and served them by candlelight as hyenas whooped in the African night. The atmosphere as we sat down to dinner each night was electrifying. On one evening the Masai warriors that were our guards put on a performance around the campfire for us.They have a curious dancing style. It's like watching someone bouncing on a pogo stick, without the pogo stick!
Only the early morning starts outdid the atmospheric evenings. Mornings are the best times to see game and we were rewarded each day as the sun rose with a new and wonderful sight. And each morning we took breakfast out on the plains.
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August 17th-24th 2012
If you like the look of the above, perhaps you'd like to join me on my next trip in August 2012.The all-inclusive trip costs US$6,200 each, excluding flights and is limited to 12 guests. The camp is for my groups sole use and features seven spacious walk-in safari tents, guests have a choice of large queen-sized beds or comfy twins. Each tent has a private en-suite bathroom featuring a fully enclosed dressing room with washbasin and clothing racks, and hot bucket showers.
The trip offers a unique way to see the world's greatest wildlife spectacle and to avoid the over-crowded mass-market tourism of the bigger commercial lodges and safari hotels.
Our guides are among the best in the industry, not only in finding and locating the game, but also being informative about the country, its people and its wildlife. One of our guides is top wildlife photographer Daryl Balfour another is Phil West who guides Bear Grylls in Africa and has just guided Prince William and Kate in Kenya earlier in 2011. The guides are all thoroughly versed at ensuring you will have the best position and angle to optimize your photography, and will offer advice and assistance both on wildlife and photography whenever required.
Your eventful and full days will be spent exploring this, the northernmost limits of the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem, seeking the area's abundant wildlife - including the migrating herds of wildebeest and zebra that by this time of year should be massing and fattening prior to their return to the Serengeti in the south.
Although the camp really is top notch and one guest described the meals as 'michelin starred', our main focus will be wildlife and ensuring we get the best sightings. The camp and kitchen are well aware of this and if this means that breakfast, lunch or dinner has to be re-scheduled by a couple of hours because we have spotted something really great, this is just what we will do. (and we keep plenty of snacks on board just in case we get peckish!)
We will be travelling in specially customised 4X4s with generous windows and roof hatches. There will be 4 people per car and each person will enjoy views from either their window or roof hatch. All our cars are set up for photography and comfort in mind!
If you would like to join me on this trip of a lifetime please contact me on 01759 368355 or email me mail@robertefuller.com
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Testimonials from the group
"Hello campers!! Spent one of the most enjoyable times of my life with you lot, thank you so much Rob and Victoria for putting the trip together I don't think any of us will forget the sights put before us. Now sifting through 4500.00 photo's to put together a few to show family and friends with pride. Best wishes, Richard Dee."
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"The Mara is a very special place, we'd love to go there again someday. Having a lovely group of people with lots of shared laughter added special memories to the holiday. We had high expectations of this trip - going to Africa on safari was a life-time ambition. Our time in the Mara was magical, from the amazing atmosphere in camp created by Sharna, Daryl and their wonderful staff, to the tremendously knowledgeable and humorous guiding but overwhelmingly the animals. I had hoped to see some big cats but to watch a lion swimming across a river on our first morning followed by daily sightings of lion, almost within touching distance, leopard, cheetah and serval was amazing. Leaving the Mara was very emotional, hopefully we'll be back there someday. Many thanks to Rob and Victoria for making this trip possible, I don't see how we could surpass it! Peter and Hilary Burton"
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"The Mara is a truly special place, and seeing it from a small camp with guiding from acknowledged international experts was the way to experience it at it's best. We saw interactions and activity in the wildlife that many wait a lifetime to see. Whether as an aspiring photographer, or simply someone with a real interest in the natural world, this was a experience which will never be forgotten. The trip was well planned and brilliantly led. The camp itself was hosted in a way which made one genuinely feel at home, and the flexibility of the staff meant we were never rushing to leave wildlife for the sake of a meal. The accomodation and food were truly remarkable - from candle lit dinners which could grace a michelin restaurant, to hot water bottles in spacious beds! A wonderful trip with good company, which has created many, many good memories." Ian Woods
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"When Robert rang last year and invited us to join this trip I don't think we could have imagined what an amazing experience it was going to be. We are quite passionate about wildlife and it's preservation and hoped that we would be lucky enough to see first hand a few of the animals we read about and watch on TV. Suffice it to say that we still cannot quite believe the number and variety of what we saw and at such close quarters. Thinking about the Mara particularly, this must have been down to, in a large part, the skill of our guides Darryl, Pierre and Phil. They were knowledgeable, interesting, informative, fun and extremely patient. All the above is not everything we were privileged to have enjoyed: Sleeping under canvass is pretty much a first for us, as is a bucket shower. We can still here the sing-song voice saying "second shower…."!! Learning how little water you can actually manage with and what fantastic food can be produced from such basic equipment. The off-road experience beat anything Land Rover could come up with, including some of the hair raising drives in, as well as to and from, the crater, along with the running commentary. Beginning to learn some of the basics of what a camera can actually do. Learning new words, like Histogram. Seeing for the first time different cultures, both in Nairobi and the Masai on the plains. I could "wax lyrical" ad infinitum, the list could almost be endless…. Perhaps over and above all this was the shared enjoyment we had with a group of like-minded people who, although perhaps had been "hand-picked", had almost literally been thrown together at random. To my knowledge there wasn't one crossed word between anyone and there was some brilliant fun and laughter. Listening to some of other people's experiences in life during the many conversations we had made us both feel very humble. In the words of the Wildebeest "mmmm"!! John & Linda Watkin"
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