In February of 2024, we spent 2 weeks on safari in Kenya. This trip was organized with The Wild Source (https://thewildsource.com/), who had organized our previous trip to Kenya. We decided to not move around too much on this trip, and so we focused on the area around the Maasai Mara. In addition to the central reserve, there are a variety of conservancies around the edges of the park, where Maasai landowners have set aside their land for conservation.
These conservancies have a variety of advantages over the main reserve, including lower tourist density, the ability to offroad closer to interesting sightings, and the possibility of night game drives. You can see a map of the conservancies here. Our final itinerary was as follows:
4 nights at Offbeat Mara in Mara North Conservancy, followed by 3 nights at Porini Lion in Olare Motorogi Conservancy, and then 4 nights at Naboisho Camp in Naboisho Conservancy. We finished with a night in Nairobi at the Emakoko.
We took the morning BA flight out of Boston, and slept overnight at Heathrow, so arriving in Nairobi we felt good. Then we ended up standing in the immigration line for more than an hour - enough time that people on the KLM flight that arrived half an hour after us but who were in other lines got through before us. We finally got to our hotel late in the evening, and having not been fed well by BA we went to the restaurant and had a midnight dinner prior to a fairly short sleep.
The next morning we had to leave at 8, so after a quick shower and a small room service breakfast we were off again. Our flight to Mara North was only half an hour, so we were in time for a lazy drive to camp prior to lunch.
Drive to camp was relatively quiet as we were in the hot part of the day; we did find a few members of the River pride being lazy lions. We were greeted at camp by all of the staff members, and introduced to the manager Jennifer. Our tent was family tent #7, which was across a small bridge over a little ravine. It was very private because of that. The tent was shaped like an I, with two bedrooms joined by a connecting hallway, and then two bathrooms on each end of the structure.
We left at 4:30 for our first afternoon drive, and it was still very hot. Things were quiet at first - we were looking for cheetah or leopard but no luck. Rather we ended up spending time with a small breeding herd of elephants, with some babies (which made Sophie happy!). After a few giraffes, we found the large Offbeat pride, with roughly 18 of them lounging out in the open. They became active as the sun started approaching the horizon, and we stayed with them until it was fully dark.
The next morning we were up at 5:45, and on the road at 6:20. It was a pretty quiet drive - an area with alerting giraffes and barking jackals was explored extensively with the expectation that a leopard was probably around somewhere, but we couldn't find anything. Elephants, lots of topi, a large herd of eland - and quite high grass. It had rained overnight, and when we tried to cross a small river we got stuck for about half an hour until we were rescued by another vehicle. We ended up having bush breakfast by the river, with a baby hippo on the bank across from us.
For the afternoon drive, there were dark clouds all around, which luckily avoided us, but at the same time provided us with a nice rainbow. We found the Offbeat pride of lions, and spent the rest of the afternoon with them before heading back to camp.
Next morning we were up early, originally the goal was to find the Offbeat pride in the good light, but another car from camp was going there so we headed off to look for the leopard Ndoto instead. Neither group had luck, but that's safari for you! We decided to head over to the territory of the River pride, seeing lots of plains game on our way. At one point we stopped for a jackal, who seemed very comfortable (almost too much, maybe he had been fed?) with our vehicle. We found two females from the River pride up in trees, and a large tusker elephant who would only show us his bum. We did also come across a male cheetah known as Milele, but he was lying in the long grass and not moving much, so we didn't stay too long.
The afternoon was quite quiet, we didn't see much likely due to a storm that brought cold wind and rain to the area. The offbeat pride had made a wildebeest kill at some point, but by the time we found them they were hiding in the bushes so we didn't see much of them. We hoped they would come out as it got dark, but no luck. We left and had a mini-night drive back to camp, the highlight being the leopard Ndoto showing herself to us. We radioed a couple of other camp cars that had left before us and they returned, and she allowed us a nice extended view as she patrolled her territory.
That evening was Valentine's Day, so the camp put on a really nice meal for us with special Kenyan food. Of course, there was also singing and dancing as well.
The next morning we left a little late, so while our plan had been to try to refind Ndoto others who had left ahead of us reported that she wasn't around. We then went over to where the the Offbeat pride had been, just in time to see them disappear into some bushes. Finally, not far away we did find a young cheetah, but she was relaxing in the grasses so we didn't stick around.
A brief view of the lioness Kiki and her three cubs followed, and then some time with a breeding herd of elephants.
We seemed to have a specific destination this morning, and it turned out that the camp had set up a bush breakfast for us. It was really nice, and enhanced by the fact that we could see lions on the ridge in the distance!
After breakfast we tried to find the lions but they were hidden. So we looked for the female cheetah, and she had moved on and was now in full hunting mode. We watched her until the herd she was tracking saw her and she decided to go lie under a tree.
We should have stayed with her during lunch, as she had a successful hunt during our break. So the afternoon was about lions, first with a visit to the Dik Dik pride and then finishing with the Offbeat pride.
While we were watching the lions, our tracker Benson (Muli was our guide, both were very good) noticed a leopard walking on the other side of the valley. We made a quick getaway to try to find it - he was very shy, and we only briefly got to see him well, but was a very nice male known as Kivuli.
And that marked the end of our time at Offbeat Mara, and in the Mara North Conservancy. After a brief break around camp, where we played Uno with manager Jennifer, Julius and Edward from our next camp came and picked us up. We really enjoyed this camp, it was like we were long-time repeat visitors despite it being our first visit. The staff were universally friendly, and manager Jennifer was amazing at making sure we had a great stay.
We settled into our new camp, Porini Lion, after about an hour drive from Offbeat. Traversing through the conservancy there were clearly a lot of animals around, which seemed to be a good omen for lots of animal activity.
It definitely seemed much warmer here than Mara North, and so it seemed to make sense when we headed out at 4PM that most animals were being lazy and relaxing in the shade at this time. We started off with a variety of plains game.
The next morning dawned very foggy, and the morning ended up being really quiet. In fact, the entire day was really quiet, the primary highlight being a distant male lion just before dark, so best just to move on to the next day.
There were also some hyenas hanging around, although everyone was hanging out together with no problems this morning.
After eating our breakfast, we headed out of the conservancy to go visit a local Maasai village. It was certainly interesting to see how they still live, and to understand some of their customs.
We eventually left this sighting as our guides heard that there was a leopard in a tree, which we headed towards at a reasonable speed. We got there in time to find this female leopard, but she was quite relaxed and had a big belly so we didn't expect much activity.
As it got dark we left, expecting a slow ride home. However just a few minutes later we came across another leopard in a tree. This one was more alert, but the light was fading fast so we only had a short time with her.
Our time at Porini Lion was already coming to an end, but we were offered a short drive for the next morning. We headed out - after a heavy thunderstorm during the night, the morning was quite foggy.
We quickly came across the same female leopard we saw first the evening before, but now she was out and about patrolling her territory. This led to some very nice sightings, although we couldn't stay long as we had to head out to our next camp.
With that, our time in Olare Motorogi was over, and we headed on to our next stop in Naboisho. We were excited to be going to Naboisho, as we would meet up again with our guide from 2022 Jackson. He didn't seem to really remember us at first, but had a good recollection of our previous trip after a bit of discussion. We head out for our afternoon drive hoping to find a female leopard, Sankuet, and her ~6 month old cub. Jackson was fairly confident he knew where they were as they had a kill in a tree.
There was also a lone hyena on the ground, who really wished to have the ability to climb that tree!
Funnily enough, at one point the hyena wandered off, which of course is when the cub dropped the carcass on the ground. Mom was down super fast to recover it, and ultimately the hyena didn't get any food.
We stayed with them until it was starting to get dark, and then headed back toward camp. The sky really became beautiful after the sun set, and we were fortunate that there were some Topi in the area to use as subjects.
The next morning was very active, and the theme overall was babies! We started with lions, then an elephant family with a young baby. While we were with the elephants, our guide Jackson saw something moving way off in the distance, which he ultimately determined was a mother cheetah with two babies. He decided that in order not to lose them he would guide in another car from our camp, and then we would join them. This was definitely one of those times where having a good guide was worth so much.
We finished the morning with a nice, large group of giraffes all hanging together in the plains.
The afternoon goal was initially to find a couple of male lions that were on a kill, but they were hiding in very thick bushes and no matter what we tried we could not find them. Continuing along we came across our elephant herd again. Then we went to a valley hoping to find a leopard, but without any luck. There were a lot of zebra in the area, and at one point a hungry lioness came out and started looking at them. We were hopeful we would see a hunt, but a big storm blew in and the zebra moved off to seek shelter, so no luck.
The following morning started off with a bang, as we found a large pride of lions out on the plains. In general the lions had been shy on this trip - we were told that due to a lot of grazing in the conservancies they were spending most of the day hiding in bushy areas, so if we didn't catch them first thing in the morning or late in the evening they weren't going to be seen.
Once they had melted into the bushes, Jackson asked us if we wanted to go try to see a leopard that others were watching, with the warning that it was quite far away. We did make it in time, but apparently so had everyone else! Technically in the conservancies there are supposed to be only 5 vehicles per sighting, by the time we got there we counted at least 13 vehicles. There were rangers present, so they seemed ok with the situation, but it was a little more hectic than we had gotten used to over our trip. We arrived just in time, as the leopard got down from the tree it was in and walked past us to some bushes.
From there, we went and found our mother cheetah with the two cubs. By this time it was hot and the light was harsh, but it was nice to see them again.
For the afternoon, we spent essentially the entire drive waiting for Sankuet and her youngster to come down from a tree. We were ready to give up, and had actually started to drive off, when the cub started moving and then, eventually, both of them came down to the ground.
We woke to a beautiful sunrise, and hoped to catch the lions before they disappeared for the day. Unluckily even though we got to where they were located 10 minutes before actual sunrise, they were almost all gone from view.
From there, we headed back to where Sankuet and her cub had been the night before, and were fortunate to see them out and about in daylight, if only fairly briefly.
We were probably some of the first humans that they had seen, and they weren't entirely comfortable with us, so we moved on after a few minutes. Continuing along, we came across a dead animal and a family of jackals that were getting a meal. There were also a lot of vultures around, the first time we had seen a big congregation of these birds.
The kids wanted to try a night game drive while we were here, so after spending all afternoon relaxing by the pool and having an early dinner we headed out as the sky was getting dark. We fairly quickly found a pride of lions and spent the drive with them, hoping they would hunt. However, the moon was quite bright on this night, and in the end it didn't result in anything before we had to head back.
The next morning we headed out looking for the lions from the night before. It took a little while, but eventually Jackson was able to locate them. It was nice that the two pride males, the Koka boys, were out this morning.
While we followed the males for a while, the rest of the pride was harassing a hippo. They clearly hadn't eaten during the night. At one point we watched the hippo make a run from one, shallow, pool to another deeper one. It made it, saving it from the lions.
After this we had to make our way back to camp to prepare for our flight back to Nairobi. It became very windy, to the point that we were worried the planes weren't going to be able to fly, but our flight arrived on time and we had an uneventful return to Nairobi.
We were staying at the Emakoko in Nairobi, which is on the edge of Nairobi National Park. After a brief stop at the hotel for a late lunch, we headed out for an afternoon game drive, hoping to see some rhinos. The highlight for us was a family of three white rhinos that posed well for us, as well as a lion out on a mound that gave some minor roars to find its pride mates.
After breakfast we headed over to Sheldrick's; it had started raining quite heavily while we were back at the hotel, and the temperature was actually quite low, so we were all bundled up. Unfortunately this meant that Sophie's orphan, Mokogodo, who was the smallest elephant there, was not able to come out as it was too cold for her. But it was still a very interesting visit, and worthwhile to see the orphans and hear their stories. They do great work, and anyone wanting their own orphan should check them out here.
And then, after having our shoes power-washed to remove all of the mud, we headed over to the Giraffe Center to feed the giraffes there.
And with that our trip was at an end, we finished packing and after dinner headed to the airport for the long trip home.
Some behind the scenes shots:
And some photos that the kids took on their specific camera, they are budding wildlife photographers!