Postcard from Kenya: Mara Plains

Our group split up this morning, after 7 days and nights together. Most were headed to Nairobi and home, but Christina and I had planned to spend a bit more time in Kenya. 

I would be spending one more night at another Mara-based camp, Mara Plains, about 2 and a half hours by car from Serian. After a very chilly early morning ride, my last guide, Duncan, picked me up at a crossroad near the Ulare River.

On the way to camp, we saw a bunch of safari vehicles parked on both sides of the river. Duncan heard on the radio that there was a leopard in the underbrush. Of course, he spotted it long before I did. It was a huge female that was almost completely camouflaged against her leafy resting spot. In your mind, you know that animals are often well-camouflaged to avoid predators, but you don’t hear as much about the predators, themselves. In Kenya, ALL animals blend in among the grass, scrub brush, rocks, and dirt. Hippos and crocodiles look almost exactly like the rocks in the rivers. The lions, cheetahs, and leopards are nearly invisible as they lie in wait for their next meal.

Mara Plains Camp is also situated right on a river, the Ulare in this case, but feels so different than Serian. In fact, each of the four camps I visited felt entirely different. At Mara Plains, you feel like you’re in a luxury treehouse, with catwalks connecting the tents and the lodge and monkeys swinging overhead. Serian felt like you were on a luxury camping trip, with your best friends and family. Finch Hattan, which I thought would feel like the ultimate tented camp that it IS, felt more like a secret jungle club and you were lucky enough to be invited to join. Ol Donyo, the only camp I visited with bungalows built into a hillside, with its plunge pools and star beds overlooking the Chyulu Plains seemed like an intimate boutique hotel with games drives.

When planning safaris, it’s customary to combine several camps so that the landscape, wildlife and experiences vary. Every camp isn’t going to appeal to every traveler. For a first-timer like me, it was all a great adventure. I loved the wide open space, the early morning quiet, the amazing variety of birds, watching the animals share their magnificent habitats, eating breakfast on a Mara hillside, and just about everything else. Kenya absolutely delivers the safari experience you’ve read about in books or seen in old movies. Go see it while it’s still there to be seen. I know I’ll go back…and probably more than once.