What an experience!
by Julia and Phil Williams
On arrival in Nairobi we found the Eka Hotel a good quality hotel and had a very restful night before the excitement began.
The following morning, we sat in Reception awaiting the arrival of our Guide /Driver. We saw many safari vehicles of varying types entering the car park and various Guides greeting their respective clients, then Allan Njau our Guide walked in. He greeted us with a warm, cheerful smile and we immediately took to him. We knew he would be our kind of Guide! He took us to our vehicle and we were extremely pleased, it was clean, tidy, evidently well maintained and good quality.
We knew the journey would be quite long long but we hardly noticed the time passing. It seemed we got to the gate of the Mara in very little time. Allan was a very safe driver and en route we learned that, with his love of and enthusiasm for wildlife, we had a lot in common. Our first sighting on the way to Lerai Safari Camp was of 4 male cheetah who, Allan told us, hunted together. We had never seen 4 together before – this encounter was certainly sign of what we had to come!
We would enter the Mara each morning to a beautiful sunset and follow up with encounter after encounter.
On the first day, Allan found the 4 cheetah again with a hyena not far away. As they were resting we decided to move on and, not 250 metres further down the track, a large pride of lions with cubs were just crossing, followed at a safe distance by a small pack of hyena who stopped to greet each other, another interesting event.
The following days were filled with many sightings of cheetah, the 4 males again plus a few of single females, one of a hungry female chasing and killing a full grown male Thomson Gazelle.
Lion viewing was also a regular event, sets of mating lions, lions with cubs, an unsuccessful chase of a male Topi and a pair of males guarding their half eaten buffalo carcass.
Allan really wanted us to see the 5 “Tana Bora” cheetah and he didn’t disappoint us. We weren’t the only vehicle at the scene obviously, but they were great to see. Some other highlights of the viewings were families of Thomson with recently born fawns, many Topi including young, huge herds of buffalo, herds of elephant with young, a lion cub suckling, packs of hyena on a kill, a mating pair of Servil cats, a single hunting Servil very young Jackal playing and a very large male leopard. The list goes on! Green season is a great time to see young animals and our trip reflected that.
The storms started on our last night at Lerai and the rain was torrential. It made our journey to Entim quite difficult but Allan professionally just dealt with whatever the muddy Mara threw at him.
He coped so well with the swampy tracks which another driver or vehicle would never had managed to get through. Each night at Entim there was a storm, more and more rain fell. The channels we needed to cross were filled with fast flowing water and the tracks became deeper and muddier. However, each evening Allan would tell us the timings of the next day, he would take us out, cope with any adverse conditions safely so that we did not miss a minute of the wildlife adventures – we enjoyed our safari to the full regardless of the evening rains.
We also liked Allan because he did not approve of the vehicles which illegally went off road, disturbing the wildlife – our sentiments exactly. He is the best Guide/Driver we could ever have hoped for and, when we visit Kenya next, we would love to book him for the whole trip again.
Lerai Camp was in a stunning setting, the tents were very well organised and appointed and the public areas were lovely. Nadine was a brilliant manager and Mike (we remembered from Entim in 2013) and Titus were excellent waiters, very friendly, hard working and accommodating. They all made our stay really enjoyable. Jimmy’s meals were delicious and imaginative, he is a superb chef. We enjoyed sundowners in the private Lerai conservancy which was wonderful, a real bonus.
Nadine had invited Sylvester, the new manager of Ilkeliani (where we had stayed before), it was interesting to talk to him, especially about the terrible floods and the fact that the tent we had stayed in previously had been washed down the river along with rest of the east wing, lounge and dining areas. It was good to know that thewhole camp is being rebuilt and should be open by August this year.
Entim was great to revisit, we met John the waiter again, David, the Manager was still there and we also recognised Ben the Maasai. Again, the staff were excellent, our waitress Sara was outstanding. The tent was as good as we remembered, the only downside was that we were at the far end, near a frog pool. They serenaded us most of each night, we did manage to sleep through most of the time but sometimes they were just a bit too loud.
The more it rained, the happier they were! We love wildlife but not singing to us continuously for hours at a time!! David had a plan to resolve the issue and assured us that he would book us into a different tent next time, just in case!
In summary, this holiday has got to be one of the most, if not the most, exciting and wildlife filled trip we have ever experienced.
Thank you Amanda for giving us so many memories, recommending such an excellent and professional company in Kenya and enabling us to meet such a wonderful and outstanding person in our guide Allan.
