we are in the 14,000-hectare Olare Motorogi Conservancy,
home to Mara Plains Camp. The conservancy abuts the Maasai
Mara and is, effectively, private property. Camp vehicles can
drive wherever you want. If there’s a pride of lions by the creek,
the driver simply points the 4wD towards the best and closest
vantage point. Nor do you need to worry about lots of other
vehicles – only the local camps have access.
“I think she’s going to fetch her cub,” Daniel whispers, and
points to a spot just in front of us where a lioness is approaching
one of her babies hidden in the grass.
It’s late in the afternoon and we’d spent the past hour
watching a female leopard chewing on the remains of a baby
eland she’d dragged up a tree a day earlier. with effortless agility,
she descended and walked past us, brushing the side of the
LandCruiser on the way to her six-month-old cub. Together they
climb back to the kill and, after rearranging the carcass on the
branch, begin to feast again.
The true wonder of game viewing in Africa is that most
animals regard vehicles as uninteresting metal boxes. It will
be an interesting day when they discover these boxes are full of
meat. Only elephants appear to regard our means of transport as
something to be considered part of their world and challenged
if necessary.
But if the wildlife viewing is outstanding, Mara Plains Camp
takes glamping and hospitality into the stratosphere. The supplied
binoculars are Swarovski and you can borrow an SLR camera.
There’s even a pair of reading glasses by the bed in case you’ve
forgotten your own. The expansive tent, built on a deck of thick
railway sleepers, is a symphony in copper and leather. The
freestanding shower has a view of hippos bathing in the river.
The decor includes a large copper bath and two copper sinks, a
Louis Vuitton-style leather trunk and leather Kipling desk.
The camp has the river on one side and typically Mara
scenery on the other. As we watch the play of light over a lone
acacia on the horizon, dwarf mongooses play furtively below
the dining platform.oN the prowl
Each game drive is a trip into the unknown, but such is the
richness of Maasai Mara wildlife, we are never disappointed. In
fact, we’re constantly delighted by exciting sightings.
The rhythm of a safari well suits insomniacs who appreciate
daytime naps. Before dawn you’re on the road and, with luck,
the new day reveals a vignette of animal life: a cheetah on the
prowl or several giraffes nervously scanning the horizon. Then90 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER