Long Flight to Nairobi

After a short flight from Cincinnati to New York, I boarded a Kenya Air 14 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. There, I met my traveling companions Des and Denis at the very nice Ole Sereni Hotel where we spent the first night. I have travelled with Des and Denis three times before to Uganda, Madagascar/South Africa and India. Des leads photography workshops and tours through his company Captivating Nature.

The next day we took a small Cessna 208 Caravan airplane from the Nairobi Wilson Airport to the small dirt Mara Olkiombo Airstrip. We were greeted by our Maasai guide Amos Odupapa who took us to the Oltepesi Tented Safari Camp that would be our home for the next 10 days.

Wildlife on the Mara Plains

The Maasai Mara National Reserve is one of the largest reserves in Kenya and it stretches 1,510 square kilometers (580 square miles). It is named for the Maasai people that inhabit the area. Mara is the word for “spotted” in the Maasai “Maa” language. The Mara, as the locals call it, is a vast plain spotted with trees and other vegetation.

Wildlife is abundant in the Mara. We saw many carnivores including lions, leopards, cheetah, jackal, hyena and even the elusive serval. We also saw lots of wildebeest, zebras, topi, African buffalo, gazelles, eland and waterbuck.

The Mara is a wildlife photographers dream.

Typical Day in the Mara

Our day began before sunrise with a quick cup or two of coffee. Then we hit the road in our specially modified Toyota Land Cruiser. Both sides of the vehicle had large openings to allow for good photography angles both high and low. It also had the roof cut out and raised to allow us to stand up and look out over the top of the vehicle. It was also equipped with power receptacles to charge batteries and phones.

On most days we stayed out all day until dusk eating breakfast and lunch under a tree on the vast Mara plains.

Lioness in the Maasai Mara, Kenya

Great Wildebeest Migration

Starting in July more than a million wildebeest, zebra and antelopes migrate from the Serengeti in Tanzania north into the Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. To get to the Mara, they must cross the Mara River laden with crocodile and lions lurking on both sides.

We were there in October, when they move back to the Serengeti which is less spectacular. We were not lucky enough to witness a massive crossing of the river. But, we did see a lion successfully hunt a wildebeest near the river as they gathered to cross.

Hunting Lioness on the Maasai Mara, Kenya

Lioness with Wildebeest, Maasai Mara, Kenya

Lions and Cubs

We encountered many lions on the Mara and often lionesses with one or more cubs. On one of our more memorable sightings we witnessed a mother moving her cubs from one hiding spot to another.

Lions move their cubs often to keep them safe from predators.

Mother Lioness Moves One of Her Cubs

Mother Lioness and Cub in Maasai Mara, Kenya

Serval Hunting

We got a rare sighting of Africa’s wild serval cat hunting. Servals are medium sized cats weighing 18-40 lbs. They are active day and night and hunt mostly rodents.

Our guide got me in the perfect position to photograph the ponce. The serval missed its quarry this time.

Serval Hunting in Maasai Mara, Kenya

Serval in Maasai Mara, Kenya

Next episodes are coming soon about Cheetahs, Leopards and more. In the meantime you can see more images in my Maasai Mara Image Gallery.