Luxury expedition ... the guest area at Kichwa Tembo camp.
Terry Smyth gets a taste for five-star camping while exploring the spectacular Masai Mara wildlife reserve.
I'm tracking west across Kenya in a light plane, on a 40-minute flight from Nairobi to the Masai Mara. Below is the Great Rift Valley, that massive rent in the earth that runs 6000 kilometres from Syria to Mozambique. In the savannah, the colour of burnt biscuit, I can see the marks made by the old African gods' fingernails as they tore the plains apart.
In a blink, there's a dramatic change in the landscape. It appears now like the green felt top of some impossible billiard table, dotted with darker green umbrellas.
This is the Masai Mara, a vast wildlife reserve within the Great Rift Valley. The northern extension of the Serengeti National Park in neighbouring Tanzania, it is, famously, the destination each July to October of more than a million wildebeest and zebra during the Great Migration.
Without doubt, the migration is the greatest wildlife show on Earth. I've been right in among it and it's an unforgettable experience but that's not why I'm here this time. I'm here because after the great herds have turned tail to trek back through the Serengeti, there remains in the Masai Mara a large resident wildlife population - many more animals, in fact, than you'll see in southern Africa's heavily promoted game reserves.
Not only do wildebeest, zebra and buffalo call the Mara home but many herds of elephant, more than 20 lion prides, giraffe, deer and antelope, hyena, leopard, black rhino and, in the Mara River, hippo and Nile crocodile.
I've come at the invitation of adventure travel group &Beyond (formerly CC Africa) and I'll be staying at two of their tented safari camps at the base of the Oloololo Escarpment on the western border of the reserve, on private concessions leased from the Masai traditional owners.
As we come in to land on a dirt airstrip, impala on the strip dance out of the way at the last second and troops of baboon patrol the edges. The land that looked like a billiard table from above is actually low rolling hills of grassland. And the "umbrellas " are acacia trees trimmed like topiary parasols by giraffe browsing on all but the topmost branches.
There is no terminal here, just a small, open-sided timber shelter where my guide, Lucy, a young Masai woman, is waiting for me with biscuits and a thermos of coffee - gratefully received. Then it's into her four-wheel-drive and off along a dusty, rutted road to Kichwa Tembo camp, splashing through creeks, rattling along ridges, stopping for elephants crossing, then warthogs, then antelope.
Kichwa Tembo (the name means "elephant head" in Swahili, after a local rock formation) has 30 tents but this sure ain't roughing it. Tents have ensuites, verandas and all the comforts of home, in secluded locations within an easy walk of a large guest area with restaurant, bar and lounge, gardens and a swimming pool.
After a couple of Tusker lagers to wash down the dust, it's lunch on the lawn, sharing the ambience with a family of warthogs that are permanent residents of the camp. Don't bother them and they won't bother you.
The food is top fare - fresh local products and menus balancing the familiar and exotic - and the service is faultless. Another Tusker, please. Asante - thanks.
Later, I climb into an open-sided four-wheel-drive and head off on an afternoon game drive with ranger Moses, who is a top guide, knowledgeable and great company. My companions on the drive are father and son Fred and Doug Denys, from Utah. Fred's a landscape artist (a celebrated one, I later discover by Googling him), while Doug is a surgeon with a knack for wildlife photography. Nice guys both and, like Moses, excellent company.
Bouncing along rough tracks, muddy from recent rains, we come upon herds of elephants, many with calves in tow, waterbuck, Thompson's gazelle, impala, giraffe, warthogs and prides of lion.
A few hours later, sitting in a padded armchair on the veranda of my tent, G&T in hand, I'm contemplating the remains of the day as a giraffe ambles east to west across the plain, its shadow lengthening as it goes. My steward should be here soon to lower the tent sides for the evening. Meanwhile, as one does on such occasions, I'm thinking deeply about nothing in particular.
Kichwa Tembo has a surrounding electric fence, so you can walk from your tent to the guest area without worrying about being bothered by baboons or lacerated by a leopard. That's the theory, at least. It's not monkey proof, however, so guests are well advised to zip up the flap of their tent overnight and when out and about. I've watched monkeys studiously trying to figure out how to unzip tent flies and I reckon one day they'll figure it out.
Overnight, I add to the zipper precaution an old Aussie bush trick, placing a rolled-up pair of socks in the gap where the zippers meet, to keep out creepy-crawlies and snakes. However, I wake the next morning to find the socks have gone. Somewhere out there is a pilfering primate wearing Holeproofs who's the envy of his tribe.
I'm up early for a six-hour game drive with Moses, Fred and Doug. In short order, we encounter rhino, buffalo and elephant, then a cheetah, well spotted by Moses, barely visible in the long grass. The cheetah is a magnificent specimen, laying low and grooming a while, then delighting us by climbing onto a fallen tree for the money shot.
We drive on, lumbering along the tracks, past where impala bucks are locking horns, to where lions are lazing in the sun. There are bachelor males, females with cubs and a large black-maned male mating with a lioness. The Mara is the only place you'll find black-maned males and the ladies apparently prefer them.
A little way on, a lioness shows signs of interest in a light-maned male, only to reject his advances at the last moment. Tease!
He eventually takes the hint and wanders off in a huff.
We reach the Mara River where, in the mud at a crossing place of the Great Migration, wildebeest bones lie as testament to those that didn't make it. Crocs bask on the river bank, hippos wallow and bellow nearby.
Many animal encounters later, including a mother cheetah with two cubs and the comical sight of a huge male lion chasing a tiny baby warthog (the warthog got away), we head back to camp, flanked by herds of elephant and buffalo and families of zebra and giraffe.
That afternoon, I move to nearby Bateleur camp, named after an eagle common to the area. Bateleur, with 18 luxury tents, is somewhat upmarket compared with Kichwa Tembo and my tent is larger with extra luxuries, including an overhead fan, which is a fine thing when you fancy a nap during the day.
Inside the door is a Masai spear. Richard, my butler (yes, you read that right - my butler), tells me it's not for protection but when stuck in the ground outside my tent it means do not disturb. I try it and sure enough, it works.
After dinner - an excellent lamb dish - and an evening spent in pleasant company, I retire to my tent to find Richard has turned down the covers of my queen-size bed and thoughtfully opened the tent flaps to let in the dawn light.
I wake to a sunrise streaked with pinks and reds and the morning call of birds.
Now, I'm no ornithologist, so I can only describe the Mara morning chorus as including the "call-waiting" bird, the "here boy!" bird and a wide range of "mobile phone ringtone" birds. Sorry, twitchers.
All too soon, it's time to leave and I'm back at the airstrip. A plane is approaching, coming in to deliver more guests and supplies and to take me back to Nairobi, while a ranger in a four-wheel-drive is chasing animals off the strip, whipping up whirls of red dust.
So this is it, then. It's Kwaheri - goodbye, Masai Mara. Asante sana - thanks for everything. I can't wait to tell the folks back home that not only did I have an exciting African experience, I had a tent with a butler. Can you believe that? An actual butler!
The writer was a guest of &Beyond
TRIP NOTES
Getting there
South African Airways (www.flysaa.com) flies Sydney to Nairobi via Johannesburg. Air Kenya (kenya-airways.com) and Safari Link (safarilink-kenya.com) fly daily to Kichwa Tembo's private airstrip, a 45-minute flight.
Staying there
Rates at Kichwa Tembo Camp start at $US200 ($291) a person a night, sharing. Rates at Bateleur Camp start at $US490. This includes three meals a day, tea and coffee, two game drives a day and transfers to Kichwa Tembo airstrip. At Bateleur Camp only, rates also include soft drinks, alcohol and laundry. See &beyond.com.
When to go
If you want to be on the Masai Mara for the great migration, September is best but there is a large resident population, so you're sure to see plenty of animals any time of year.
Further information
The camps are in a malaria area, albeit low-risk, so take your anti-malarials, make liberal use of the insect repellent supplied and cover up. Don't drink the tap water. Bottled water is provided.
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