2017/09 Part 5 Masai Mara - Fri Travel to Lodge |
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Dear All,
We were on our way to Kenya and the Masai Mara. At the end of Part 4 we had said goodbye to Ayoub, our guide in Tanzania, and climbed aboard Coastal Air’s 12-
passenger single propeller Cessna at the Serengeti national park’s Seronera airstrip.
Friday September 22nd continued
We’d been asked to remember which hatch our checked luggage went into and we soon realized why; we wouldn’t be getting off until the plane’s third stop at Tarime. The planes are like shared taxis; they follow a rough schedule to and from the Serengeti but the actual airstrips and times depend upon which lodges are involved. It’s similar to the flights we had between lodges in the Falkland Islands. The planes have a netted area by the door for carry-on baggage, which you’d better leave there as hauling it along the very narrow aisle while you’re bent over for the low ceiling is not easy. There are four rows of three seats tucked in right behind the pilot. 
Airfields have a single gravel runway, a parking area, and sometimes a grass hut for shade. We landed at Lobo and Kogatende, both within the park, and about twenty minutes apart. There is no ground control: the pilot just growls “Traffic!” into the radio to warn any other pilot to look out for a moving aircraft.
Then we crossed this agricultural area and landed at Tarime, close to the
border with Kenya. We grabbed our luggage and an airline van took us and another safari group to the border at Isibania. There we had to formally exit from Tanzania and re-enter Kenya. Despite already having visas for Kenya, the latter was a lengthy process as the border guard read every page of our passports.
There was a luggage scanner too but it wasn’t working. Our luggage was moved to another van with another driver and helper and we crossed through the gate into Kenya.
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Travel to Masai Mara (10.26) |
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And stopped. A market lines the road right up to the gates and someone had double parked, right in front of the gates. With lots of shouting and honking the driver was located and urged to move his truck before something nasty happened to it. We had another short drive to the airfield at Migori. We had at least a half hour wait for the airplane, so we went and sat in the shade of a grass hut and ate the rest of our packed lunches. Garbage was dropped into a convenient hole. Bushes were available for those that needed the toilet.
We were talking with some Chinese Americans from the other safari party and they asked what we’d seen in the Serengeti. Of course, we were bubbling over with stories of rhinos and leopards, and lions fighting with a crocodile. They were visibly upset by our stories as their experience had been dismal. Their guide had no radio so could not pick up sightings by other guides and his technique for finding rhinos was to park for hours and wait for one to appear. It made us realize how lucky we’d been to have guides like Nzuki and Ayoub who were willing to work hard to find animals. Their final indignity had been a flat tyre on the way to the airfield and a driver who didn’t seem to know what to do.
They asked how much we’d spent for our private 12 day safari and ours had cost about a third less than theirs of a similar length and one fewer park. We concluded that their American tour company had applied their own markup. However there’s a risk in dealing with a local company as we’d found that we could not get cancellation insurance. If we hadn’t had the recommendation from Ryan and Christina then we probably wouldn’t have taken the risk. As it was we were delighted by TANO’s people and their service.
Our plane arrived, a twin engined Otter operated by Air Kenya’s Safarilink. Most of the pilots we had on our flights were white men but it 
was good to see that our co-pilot on this flight was a black woman.
Our flight took us along the Mara River 
directly to the airstrip for the Masai Mara Serena Lodge.
Ayoub had told us that we’d have Nzuki again for a guide but it was still a relief to see him waiting for us. It was a short drive to the lodge and we arranged for a game drive in an hour.
Serena’s lodge is quite different from the others we’d seen; with a great
mosque-like hall decorated with Masai designs and a spectacular view out across the golden Mara. Rooms are in a number of terraces off a complex of steps and patios. It’s fenced so there’s no need for security but the steps are tricky after dark.
The staff there ushered us into lunch even though it was gone three. We felt obliged to eat something even though this was our second lunch and we weren’t hungry.
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