Discover Maasai Mara: Ultimate First Day Safari Adventure Tips

It’s about a five-hour drive from Nairobi to the Mara Simba Lodge within the national park reserve. The lodge is very rustic, with rooms and furniture made of logs. It is located in the woods and has a nice environment. Most lodges in Kenya’s reserves are in this style, situated by a river where there are crocodiles, various birds, and you can see monkeys and small deer outside the rooms.

The internet is quite good, and there is also internet in the rooms (in many of these lodges in Kenyan national parks, there are no TVs in the rooms, and internet may only be available in the lobby, so it’s quite rare to have stable internet in the room).

After lunch, we took a car into the Maasai Mara National Park. The Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park are part of the same grassland, just with different names, and the Serengeti is larger.

When we arrived at the park entrance and were waiting to enter, the commercialized Maasai women of Kenya surrounded us, aggressively selling their goods. They really… reached right into the car. If you don’t want them to bother you, you need to close the windows; otherwise, they are very persistent.

A white foreigner in a nearby car had his children scared and hiding in the back [embarrassed]. When we first entered the park and saw the zebras and herds of antelopes, we were very excited, but after seeing more, we became calmer. Gradually, we saw families of giraffes and African elephants. The safari drivers not only have experience but also radios, and as soon as an animal is spotted, they communicate immediately, especially for the Big Five, and everyone rushes over.

Fortunately, it wasn’t peak season when I went, and people were orderly, taking turns to approach the animals. The animals were used to it, and even with a bunch of cars taking pictures, they didn’t react or run, as if to make sure everyone got something out of the trip. It was my first time being so close to the animals without any fences, and it was truly amazing.

Lions and leopards passed right by our car, and I really wanted to touch them. After a while, it was getting dark, and the park rules require leaving by six o’clock, so we returned to the hotel, had dinner, and rested, ending the first day in the Maasai Mara.

Photos 1-7: The lodge and various animals around the lodge, including those in the river in front of the lodge.
Photos 8-10: The entrance of the Maasai Mara National Park and the persistent Maasai women vendors.
Photo 11: Struggling to cross a ditch.
Photos 12-18: Animals in the national park.