Richard Powell joins a gonzo riding outfit to trek across Kenya’s epic game reserve, camping beneath the stars and hanging onto his horses…
Horsing around the Masai Mara
“It’s like the Garden of Eden,” our guide says, “just beautiful…” and we draw up our reins to marvel in silent reverence at the vast landscape, dotted with every wild animal we could have hoped to see.
Across this lush, buzzing vista, buffalo herd around impala, eagles soar above wildebeest and elephants charge fruit trees while lions wait patiently in the tall savannah grass, deciding which to eat for dinner.
Getting here is not easy… it takes days of hard riding to earn a seat at this show.
Before you know it, you’re hacking out among the animals
Our journey begins in the capital, Nairobi, where we transfer through gridlock traffic to a domestic airport and board a 12-seat Cessna, heading south-west over the Loita Plains, above the Kikuyu Highlands and past the volcano-studded Great Rift Valley.
An hour later we’re bumping down on a dirt-strip that doubles as a gateway to the reserve and a social hotspot for colourfully-dressed Masai warriors. With no phone signal and no electricity from here on in, it also represents the eye of a needle through which few First-World foibles may pass.
Masai warriors love to put on a show for the (lady) guests
There’s barely time for a cold Kenyan Tusker beer before we’re heading out on our first ride when the sun hangs low enough to bring the wildlife out to feed. Here the guides from Offbeat Safaris quietly make their assessments about our riding abilities and how closely they need to stick to us, and whether we’ve been paired with the right horse.
Being confident on your horse could be the most important part of this adventure. Over the next week, we would inch – day-by-day – ever closer to prides of snarling lions, square up to scrappy elephants and push back short-tempered Cape buffalo… any of which could outrun us, if they wanted to.
Galloping across the plains while dodging the obstacles takes serious concentration
Along the way, animal burrows are a constant hazard. But if you’re lucky enough for the person in front of you to spot one through the dust clouds, avoid it and shout “HOLE!” in time, you might not fall down it.
Organisers encourage guests to take out medical insurance prior to arrival, but they also have their own public liability insurance and membership to the Flying Doctors organisation, in case of serious injury requiring evacuation.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot that can go wrong in the middle of nowhere. The riding sections will undoubtedly push you to your limits of self-preservation, whether you opt to take the easy option and stay back, or throw caution to the wind and try to keep up with the lead guide.
Bullwhips protect guests from animal attacks, with guides normally carrying little else. The Land Rover variant of the trip, for non-riders, encourages guests to get out and walk on the reserve, and here, they are accompanied by a guard carrying a rifle.
The one occasion we went out armed was to a mountain we climbed first by car, then by foot to reach its spectacular peak. Its nooks host several families of cheetah and leopard, which we were warned to be on our guard against, although we didn’t see any as we clambered about on its slopes.
Some things are best seen from the safety of the jeep roof
We did not have to wait much longer before we did, though…
On our first night at the third campsite, while drinking beers around the fire on the banks of the Mara River, our lead Masai guard, Nati, came over saying he’d spotted a cheetah and asking if we wanted to see it. Several seconds later we were careering around the site in the Land Rover, shining a spotlight until suddenly we caught a flash of markings bolting into a bush.
Nati picked out an impala with the light, leading the cheetah out into the open to its quarry. The kill was artistic and eloquent in its execution and despite the graphic scene; we drove over, clutching our beers on the roof of the car, and sat transfixed to watch it feed.
Other night-time highlights included Masai warriors demonstrating their mating dance around the fire (a hit with the ladies); driving out to party on the plains after dark with James Brown booming from the stereo, and running semi-clothed out of my tent at 4am as an elephant pushed down a nearby tree!
Luxury lodgings at Sosian are in stark contrast to wild Masai camping
Author Bio
Richard is a one-time journalism grad who started a Public Relations company after leaving BBC News. His company Presswire provides Press Release Distribution and Media Monitoring services. As a freelance reporter, he provided correspondence from Kosovo, Northern Iraq, Sudan, Liberia and Beirut, but now concentrates on Travel writing and Reportage.
