As open and deserted as the plains of the Mara look, the reality is quite different. No one is allowed to be in the reserve, except for the tourists’ safari vehicles. The Masai people get a few designated areas to graze their cattle within the reserve. So it’s fair to say you’d expect it to be deserted. But looking at this photo, you’ll see there are times when it’s positively peak hour.

If a guide finds something “good”, meaning lions, cheetahs, rhino (we’re still waiting for the call on that one) etc, he gets on the radio and tells all the other guides, and before you know it, vans and 4WDs pop up in all directions. The herd mentality takes over, and if there’s a gathering of cars, then others will follow.

And on further discussion with William, he tells us there can be hundreds of cars crowded round an animal. So perhaps I shouldn’t complain! We came at this time because it worked for us (between races, and covered school holidays), and as it happens now is when the migration is on, as thousands of animals move north from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya.

And as for isolation, my mobile phone will commonly drop out between Torquay and Anglesea, but our guide will get regular calls, and chat away on the open plains here, miles from anywhere! And below is the reason! Here is a picture of an African mobile phone tower. Nice touch heh?

Below is a picture of a lady we met back in Botswana. Her name is Precious (yes, it is) and she holds her grand daughter Chloe. It’s highly likely she will whip out a mobile phone at any time.

I’m sure there are real roads here across the plains, but probably no maps. Our guide, William, just seems to turn in random directions through the maze of tracks wherever he thinks we might see some animals. I asked him how he knows where he’s going, and he just smiled and said he knows where he needs to end up. What a relief.

We’ve noticed that there are very few Australians and Poms here at our lodge. Since we’ve been in Kenya, it seems all the other visitors are European, Scandinavian, and Japanese. It’s quite a contrast to Zambia and Botswana.

Oh, and our afternoon safari drive was close to fruitless. That must mean we will have a good day tomorrow when we head to the Mara river and hope to see the “crossing” of the animals across the Mara and Sand Rivers from Tanzania.