This post picks up where Part 1 left off, so if you haven’t read that one yet I’d recommend starting there.

The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon as we dragged our suitcases out to the jeep where we’d spend the next seven days exploring the vast savannah of Kenya with our guide, Jeff, from Natural World Kenya Safaris. We headed out on the road for our long drive out to the Masai Mara and had our first glimpses of Kenya in the daylight. And that’s when it really hit me: we were in Africa. Within 10 minutes of getting on the highway we already spotted zebras and giraffes grazing on the side of the road — it was pretty incredible, something you really don’t ever expect to see in real life.

As we continued on the highway it climbed higher and higher to the top of the Great Rift Valley, which cuts across Kenya (and most of East Africa). We went up and over the ridge and down into the valley as we approached the town of Narok and continued on through rural western Kenya as the sun rose higher and morning became afternoon. I dozed off for a bit, it was a long drive.

After hanging around for a little while to take pictures of the lions, we backtracked to the main road and made the turn for the Royal Mara Lodge, arriving just in time for lunch. We were escorted to a neatly set table outside overlooking a river full of hippos with monkeys swinging in the trees above us. If that sounds like something out of a dream, you’re really not far off. The weather was perfect and the food was delicious.

We finished up lunch and were then escorted to our gorgeous room, where our luggage was already waiting. Most of the lodging in Masai Mara are called “tented camps”, which are basically semi-permanent structures that fall somewhere between a tent and a cabin. One of the cool things about the Royal Mara is that it is truly in the park, which means that animals roam freely. Monkeys were hanging around on our roof and porch, hippos ambled beside the river, and small antelope strolled through the bushes along the footpath. We were given a radio and cautioned that if we were leaving our room we needed to call ahead for an armed escort — hippos mean business!

Our next two days at Royal Mara were jam-packed. After a much-needed nap we headed out for an evening game drive where we saw a pair of young cheetahs chasing a jackal — not sure if they wanted to eat it or they were just playing, but the jackal seemed to be having fun messing with them either way! Once the sun went down we went back to the lodge just long enough to have dinner before jumping back in the jeep for a night drive. That was one of the perks of staying at the Mara North Conservancy rather than in the Masai Mara National Reserve itself, which doesn’t allow any drives after dark. The driver took us right out to where we had seen the lions earlier in the day in hopes that we’d get to see them hunting, and that plan did not disappoint! We sat less than ten feet away from a pair of lionesses as they took down an antelope, killed it, and had their dinner. It was pretty brutal, but way cool to see nature in action. The craziest part was that the lions didn’t even seem to mind us hanging out while they ate.

Click here if you want to see a photo of two lions eating an antelope (graphic content warning).

We stopped to eat our box lunch (which consisted of a piece of beef, two sandwiches, two apples, an orange, a bag of potato chips, a cup of yogurt, a hardboiled egg, a brownie, a juice box, and a bottle of water… each!) in the jeep as the rain continued to fall throughout the afternoon, and then headed up the road to the Tanzanian border, to look but not cross. When we originally booked this trip back in early 2020, before the pandemic really got going, the plan was to spend time in both Kenya and Tanzania, but due to complications with off and on border closures, testing requirements, and the fact that Tanzania was being ravaged by COVID we opted to change our trip and just stick to the Kenyan parks. Which was certainly no loss: Serengeti National Park, which may be a bit more ubiquitous than the Masai Mara, is simply the Tanzanian half of a large park that straddles the border, but the wildlife doesn’t recognize the political division.

Thankfully the rain seemed to be done and the sky began to clear as we made our way back at the lodge for afternoon tea, then headed out on a walking safari — another very cool add-on offered by the Royal Mara Lodge. After driving around in the jeep for the last couple of days it was awesome to be down at ground level gazing out over the tall grass and watching zebras and antelope grazing in the distance. Our Masai guides pointed out some plants used by the local tribes for various purposes such as medicine, tea, and even a toothbrush! We also got up close and personal to some tracks in the mud and learned some neat facts about the various piles of animal poop we had to step around — Steven enjoyed this part of the tour, he found it very educational. We walked for about an hour, covering a 2.5 mile loop of the savannah, and then had some time to relax before dinner and turned in early. We were exhausted!

The next morning we were up before the sun to down a quick cup of coffee and head out on our last game drive, in hopes of seeing a male lion and/or leopard before heading north out of the Mara. And we were not disappointed! After about twenty minutes of driving, a massive lion emerged from the bushes right next to our jeep and laid down beside the road, as if to pose for us. I named him Real Life Scar, because one of his eyes was messed up. We hung around a while to take pictures until he eventually got up and continued on his way, and so did we. That morning we also came across a large family of elephants that let us get pretty close and a mother cheetah with three small, adorable cubs that were running around and playing. Unfortunately we didn’t see a leopard, but it was a fruitful morning nonetheless.

Our three days at the Royal Mara Lodge were unforgettable, and I highly recommend them for your trip to Masai Mara. It was so worth it to stay inside the Mara North Conservancy because we were able to do a night drive and walking safari, neither of which are allowed inside the main Masai Mara Reserve. As we pulled away from the lodge it felt like we’d already had a whole trip — and we still had four days of safari left! So far we had seen three of the “Big Five”: Lions (check), Elephants (check), Buffalo (check), Leopards, and Rhinos.

After a tasty breakfast of doughnuts (which were very different than here in the states, much less sugary which, in my opinion, was better), beans, eggs, sausage, and pancakes, we said our farewells to our hosts at the Royal Mara Lodge and jumped in the jeep to make the long trek north to Naivasha.