Maasai Mara 2024 Trip Report
- pscrimshaw
- Dec 13, 2024
- 21 min read
So this happened. Let's just say that I did not have a trip to the Mara on my 2024 Bingo card. Life happened to throw me a curve ball, and I literally booked a trip and was on a plane to Nairobi two days later. I am not a last minute impulsive traveler, but this was about as last minute as it gets! So why the Mara? The answer is that it is the single best wildlife destination on earth. I have been to the Mara several times before, but I always felt like I was leaving a lot of meat on the bone so to speak. I know the Mara has so much potential photographically speaking, and I hadn't taken advantage of it in the way that I should have. This time around I wanted to stay in one camp for an extended period of time, and really put in the work to take the best photos possible.
I reached out to Oltepesi Camp, a world renowned camp just outside of the main reserve that caters exclusively to wildlife photographers. With custom made vehicles for low angle photography and the best local Maasai guides, I knew that if I was going to take great photos, it would be through them. Luckily they had one tent left available, and next thing I knew I was somehow flying to the Mara!
For the first time ever, I actually decided to fly into the Mara. It was such a seamless experience, and I honestly can't see myself driving here ever again. From the moment that I stepped off my plane, I knew that this trip would be different. My guide John met me right at the airstrip, and gave me a big hug as soon as I stepped out onto the tarmac. Talk about making your guests feel welcomed!
I didn't have many expectations after landing, and since it was already around 11 the light was quite harsh so I assumed we'd head straight to camp and get settled before going on an afternoon game drive later. That was until John told me that earlier today someone saw a rhino right by the airstrip. I had just landed in the Mara and already we were talking about finding rhinos? Insane! As we drove around a bit, we realized that the rhino probably wasn't going to pan out. Not to worry though, because John said around the corner that there was a male leopard relaxing under a bush. Rhinos and leopards in the same spot just 10 minutes after I got here? I really should've bought a lotto ticket beforehand.
After photographing the leopard for about an hour, we decided to head to camp and get settled in. I was running on very little sleep after my international flight, so I used this opportunity to catch a few z's before the afternoon drive. My nap was cut short when it was time to head out again, but there are worse things to be woken up by. The highlight of the drive was finding a couple members of the Topi Pride who had young cubs. One of the females had cubs that were only a few weeks old, and I watched her move them in her mouth from their rocky hideout. I had never witnessed this behavior before, but wow was it magical to see in person!
With the sun starting to set, I wanted to try our luck and see if the rhino from earlier would pop out. We drove around for a bit, but no luck so we eventually decided to head back to camp. As we were driving back, someone on the radio called in that they had spotted the rhino! We immediately did a U-turn and raced back to where we were. With the last few moments of light left, I snapped a whatever photos that I could of the unicorn.
The next day we had decided to go look for Luluka the leopard and her one cub. Leopards with cubs are very rare in the main reserve, so these two were definitely the celebrities lately.
I did get a little distracted with an elephant at sunrise, but man when the light is good you just have to stop and take a photo!
As we got closer to where Luluka was, we noticed two separate groups of vehicles out on the plains. One group was where Luluka and the cub were supposedly resting, and another was with the Mbili Bora coalition of cheetahs that were out on patrol a bit further away. A tough choice, but cheetahs on the move felt like the right call so we went to them first.
With some good cheetah shots on my memory card, we went back to where Luluka was to try our luck with the leopards. It took about an hour, but then she decided to get up and started to look. John told me that when Luluka starts to walk, she can go for miles until she finds what she's looking for.
Luluka eventually disappeared into some thick bush, and it didn't seem like she was going to come out. With Mbili Bora supposedly getting active again we went back to them in case they decided to hunt. It looked like they were eyeing some topi in the distance, so we repositioned ourselves for the potential hunt. As we were sitting and waiting, someone radioed in that they had taken down a warthog piglet, and we had just missed it. Terrible luck, but we went back to them to see the aftermath anyways.
After the cheetahs finished chowing down, the exhaustion started to get to John and I. The reason that I chose Oltepesi Camp in the first place was because they do full day drives everyday, and as a photographer that's usually the biggest sore spot for me and other camps. When you're sitting at camp drinking a beer in the afternoon, you're missing all the action that's still taking place out on safari. But full day drives really wear you down, and John and I decided to find a nice tree to park under and to take a nap. After an hour or so, we got back up and went looking for Luluka again. We spotted her on the prowl, but this time with only a couple of other vehicles. Like I said, everybody else went back camp and completely missed out on a hunting leopard. She stalked and stalked, but it looked like no prey was around anywhere. "There's a warthog burrow right on that hill" John said to me, and we decided to park in position in case that became her target. Luluka headed that way slowly but surely, when out of nowhere a warthog raced out of the burrow. Luluka missed it, but then a piglet followed soon after and she pounced on that one instead. I had never seen a leopard make a kill before, and it was incredible to witness her patience and timing at the last moment possible in order to catch a meal.
She dragged her kill into some thick bush, but she was miles away from where she had left her cub that morning. We decided to call it a day, and to head back here at first light the next day when hopefully she would have fetched her cub and brought it to eat.
The next morning we followed the plan, but the kill had vanished and Luluka was nowhere to be seen. We scoured some nearby gulleys over and over again, but eventually all the other vehicles gave up and only we remained. Patience is the single most important quality in wildlife photography, and I was willing to sit here all day until these two would come out. We went around one more time, and that's when we spotted the pair finishing the remains of the kill deep in the bush. Luluka moved across the gulley to the opposite side, so we drove all the way back around to follow her. She was sitting nicely, but the cub wasn't with her. Finally, the cub reunited with her and I got one of my favorite shots from the trip.
For whatever reason, Luluka and her cub then went back into the bush, and we decided to move on and try our luck with other sightings. We went all the way down to the border with the Serengeti, but nothing really panned out for us. We got a call on the radio that the leopards were out on the move again, so we had to hustle all the way back almost an hour away!
When we found them, Luluka was on her own, and she was stalking a reedbuck this time. We waited and waited, and in the blink of an eye she snatched it mid air and made another kill. Unfortunately this time so many vehicles were around to witness it, so they swarmed in on her and we couldn't get in position for a photo. The biggest downside of the Mara is definitely how crowded it can be, so sometimes you just get unlucky when there are so many other people at sightings. But that's the game, and you just have to come to terms with it.
After making the kill, she buried it deep in the bush and went to call her cub. She searched and searched, but no answer. It was very confusing to me that she lost her own child, but John told me that it was normal and that the cub could spend days alone and still be fine. Strange parenting, but we stuck around with her the entire rest of the day hoping that she'd either reunite with the cub or that she would move her kill up a nearby tree. And just as the light faded, she finally came out of the bush with a small kill in her mouth. This wasn't the reedbuck, but rather the fetus of an unborn baby reedbuck. It turns out the reedbuck she hunted was pregnant, so Luluka got a little extra dessert with her dinner. Wow nature is metal.
As great as these sightings had been, I was getting a little leoparded out. There's so many amazing things to see and photograph in the Mara, so spending all my time just with one cat was becoming a bit draining on me. I had great photos of Luluka, and one solid photo of the cub, but I didn't have any photos of the two together, and that's the one shot I still desperately needed. With the kill in a tree now and the cub close by (in theory), we decided to come back here and try our luck with them one last time.
We headed back at first light, when on the road we encountered a ranger vehicle lying in wait for us. Let's just say that technically we may have been in the reserve a few minutes before we were supposed to be out, and the rangers caught us and pulled us over to give a fine. When coming into the reserve from community lands there aren't any gates, so you generally operate on an honor system when entering and exiting during park hours. I didn't realize that we were already in the reserve before the set entry time yet, but clearly we made a mistake. Rules are rules so we deserved the punishment, but I was very confused on what was happening while John spoke to them in Ma and I was feeling anxious to get to the leopards.
It became another day of waiting, with Luluka actually climbing up the tree with the whole reedbuck this time. In the afternoon she finally decided to come down and call for the cub, but the two just couldn't find each other for whatever reason. I was beginning to lose hope thinking it would be like yesterday, but at last the cub came out and found mom. At last I got my photos of the two together!
Happy at last with my shots, I decided to call it quits on leopards (at least for awhile that is). We headed back to camp victorious, and right at sunset I got an amazing photo of an elephant eclipsing the sun with storm clouds rolling in.
I view my time in the Mara almost in chapters. Chapter 1 was focused on leopards. So what does Chapter 2 hold?
After so much leopard action, we decided to shift focus to see what the local lion prides were up to. We found some of the younger sub adult members of the Topi pride on the move the following morning, and they were clearly moving with purpose
Eventually the young lions spotted a warthog, and then the hunt was on! Watching the tactics of all the lions positioning themselves and coordinating the direction of the chase was just incredible to see. These cats are masters at their craft.
When the lions finally made the kill, it was a pure frenzy to scarf down as much food as possible. Apparently the pride males were nearby, so everyone had to eat quickly before the males came and took over the kill. It was barely even 10 minutes before out in the distance we saw the hulking mass of a huge male lion bounding towards where the others were eating.
Sadly this sighting wasn't without some human drama, and at some point we had actually punctured our tire and weren't going to be able to drive around much longer. We drove a bit away from the lions, and John and I started to get out and try to put the spare on. I won't lie, getting out on foot when I can still see lions out in the distance is probably one of the more stressful moments I've had on safari. The rest of the pride had moved off by the time we were up and running again, so we went after them. I got a few more shots of one of the males, but at this point I had enough lion photos and figured we should see what else the Mara had to offer.
After leaving the lions, we headed to the Musiara Marsh area of the reserve. Made famous as the territory of the Marsh Pride on the show Big Cat Diaries, Musiara Marsh is one of the most tranquil and photographic areas in my opinion. Putting any subject against the backdrop of the riverine forest is just magical. While the light wasn't great by this time of the day, I was still happy to spend any amount of time here.
We then heard that the Rongai pride of lions were resting, but definitely eyeing some buffalo. I had never photographed lions hunting buffalo before so the chance to see that was too tempting. The lions didn't seem to keen to hunt yet when we got to them, and we heard another female was laying on some rocks nearby so we went to photograph her while we waited. And good thing we did, because I got some classic lion on rock photos that I thought only existed in the Serengeti. But wow the Mara was delivering!
We then went back to the rest of the Rongai pride, and the moment we got there they starting chasing the buffalo! It was absolute chaos, but watching a dozen lions chasing buffalo was unreal. And out of nowhere one of the pride males joined the hunt and leaped on the back of a buffalo. You have never seen power until you've watched a full grown male lion chase down prey at full speed. Unfortunately the lions took down the buffalo in very thick bush, and there was just no photo opportunities to be had. Very frustrating as a photographer, but as a spectator this was one of the best sightings that I had ever had.
In the last moments of light we stumbled across Nagol the cheetah as we made our way back to camp. She was looking around and on the move, so we guessed that she would probably need to hunt sometime in the next day or so. That meant that tomorrow she would be our main focus.
It took a few hours of looking but at last we found her on a small hill covered in thick bushes. What then happened next was one of the most incredible wildlife photography moments of my life.
Before I came to the Mara, I had heard that Nagol had recently given birth to a litter of cubs. However cheetah mothers don't bring their cubs out of the den for a couple months after giving birth, so I didn't have any expectations to see any. But as we watched Nagol on the hill, we saw 5 tiny little fluff balls bouncing around her. Inadvertently, we had found the cubs at their den.
Let me preface by saying that while I wanted to find Nagol that day, I had absolutely no intention of looking for her cubs. Nobody in the reserve even knew where the den site was, and the cubs were still way too young to be on the move. Disturbing cheetah cubs at their den is a gigantic no no, and driving vehicles around there can attract predators which would put the cubs in danger. Cheetah numbers in the Mara have plummeted for reasons like this, and virtually no cheetahs successfully raise cubs in the main reserve anymore. I deeply care about the Mara cheetahs, and while I was ecstatic to see these cubs, I was so conflicted to be there. I grabbed a couple of shots of them for proof, and then I asked John to immediately leave the sighting and contact the park rangers so that they could close off the den site and protect the cubs. As far as I know, I was the very first person to see these cubs, and I wanted to make sure that they survived. No photo is worth putting them in jeopardy.
We left to have breakfast, and Nagol then decided to leave the cubs and go hunting on her own. I still didn't have a solid photo of a cheetah hunt, so I decided that we would stay with her for the day until she'd hunt something. That quickly turned into a 9 hour ordeal, where she just moved around everywhere looking for prey. She posed around on some termite mounds nicely and I got plenty of photos, but wow was it a long day. Finally in the last moments of light (when all the best sightings seem to keep happening), she managed to take down an imapala. We weren't in position for the hunt itself sadly, but I did manage to get an amazing shot of the aftermath, and I called that a win.
I definitely saw Chapter 2 in the Mara as being about cheetahs. Yes I had good lion sightings, but the experience that I had with Nagol and the cubs was already eclipsed that.
The next day we decided that we were going to go after another cheetah, Nashipai and her 4 cubs. I had said that no cheetahs had raised cubs inside the main reserve in years, but the one exception to that has been Nashipai. With the help of the rangers protecting the family from predators, Nashipai had successfully raised all 4 of her cubs to adulthood inside the reserve. The family was still sticking together for now, but it wouldn't be long before the cubs left mom and ventured out into the world on their own.
Seeing multiple cheetahs together can make for some fun photos in terms of family dynamics. Very different than the solo shots I took of Nagol.
After spending time with the family, we decided to head back towards the Serengeti border to look for rhino again. We struck out with rhino, but I did get a nice environmental shot of a lioness from the Kissinger pride looking out across the savanna that I quite liked.
As we drove around, we got a call and John decided to swiftly turn directions. He asked me later if I had a guess what I we were headed towards. I jokingly said wild dogs because I had mentioned how desperately I wanted to see them one day in the Mara, and he had a good chuckle but said no. Instead, he brought me to a serval, another subject that I said I wanted to photograph earlier in the trip. John had a knack for delivering on exactly what I said I wanted to see every day, it was almost scary!
As we headed back to camp that evening, I told John that I wanted a break from cats. Tomorrow, I wanted our goal to be rhinos, no matter how hard it was going to be.
We set out the next morning looking for the unicorns, which I knew would be no easy task. We got lucky the first day, but I know that finding rhinos in the open is very very rare. With only 30-50 rhinos in the whole reserve, it was like finding a needle in a haystack. But as the morning dragged on, John got another call and turned the vehicle around racing down the road. We didn't need to say anything to each other, because at this point I knew that if John was driving this fast, it must be for something good. And what do you know, it was an impressive male rhino completely out in the open. I could not have asked for a better sighting of a rhino in the Mara if I tried.
This rhino sighting was truly one in a million. By far the best rhino experience of my life. With the rhino ticked off the checklist, it was like a weight was off our shoulders to go see whatever else was out there. We came across some photogenic zebras, mating lions, and a freshly born gazelle fawn.
After enjoying the new subjects, we decided to check back in with some of the Rongai lioness who had cubs. At this point we were entering Act 3 of the trip, which became all about lions. Specifically lion cubs though, who gave me some incredible photos.
The next day slowed down a little bit for us. We found the Topi pride on a kill, but the photos were just ok compared to the last few days. What a luxury it is to even say something like that!
The highlight of the day was probably when we went to have breakfast and we found Ruka the male cheetah lying under the tree that we were going to park under. Don't ask me how we missed that but we did!
The next day we went back looking for the Rongai lion cubs, but I kept getting distracted along the way. As we drove past some various gulleys, I noticed a shape walking behind the corner of my eye. "A lion!" I exclaimed. It was one of the females with the two cubs that had been jumping on her from the day before. Mom wanted to go off and hunt, but the cubs kept yelling at her to come back. It was a funny scene, but made for some great photos.
Eventually mom did manage to get away, and moved onto some different mounds to survey her surroundings for prey. She did try to go after a warthog, but no luck. But she did pose for some nice photos so it was a win for me at least!
After we left the lioness, we were driving down the road when I spotted a serval heading to cross behind us. I was getting pretty good at this whole animal spotting thing, and even John was impressed by me!
We then found Nora the cheetah who didn't seem to move much from under a bush, and ended the day with a lioness on a mound with some elephants and a rainbow behind her. I call that another successful day in the Mara!
At long last, the end of the trip had snuck up on me. It had been a phenomenal 10 night stay, and I just wanted to end on a high note.
After many days of cloudy skies and no proper sunrise or sunset, we finally got a proper sunrise, which meant good morning light. The highlight was finding the Topi pride who had killed a baby hippo during the night, and one of the males roaring out across the plains.
Someone called in to let us know that some lions were eyeing buffalo to hunt, so we checked it out, but I knew we didn't have all that much time with my flight to catch. We found the famous Lorkulup and his young sub adult male cubs with him, but these boys weren't going to hunt anytime soon so we had to leave them. I got a couple more shots of some elephants above me on a ridge with storm clouds, and a nice hippo splashing in a river, before we had to head to the airstrip to catch my flight back to Nairobi.
This was by far my best trip to the Mara ever. The quality of sightings was out of this world, and I saw all of the big cats with cubs multiple times over. Not to mention all the hunts, epic landscape shots, and of course, photographing all of the Big 5. It was very last minute, but totally worth it in my opinion. The Mara is the best place in the world to photograph wildlife, and I'll keep coming back here again and again because I know that it always delivers.