Member Postcards

Safari to Kenya: Member Postcard

Indagare member A.T. recently went on a safari to Kenya. Here, she shares her impressions.Contact Indagare

 for assistance planning a safari to Kenya's Masai Mara. Our specialists can match you with the lodges that are right for you and design a custom itinerary.

My husband and I just returned from a fantastic one-week stay in Kenya. The main reason for our trip was a private visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which we won at a charity auction. Seeing the many orphaned baby elephants—some as young as a few months old—before their reintroduction to the wild was truly magical. With poaching on the rise in so many African countries, the trust’s conservation work over the past 40 years is nothing short of miraculous (sheldrickwildlifetrust.org).

First, we visited Nairobi, where we stayed at the famous Giraffe Manor—a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We continued to the Masai Mara national reserve, where we stayed at Angama Mara (angama.com). Angama is a 40-minute plane ride from the Nairobi/Wilson Airport and has its own airstrip. It sits at the edge of the Great Rift Valley and offers breathtaking views of the plains below. Built in the location where many Out of Africa movie scenes were filmed, Angama seems to be suspended above the plains in mid-air (in fact, the Swahili word for ‘mid-air’ served as inspiration for the lodge’s name). Owned by Nicky and Steve Fitzgerald, the couple behind several award-winning AndBeyond lodges, Angama stands out for many reasons: top-notch service, amazing architecture and passionate, enthusiastic guides. The lodge is luxurious but understated, and the spacious, glass-front tents with private decks all offer the same incredible panorama of the Mara Triangle.

Related: Safari in Tanzania

At Angama, there is no set schedule, so you live at your own pace and can go on game drives as early as 6:30 am, as late as 5:00 pm or any time in between. Although we went in November during the so-called rainy season, we saw very little rain. The few showers we did encounter arrived in the late afternoon or at night and allowed for amazing rainbows as well as happy and relaxed animals. Another bonus of traveling outside of the crowded migration season is that we had the Mara Triangle to ourselves. On a day-long trip to the Tanzania border, we only saw two other vehicles. This made seeing some of the highlights of our stay—a leopard walking three feet from our vehicle, elephant herds with babies, spotting a pride of 12 lions with their cubs—all the more special.

Angama is a year-round destination that both older and younger travelers can enjoy, and we are already planning to go back next year for a longer stay with our daughters.

Contact Indagare for assistance planning a safari to Kenya's Masai Mara. Our specialists can match you with the lodges that are right for you and design a custom itinerary.

Read Indagare's Tanzania, South Africa and Botswana destination reports.

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