Explore Masai Mara game reserve in a 1 day or 3 day budget camping group joining safari from Nairobi. This article will give you tips on what are the best things to do in Masai Mara to get the most of your short safari. A visit to the Masai Mara should be in your bucket list of places to visit before you kick it. Find out what are the must do things in a Masai Mara 3 day camping or lodge safari from a Nairobi.
Top 7 Tips to Explore Masai Mara Game Reserve
If you want to really feel the fun of being in a 3 days Masai Mara safari, then you need to know what are the best things to do while you are there. You can plan to explore the Mara in a private 3 –day Masai Mara budget camping or lodge family safari. You can also arrange with friends to join a masai mara group joining safari from Nairobi and meet new people.
- Explore Masai Mara Game reserve Big five animal’s game drive
- Track the Wildebeest Migration in summer
- Discover the Masai culture with a visit to Masai village
- Fly in an air balloon safari with champagne bush breakfast
- Go on a guided Walking safari among wildlife in Masai Mara game reserve
- Savor a bush dinner by the bonfire
- Watch most beautiful African sunsets
These are a few of the many activities you can do in Masai Mara on your 3 days safari from Nairobi. The conservancies outside the park allow more activities like night game driving and walking safaris. The game reserve does not allow such activities inside the park but you can make arrangements with your driver to book such outside of the park.
1. Explore Masai Mara Game Reserve with Big Five Game Drives
Masai Mara game reserve big five game drives are the main activities for your 3 day safari in Mara. The game drives are arranged such that you have the first one at 0630 in the morning and a second one at 1600hrs. These timings are meant to correspond with hours when the sun is not too hot as the animals hide away from the day’s heat. Doing a game drive at 1200 is fruitless as most of the animals tend to take cover under the trees. Your Masai Mara game drives target to show you the big five animals which include the elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards and buffalos. These are the most sought after animals in each game drive. The rhino and the leopards are the hardest to see although you are guaranteed to see them in a 3 day tour of Masai Mara. Of course, there are other types of animals in Masai Mara to see besides the big five. The grazers are the majority and Masai Mara has an estimated population of more than 3 million animals.
2. Track the Mara Wildebeest Migration in Summer (July – November)
One event that has made Masai Mara to be voted as the new 7 wonders f the world is the great wildebeest migration. In this single event that takes place once a year, over 1.5million wildebeests move across 3,000km, crossing 2 countries in search of pasture. The wildebeest migration is so huge that it can be seen from space as a moving black mass. The migration takes a clock wise motion from Serengeti and Ngorongoro plains into north western part of the Masai Mara and returns back to Serengeti after 3 months in Masai Mara. This event is witnessed by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. The single most significant event of the whole migration is the Mara river crossing where hordes of wildebeests, zebras and gazelles have to cross the flooded river. The crocodiles in the water grab several thousands of the wildebeests, while the stampede and drowning claims their toll on the population too. Over 10,000 wildebeests lose their life in a single migration river crossing but that never stops them from doing it over a year later. Their security is in their numbers.
3. Discover the Masai Culture in a Masai Village
It is recommended that you don’t finish your Masai Mara safari without visiting a Masai village to see how the Masai tribesmen live. The Masai people are among the few tribes that have refused to abandon their culture even in the midst of 21st century technological and social changes. A Masai village tour is usually arranged for the afternoon of the second day in Masai Mara. You will visit the Masai village and witness firsthand how they live amongst t the wildlife like lions and elephants. The Masai homestead will welcome you with dances and smiles. You will be ushered into one of their houses where they stay together with the children. The Masai village guided tour will educate you on how the Masai went to war, how they go through their rites of passage, how they marry, how they raise cattle among many other cultural norms. You will learn how to throw a spear, how to make fire from sticks and elephant dung and how to dance the jumping dance. You can also support these families that have had to sacrifice their land for the conservation of wildlife, by buying some of their curios and trinkets at the Masai market in the village.
4. Fly In a Hot Air Balloon Safari and Have Champagne Breakfast at Dawn
One of the unmissable activities of the Masai Mara is to go on a hot air balloon at dawn. On the second day, you may opt to buy a hot air balloon game drive and enjoy watching the wildebeest migration from the air. Your driver will pick you up at 0500 and drive you to the hot air balloon airstrip. The captain bundles you in the balloon basket which takes 12 people and they start pumping the hot air into the enormous balloon. Slightly before dawn, the tethers are released and you gradually start to gain height as the balloon takes to the air. It is still dark but once airborne; the sunrise will come up in one of the most spectacular views across the African savannah. After watching the sunset airborne, you start to concentrate your attention to the millions of wildebeest and other animals below you. Some are startled by the looming balloon shadow as it approaches them while others just gaze up to you. After an hour of one of the most spectacular balloon game flights, you will land in a designated area and breakfast will be already set for you among the grass. You will be treated to one of the freshest bush breakfast on landing and some champagne. A certificate of flight is issued and you go along for an hour of game drive in the plains before you are driven back to your lodge or camp. Though the price tag at almost $500 is pricey, it is well worth the once in a lifetime experience to be above all that wildlife in the Mara; not to mention the amazing sunrise and champagne.
5. Go On a Mara Guided Walking Safari among the Wildlife
Walking safaris in Masai Mara 3 day tour are mostly offered by conservancies around the game reserve. The Masai Mara game reserve does not allow walking safaris inside the park for visitor security reasons. However, the community conservancies around the park offer these guided walking safaris where you walk in the grass and view the wildlife at closer range than when in a vehicle. These are experienced masai guides who understand animal behavior and can predict when its unsafe to approach any animal. Similarly, they have acute vision and are able to avert danger even before you yourself have seen it. Its noteworthy to remember that the masai people live within these wildlife areas and have to fetch water, firewood and walk to shopping centres among the wildlife. So the Masai make for excellent walking safari guides in the Mara. In some lodges, walking safaris are offered with the escort of an armed ranger carrying a shotgun just in case of rouge animals. Walking safaris are a great way to experience nature on foot and feel the air around you. You will be amazed at how far these Masai guides can see wildlife and point them out for you.
6. Enjoy a Masai Mara Bush Dinner over a Bonfire
Savor the privacy of a bush dinner set on a table in the grass close to your lodge. The lodge or camp offer special couple dinners for special occasions or on request. You will be able to have the best quiet romantic dinner in the moonlight and below the stars as the waiter serves you the different courses of the meal and keeps watch from an ear shot position. The setting could not be more magical as you pop the champagne and enjoy a quiet dinner in the bush amongst the wilderness. These moonlight diners are very popular with honeymooners and they are to die for. You can make local arrangements with your tour operator or order on last minute from the hotel or lodge at an extra fee. The bush diners are mostly restricted to adult couples and usually the policy does not allow children in such diners.
7. Watch the Mara Magical African Sunsets from your Room Verandah
Masai Mara is known for the most romantic golden sunsets as the sun falls beyond the horizon casting a golden colour across the expansive savannah plains. You will be enthused by the wildlife silhouettes at dusk as their dark bodies are cast against a dimming sun to produce one of the most abstract yet readable pictures. From the silhouettes, you can tell the name and type of each of the wildlife and such pictures speak a thousand words about your ultimate experience in the wilderness of Masai Mara. From sunrise to sunset, each of your Masai Mara experience is a first. Not a single minute is like the other in Masai Mara in regards to wildlife and sceneries. It’s just magically dynamic.
These are afew of the things to do in a 3-day Masai Mara camping or lodge safari. You can enquire more on any specific activity that you would like to do in your own holiday and get it tailored for you.
Book your trip and explore 3-day Masai Mara game reserve experience; whatsapp Robert on +254722661827 or email us here: info@sojournsafaris.co.ke
