Traditionally, in many other places in Africa, safaris take place twice a day at specific times. At Angama Mara, we aim to tailor-make your safari days with you, exploring this unique non-stop extravaganza of astonishing and abundant wildlife, often taking a picnic breakfast or lunch with you. Because the weather is generally mild, there’s never a bad time for a game drive.
There’s nothing like waking up with the birds and animals, the day fresh before you. Leave the lodge at dawn and get back in time for a late breakfast or brunch. Or take a picnic breakfast with you to have under an obliging tree with the morning light spread out around you — and be back in time for lunch.
Fancy a lie in? Do that, then go out for a lazy late-morning drive, without worrying about coming back for lunch — that will happen in a beautiful spot in the middle of nowhere. With its endless grasslands and sweeping horizons and dappled forests, the Maasai Mara is medicine for the soul.
Your afternoon safari is a post-lunch game drive. This is “the golden hour” as the sun dips towards the west, and the shadows lengthen across the plains making for incredible photography. Return in time for sundowners in the Boma or on the baraza.
An all-time favourite is the full-day double-picnic safari exploring the far corners of the Mara Triangle. Drive all the way down to the Tanzanian border for your picnic breakfast in the savannah, then take lunch under a desert date along the escarpment. This is one of the loveliest game drives of all, as you watch the landscape change along the way.
It is in the Maasai Mara that you can truly hear the call of the wild. Renowned for its lion prides, the Mara is also home to the other members of Africa’s Big Five – leopard, elephant, buffalo and black rhino – which can be seen together with hyena, cheetah and bat-eared fox. The Mara River churns with numerous pods of hippo and some of Africa’s largest crocodiles. Everywhere there are photographic opportunities: topi perched on anthills, Maasai giraffe moving gracefully across the plains, and gazelles grazing peacefully amongst Coke’s hartebeest, impala and herds of lovely eland, Africa’s largest antelope.
It’s the largest land-based animal migration on Earth: more than a million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras in a year-long cycle en masse in search of nutritious grasses that grow after the rains — to the delight of the Mara’s hungry predators: lion, leopard, cheetah and massive crocodiles.
Regardless of when you visit in the year, expect a plethora of creatures large and small — and the unexpected.
Everything you ever needed to know about game drives at Angama Mara: guides, vehicles and what to expect
TRAVEL WITH ANGAMA SAFARIS
Angama Safaris is a boutique travel desk that specialises in ensuring your travels around East Africa are smooth, seamless and safe
WALK WITH MAASAI NATURALISTS
Many guests choose to discover the Great Rift Valley on foot, learning from a Maasai naturalist on the way
TAKE HOME MEMORIES
Enjoy taking your own photos, or let our on-site wildlife photographers do it for you
