Maasai Mara on a budget

The Maasai Mara. Images of rolling hills, plains of swaying grass and vast herds of wildebeest crossing crocodile-infested rivers.  The Mara, known globally for its huge gathering of animals is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. A gathering of predatory carnivores and their terrified prey, come together in numbers so vast, the hills and rivers are black with cattle. The fight for survival a spectacle few have the privilege of seeing, but recently I found a way to visit the Maasai Mara for under $150 for the entire family for two days.

The Maasai Mara – the seventh natural wonder of the world

I’ve heard about the Mara since I was a little girl, images of dusty savannah, panicked animals and lone Maasai Morans are indelibly carved into my formative years. But in fact, the topography of the Mara is gentler than that; it's an undulating vista of placid hillocks and meandering valleys. Even the Mara River itself, in my mind a torrent of water rushing wildebeest to their death, is deceptively calm. Its surface is broken by belly-fat hippos and crocodiles rather than rapids. 

Idyllic countryside filled with the world's fiercest predators

Yes, the Mara at first glance could be the quintessential English country scene with its glorious sweeping views, the patchwork of fields and clumps of trees, but this tender beauty is deceptive; it's a country idyll packed to the core with killers.  The Maasai Mara is so dangerous that it's illegal to even lean out your car window. Need the loo? Suck it up because behind every bush and up every tree is a cat that would happily make you lunch. And even if they don't get you, the park rangers brandishing eye-watering fines will.

The Great Wildebeest Migration

It’s the wildebeest, buck and zebra that impress most during migration. Approximately  1.5 million wildebeest, 350,000 Thomson’s gazelles, 200,000 zebra and 12,000 eland, migrate to the  580 square miles of Maasai Mara during the Kenyan winter. These peaceful fields are teeming with groaning, honking, rutting, munching hoards of animals.  The area is ripe with the smell of dung and hot cattle; the dark masses stretch to the horizon and beyond.  The wildebeest move as one, the visual feast of 10,000 cattle sprinting in unison as something spooks, them raises hairs on your arms.   The majesty is in the numbers and in being so close to this epic adventure, so much so that you almost forget your other game. Huge elephant families co-exist peacefully with their million visitors, giraffe are smug in their relative safety, groups of 500 buffalo ensuring their dominance over the visitors, the black back jackal slinking between the buck, vultures circling almost everywhere on the horizon. The white rhino solitary and stately, the hyenas cracking bones, assisting the vultures in cleaning up the Mara.  Of course, it's also the cats the people come to see. Where there is so much easily available food population numbers soar. The Mara holds the highest number of lion, they are everywhere; the 30 strong pride sunbathing in the grass, the mum herding her cubs, Simba balefully eyeing the safari vehicles that gather to tab a selfie with the kind of all Africa. For the best way to spot a lion then take note of where the animals are looking, if 1000 zebra are staring at a ridge, you can be damn sure there is a predator up there. Leopard and cheetah exist in larger numbers that most places in the planet, the sight of five cheetah brothers playing less than a metre from my car will never leave me.

Crossing the Mara River

At the Mara River the density of migratory animals increases; the dusty riverbanks buckle under the weight of a million wildebeest that cross one way and then return months later.  River crossings are frequent and impossibly exciting: spot that first wildebeest tiptoeing down to the riverbanks, which are thick with crocodiles, and testing the water.  Watch the crocs then slip silently into water, gazing at the herds with black eyes that promise death.  The gigantic hippos that fill the waters are unperturbed by the approaching crowd.  This show of bravery and fear can go on for hours, wildebeest gathering their courage to approach before scrambling up the banks to the relative safety. Then without warning they go! Hippos bellow and bite and animals leap off their backs in a frenzied panic.  The maelstrom is black with the crush of sweat-soaked wildebeest, the whites of their eyes vivid in their tortured state. The air fills with dust and the panicked bleating of animals is deafening.  Watch babies a few months old struggle through the water.  A crocodile approaches and the entire crowd veers to the right in a desperate attempt to avoid capture.  When one animal is taken it means another chance at life for the rest.   Then in just 10 minutes, the crossing is over, the wildebeest collapse in exhaustion on the plains … the water stills. A drowned wildebeest baby bobs up from the water and begins a slow journey downstream. Crocs crack ribs or return to sunbath on the banks, hippos honk in anger and return back to favorite wallowing spots. Further down the river at the Mara Bridge, the air is rank with the smell of rotting corpses; bloating bodies float towards the rocky dams under the bridge. The air is wild with 100’s of vultures that feast on the decomposing bodies and sun themselves on the rocks. No need to hunt out the dead when the river itself delivers lunch.  

Visit the Maasai Mara for under $150

I have longed to go to the Maasai Mara all my life and even more so since I arrived in Kenya.  People trot off and come back regaling me with stories of leopard kills and lions prowling around the camp at night, but these stories always come with a price tag. ‘It’s not that expensive, just 300 dollars per person per night” has been uttered without irony more times than I have digits.  Sorry, but how much money do you need to earn for 1500 dollars per night for my 5-person family to be considered inexpensive. I’ve long considered camping but sleeping in a tent with my 3 children and the highest concentration of cats in the world just doesn’t rock my boat. Then someone suggested Oldarpoi.  Yes, it seems you can visit the Mara on a budget and have a fenced camp that means you can bbq and slumber without fear of mauling.

How to do the Mara on a (super tight) budget.

Drive yourself

The drive to Oldarpoi camp took us just 4 hours. Hire a car and drive to the camp and then self drive all around the park. Whilst it’s full mostly of tourist vehicles bursting at the seams with camera-ready foreigners, it’s incredibly easy to self-drive. Indeed the roads within the park are better than the road outside my house here in Nairobi.

DIY camping

Oldarpoi Mara camp is 15 dollars pppn for adults and 7 for kids. You pay extra for firewood (bring you own) and that’s it. Oldarpoi is fully fenced and about 3km outside the actual park so you don’t have to worry about predators at night. Cheap and safe. What a winner.  

Oldarpoi Mara Camp

Oldarpoi is a community-run project where all profits are given back to the Maasai. The camp itself is situated on a hillside overlooking the Maasai Mara and offering the most spectacular sunsets. It offers a safe grassy area to pitch your own tent and the use of a kitchen area with tables to sit and eat. It has functional showers with hot water and proper loos and the staff let us keep our food and booze in their fridges. For the cost, it was excellent value.

If you are travelling to Kenya and don’t have your own tent you can still do Mara on the cheap by using Oldarpoi’s budget safari tents. The package includes food and game drives and comes in at (a very reasonable for the Mara) USD 170 for two people. There are options for larger tents and small villas. Check out the pricing on Agoda here.  The Oldarpoi website is down recently but their Facebook page is here.

Maasai Mara Park Fees

If you are local the park access is just 10 USD for 24 hours. If you plan carefully you can use the 24 hours to your advantage, i.e.: do an evening game drive one day then do an early morning one the next day without paying extra

For non-residents here are where the costs come in, park fees are 130 USD but again with the 24-hour rule, you can be smart and stretch your Mara visit over more days for less money.

Bring your own food

There are a few lodges where you can grab some lunch and drinks but they cost the earth, so do what we did and either take a picnic or split your day into two.  The best time for game viewing is sunrise and sunset. Start the day off at dawn with an early morning drive; take a break for lunch/snooze/wine back at camp and head out again late afternoon for your evening tour.  Note from Sekanani gate where the camp is located it's an hours drive to get the Mara Triangle, where the crossings are.  It would be a crime to zoom straight to the Triangle without checking out the wider Mara but if you are short on time this may be a consideration.

We visited the Maasai Mara for under 150 USD for a family of five for a 3-day 2-night weekend. I didn’t feel like I skimped on the animal experience at all and frankly with the 6 kids in two I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel in a high end lodge anyway.

The Mara is everything; it’s the ultimate safari experience. Even outside of migration the quantity of animals and quality of experiences are unrivalled.   During migration it’s a jaw dropping theatrical show of all nature that will leave you gasping.  Every one should have the chance to experience it and if the cost of safari lodges put you off as much as they did me, then now you have a chance to go without breaking the bank.  

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