A week in the Mara North conservancy

The first thing you notice in a private conservancy is what is missing. In the national reserve, a lion sighting draws a semicircle of vehicles, sometimes twenty, engines idling, guests standing on seats. In Mara North the cap is five vehicles at any sighting and in a week we were never at one with more than three.

Day one and two

We arrived on the eleven o'clock flight from Wilson and were at camp by half past twelve. Lunch, a rest, and the first drive at four. A pride of eleven lions asleep under a balanites tree, two cubs the size of house cats, and our guide, Jackson, turning the engine off and simply waiting. Forty minutes later the pride woke, stretched, and walked past the vehicle close enough to hear them breathing.

The second morning was the first river crossing. Wildebeest gather on the bank for hours before one animal decides. Then they all decide. It is loud and chaotic and over in fifteen minutes, and afterwards the river is quiet as if nothing had happened.

The middle days

Safari has a rhythm. Up at half past five, tea brought to the tent, drive until nine, breakfast in the bush, back to camp for the hot part of the day, out again at four until dark. By day three you stop looking at your phone. By day four you stop checking the time.

Jackson found the leopard on day four, in a fig tree by the Mara river, with a Thomson's gazelle wedged in the fork above her. We watched for an hour. Nobody else came.

Why a private conservancy

The conservancy model pays Maasai landowners a monthly lease to keep the land open for wildlife rather than fencing it for cattle. Vehicle numbers stay low because the camps are few and small. The result is what safari was supposed to be, and what it mostly no longer is in the busier parks. We book almost nothing else.