Exclusive Safari in Masai Mara’s Private Conservancies

Follow the lions across Mara North as they hunt in the morning light, and then track a zebra herd that grazes with trepidation. Lionesses stalk yet the sentinel raises an alarm as the breakfast search must continue. Do not worry, as with ten days in the Masai Mara, there's an extremely strong chance of that you will see these hunting scenes play out. Later on the game drive, you will find another lion pride as this one devours a wildebeest carcass. They are 50 meters from the trail, but the driver will go truly off road and bump across the savanna so that you will have the perfect view. Unlike the Masai Mara Game Reserve, the private conservancies enable drivers to take you anywhere, like off the trail for personal big cat encounters.

Today you will take a morning and afternoon game drive through Mara North. Admire an elephant herd among the trees as baby calves wander around the vehicle. Find a cheetah on the open plains as she plays with her two young cubs in the grass. Hyenas scamper past the vehicle, and you can follow as you bump across the savanna to a carcass, where a tense stand-off occurs between rival hyena cackles. Today's relaxed game drives provide a vibrant introduction to the Masai Mara, and you will quickly appreciate the scale, and how there is so much to explore. You will also appreciate the lack of safari vehicles as access is limited in a private conservancy, so the sights aren't shared.

A Masai warriors will walk just ahead of you as his red blanket flows slowly in the breeze, a spear always in his hand. This is his land and the land of his ancestors, a place where animals and tribesmen have coexisted for centuries. So who is better to take you on a walking safari? You will see most of the same animals, except it feels a lot different when you're on foot. Some animals you will get closer to, and others you will veer away from, like the lion pride who rest in the distance with bellies full.

After a morning bush walk, there will be a chance to relax at the camp and watch the world go by your tent. Tune your ears to the sounds of rumbling wildebeest hooves, mating lion roars, elephants that sound like trombones and the zebra that graze just a few meters away. Your afternoon game drive will be a little different from yesterday as when dusk arrives you will stay out to explore the moonlight-flooded plains. Silhouettes stand proud across the landscape, a spooky atmosphere pervades, and the mammals surround your vehicle in the dark. For intimacy, there are few better safari experiences.

This morning you will drive east to traverse the great savanna and cross the unmarked border into Olare Motorogi Conservancy. This is prime big cat country, with some 100 lions that cohabitate a wild bushland that's ideal for an ambush. Leopard and cheetah are equally prevalent and share a landscape that they would normally fight over. Today you will go on a search for the big cats and the memories will keep coming as so many pride are hiding in the rugged grasslands. It's often a bumpy and rugged ride, which only makes every find even more exciting; lions mate in the high grass, a leopard feeds her cubs in the trees and marauding hyenas challenge a cheetah for his kill. For these two nights, you will stay at Kicheche Bush Camp, a high-quality camp that's famed for exceptional open-plan tents and a real sense of exclusivity.

As with all of the Mara's private conservancies, Olare Motorogi can offer full-day game drives in the main Masai Mara National Reserve. It's a raw adventure, a journey across the massive landscape of rampaging herds. Wildebeest clump together in the thousands, as do zebra and Thompson's gazelle. This is not the great migration; rather there are always hundreds of thousands of mammals in the Mara. On the full-day drive, you will pass the herds on route to a picnic at the Mara River, the great divide between Masai Mara and Serengeti. Hippos and crocodiles bathe here and provide new sights take in before you loop back and rise across the plateau for other big game views before you wind through the denser woodland where elephants tower over the safari vehicle. As always, a sumptuous dinner is included tonight, served with the stars that glisten high above.

Even after six days, every few moments will still bring a new sight. Like a horned impala male that guards his harem against a furtive cheetah, facing down the threat with the females grazing behind him. Or young male lions fighting each other in a brutal battle for survival that leaves bloody scars. Perhaps a hippo yawning, a newly-born giraffe calf, nomadic elephants meeting at the river, and then a cute jackal on the move. Today's morning game drive will bring you to the Mara Naboisho Conservancy, where a luxurious tented lodge is perched on a bluff above the plains. Polished wooden decking brings you to a boutique suite that's serviced by a personal steward. It's much more like a boutique hotel than a camp and provides a decadent luxury after your two stops immersed in the bush. Just sit back, savor the views, and get drinks and food delivered to your verandah.

Sunrise dances across the sky and you will sail on the breeze as you take a hot air balloon above the Masai Mara. It's slow and serene as the grassland stretches out in all directions. From up here you can clearly spot the herds as wildebeest are on the move, clumps of zebra, bulky buffalo, and elephants are roaming in and out of the trees. From the air, you can try to make sense of the Masai Mara's epic scale. When combined with the Serengeti, and including all the private conservancies, this single ecosystem is as big as the whole of England. After touching down, the experience is complete with a champagne brunch, followed by another exhilarating game drive across the plains. In the afternoon, you have a choice of game drives or a bush walk. Mara Naboisho isn't quite as plentiful as Mara North or Olare Motorogi. However, there is still a thrilling number of mammals, and the landscape has a very wild feel, imbuing every experience with surprise.

Ol Kinyei is the northernmost of the conservancies you will visit. There are fewer lions and big cats here, although it's almost guaranteed that you will still spot the predators. This makes the open plains a little safer and an ideal place for longer walking safaris. Rather than being restricted to a small area (as in the other conservancies), you can go on long walks into the Mara wilderness. Masai warriors lead the journey and teach you animal tracking methods as they provide personal encounters with a great array of antelope. Stand alongside zebra, watch gazelle skip past, marvel at kudu and hartebeest horns. Stop in a clearing and wildebeest will charge past before they stop galloping to stare inquisitively at you before they then keep running.

Meet buffalos on the trail and their one-ton bulk are far more apparent when you are also on ground level. Stop and stay silent as an elephant passes, and then again as a giraffe tower wanders past. A walking safari is as close as you're ever going to get to these animals and this conservancy is a revered place to do it. The community-run camp helps continue the Masai tribe experience. Your suited tent is raised on a wooden platform above a usually dry riverbed to bring sublime views your way throughout the day. Maintaining the Masai style, this is a relaxed camp with an informal atmosphere, right in the heart of nature.

Yours is the only camp in the Ol Kinyei Conservancy and provides an exclusive base for your final two days of safari. Only guests from your camp can go on game drives and walking safaris here, although you can also travel into Mara Naboisho and the Masai Mara National Reserve should you choose. This conservancy is exceptional for female big cat sightings as these northern locations provide a calm and private space for lionesses and leopards to raise their cubs. Elephants are abundant and sometimes move in herds of over 100 animals. Wild dogs and aardwolves provide new predator sightings while the galloping favorites are still around. This day is very flexible, and you can create your own safari itinerary and choose where and what you'd like to do.

Most of the conservancies have their own airstrip which makes for an easy departure from the wild. After a relaxed morning, you will be transferred to the Ol Kinyei airstrip for your light aircraft flight to Nairobi. A representative will greet you here and transfer you to Nairobi International Airport for your departure flight and your journey home.