Wilderness Mara

a lovely position around a wildlife-rich lagoon

Wilderness Mara is located in the Mara Reserve area of the Maasai Mara of southwest Kenya.

This camp was formerly Little Governors’ Camp and represents one of the longest-standing and more established presences in the Maasai Mara, with roots tracing back to the early camps founded here by the Grammaticas family in 1972.

Driving in from the nearby Musiara Airstrip, out on the animal-dotted plains to the east of camp, we enter the forest and follow a track for a few hundred metres, to reach a small vehicle turnaround. From here it is a short walk on a bridge over the Mara river.

On the other side, a path slopes up and enters a patch of open forest and immediately we can see the camp, ranged around a large circular lagoon. It really is very scenic and there are often animals such as buffaloes, hippos and elephants out in the water directly in front of the tents. Passing to the rear of the first of the guest tents, we arrive at the tented main area, beyond which tables are laid out on wood decking under the trees for dining.

One of the nicest aspects of the camp is the amount of wildlife that has grown accustomed to people and ranges freely amongst the tents and tables, most notably a number of warthogs, which appear tame, but which should not be taken lightly.

The elephant viewing in camp is also quite a regular feature, we cannot recall a time when there has not been at least one elephant in view during our visits.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Wilderness Mara is in a total of 12 tents, rather small by modern standards, each equipped with pleasant furnishings and with indoor bathrooms.

Activities

Wilderness Mara provides the following guided activities, not all of which are necessarily included in the room rate …

• Vehicle safari
• Balloon safari
• Bush meals

The Maasai Mara tends to feature in almost all safari trips to Kenya. As well as being the best known reserve, it is also the most productive for wildlife.

The usual stay duration is 4-8 nights split between two camps, less frequently 3-4 nights in just one camp.

Traffic avoidance

In common with the other public access areas of the Maasai Mara, this part of the reserve does suffer from considerable traffic flows.

For subtle reasons the main flow of traffic in and out of the reserve tends to contribute relatively little to the numbers of vehicles in this particular area. Instead the traffic mainly originates from the handful of properties in this area, which put out over fifty safari vehicles between them.

At least the vast majority of these vehicles are from the same operator, Governors Camps, which goes a long way to ensuring a better level of sightings management and is much less offensive than the bun fights than can take place in other areas.

We fear that the only way to reliably avoid other vehicles in this area is to visit during quieter parts of the year.

Seasonality

The best time of year to visit the Maasai Mara is generally considered to be the Jul-Oct dry season, when the weather should be reliably good and the migration herds are likely to be around.

The Nov-Jun green season may be much less dependable for weather, but remains really strong for wildlife viewing and benefits from dramatically lower visitor numbers (except for the busy Dec-Jan holiday fortnight of course).

Getting around

You’re most likely to arrive into the Maasai Mara area via the regular light aircraft services that operate from Nairobi, which means that you will travel around the area with a guide and vehicle from the camp in which you are staying.

It is also possible to travel down to the Maasai Mara by road, which is quite a long and tiresome journey, but not without interest. The trouble is that the better lodges in the Mara will offer you no discount for having your own guide and vehicle along, so you end up paying for both, which works out more expensive than flying down.

great access for both the Mara Triangle and Mara Reserve