Up early (5:30!) and into the northern part of the Mara by riving through Talek town and turning immediately right. There's no gate at this end, the guys on the Talek gate had told us that we could drive to Musiara gate in the north and pay there - so that was our plan. This part of the park is really beautiful - rolling green grasslands, acacia trees, dark green ribbons along the watercourses and blue hills with an escarpment in the background. Lots and lots of animals - but no cats. Lots of good birding though!
We watched a herd of elephants come towards the road, it was clear they would cross in front of us somewhere, we stopped and turned the engine off ti let them past peacefully. A couple of females with very small calves separated from the rest of the group and looked like they were going to pass behind us. Sue was taking photos as they gradually approached, veering from passing behind us to walking beside us towards the front again. As they passed one of the cows appeared to grow more and more wary of us, but also got closer and closer, Sue got afraid that she might attack and shrunk back from the open window. The elephant took ages to pass, but once on the road close in front of us turned and briefly let us know who was boss!!! They then wandered slowly off grazing by the side of the road as if nothing had happened!
A short distance later we found ourselves in the middle of a large herd of hartebeest (or are they topis?) - maybe 1000 of them in total - very odd animals who keed nodding in a discontented sort of way.
We then worked out that we would arrive at the next gate too early for our plans, so tried a side-track which led into a deep boggy area, although a Unimog can't really get stuck, at 7.5 tonnes if it does then there's not a lot that will extract it until the dry season, so we decided to do a u-turn back to the gravel. At Musiara gate we were informed that "as you are going to re-enter the park at Oloololo Gate, you are transiting the park and we don't charge you for that". Hooray! The road out of the park was, to say the least, poor. In fact at times it didn't seem to be aroad at all, more of a series of goat tracks. The guy on the gate had told us to follow the road until you get to the "shopping centre" Think Galleria? After a bit we found ourselves at a small settlement (Olonana) with lots of cows and sheep around - itis Masai country after all - there were a couple of small shops visible - must be the shooping centre, and fianlly there was a road to turn left onto. This took us down into a vally and across a small bridge over the Mara River - with stunning mountainous views and crystal clear air this area is definitely worth the effort to visit. Climbing out of the Mara River valley we seemed to be going part way up the escarpment giving us wide views across the plains - they look exactly as you would expect - a green carpet of grass studded with flat-topped acacia trees. At Oloololo Gate we had a chat with the guards about our options - there was a choice of public campsites - they recommended the one nearest to Serena Lodge (ISEIYA) near the airstrip, although the other one (ELUAI) was only a short distance away anyway. They wanted us to pay for 2 armed guards for the night - but when we questioned this they told us that if we went to HQ at /serena and signed a disclaimer then there would be no need - we decided to take this option... The drive to Serena took us through huge expanses of marshy grassland - lots of birds but few large mammals. On the way we spotted the turning to Eluai and also the one that we had selected - which turned out to be just a very short track at the side of the road we were on anyway it didn't look at all interesting so we decided to give Eluai a try. At HQ after a little confusion I was asked to copy a previous entry in the duty logbook to the effect that we didn't want a guard and they agreed that we could stay at Eluai, so off we went..... at the airstrip we turned right onto a faint track across some grassland - at least we were on top of a hill so it shouldn't be boggy up here....it was! The bog gradually got wetter and wetter, passing bufallo wallows (you don't want to slip into one of those!), through wet patches until we got to the holes - one the right was a hole full of water - on the left two wide and deep but dry warthog burrows. Warthog burrows are big - and these two were right next to each other. The tracks led exactly between the two sides - we are just a bit wider than most other vehicles around here, so had the choice - wet one, or dry one. We eased our right wheel into the edge of the wet hole (the warthog burrows looked like wheel-eaters) and squeezed through to keep going. After maybe another kilometre we were beginning to wonder if we'd gone wrong somewhere - surely the National Park wouldn't have put a campsite in the middle of a bog? As the ground was getting even wetter, at the first sign of a dry patch we turned round to try to get some information. Getting back to those holes - the front (now left wheel was lowered intot he wet hole - at which point the whole truck lurched left as the wheel disappeared deep into the muddy water - so it was 1st gear plus difflocks - and she popped out (slowly) - the same with the rear wheel. At this point we spotted a Landcruiser heading our way with a rooftop tent - possibly the first we've seen for a long while as there don't seem to be any independant travellers up here. He was actually ont he same track as us - and headed towards the supposed - campsite - we stopped next to him to warn him that there seemed to be a problem finding the campsite - he agrinned and told us that they had had exactly the same problem yesterday, but "if you continue a bit further it dries aout and the site is really nice". Back to the road, another u-turn, back to the holes, this time popping the wheels vey slowly into the warthog holes which seemed to work - plus Sue had spotted a terrapin in the water on the other side so I was now banned from going swimming again! It was true - maybe 200m beyond where we had turned the ground dried out and the campsite was marked with large stones - it is a flattish piece of ground right on top of the hill overlooking the Mara Valley - a huge view down to the plains and the river, but absolutely nothing else - you really need to be self-sufficient up here! The people in the Landcruiser turned out to be a really nice German family living in Nairobi who were exploring the area before leaving the country. This is a perfect campsite - absolute peace with aview to die for - we just settled down and watched the animals on the plains through our binoculars until night fell, then had a quick meal and fell asleed to the sounds of the bush.
We watched a herd of elephants come towards the road, it was clear they would cross in front of us somewhere, we stopped and turned the engine off ti let them past peacefully. A couple of females with very small calves separated from the rest of the group and looked like they were going to pass behind us. Sue was taking photos as they gradually approached, veering from passing behind us to walking beside us towards the front again. As they passed one of the cows appeared to grow more and more wary of us, but also got closer and closer, Sue got afraid that she might attack and shrunk back from the open window. The elephant took ages to pass, but once on the road close in front of us turned and briefly let us know who was boss!!! They then wandered slowly off grazing by the side of the road as if nothing had happened!
A short distance later we found ourselves in the middle of a large herd of hartebeest (or are they topis?) - maybe 1000 of them in total - very odd animals who keed nodding in a discontented sort of way.
We then worked out that we would arrive at the next gate too early for our plans, so tried a side-track which led into a deep boggy area, although a Unimog can't really get stuck, at 7.5 tonnes if it does then there's not a lot that will extract it until the dry season, so we decided to do a u-turn back to the gravel. At Musiara gate we were informed that "as you are going to re-enter the park at Oloololo Gate, you are transiting the park and we don't charge you for that". Hooray! The road out of the park was, to say the least, poor. In fact at times it didn't seem to be aroad at all, more of a series of goat tracks. The guy on the gate had told us to follow the road until you get to the "shopping centre" Think Galleria? After a bit we found ourselves at a small settlement (Olonana) with lots of cows and sheep around - itis Masai country after all - there were a couple of small shops visible - must be the shooping centre, and fianlly there was a road to turn left onto. This took us down into a vally and across a small bridge over the Mara River - with stunning mountainous views and crystal clear air this area is definitely worth the effort to visit. Climbing out of the Mara River valley we seemed to be going part way up the escarpment giving us wide views across the plains - they look exactly as you would expect - a green carpet of grass studded with flat-topped acacia trees. At Oloololo Gate we had a chat with the guards about our options - there was a choice of public campsites - they recommended the one nearest to Serena Lodge (ISEIYA) near the airstrip, although the other one (ELUAI) was only a short distance away anyway. They wanted us to pay for 2 armed guards for the night - but when we questioned this they told us that if we went to HQ at /serena and signed a disclaimer then there would be no need - we decided to take this option... The drive to Serena took us through huge expanses of marshy grassland - lots of birds but few large mammals. On the way we spotted the turning to Eluai and also the one that we had selected - which turned out to be just a very short track at the side of the road we were on anyway it didn't look at all interesting so we decided to give Eluai a try. At HQ after a little confusion I was asked to copy a previous entry in the duty logbook to the effect that we didn't want a guard and they agreed that we could stay at Eluai, so off we went..... at the airstrip we turned right onto a faint track across some grassland - at least we were on top of a hill so it shouldn't be boggy up here....it was! The bog gradually got wetter and wetter, passing bufallo wallows (you don't want to slip into one of those!), through wet patches until we got to the holes - one the right was a hole full of water - on the left two wide and deep but dry warthog burrows. Warthog burrows are big - and these two were right next to each other. The tracks led exactly between the two sides - we are just a bit wider than most other vehicles around here, so had the choice - wet one, or dry one. We eased our right wheel into the edge of the wet hole (the warthog burrows looked like wheel-eaters) and squeezed through to keep going. After maybe another kilometre we were beginning to wonder if we'd gone wrong somewhere - surely the National Park wouldn't have put a campsite in the middle of a bog? As the ground was getting even wetter, at the first sign of a dry patch we turned round to try to get some information. Getting back to those holes - the front (now left wheel was lowered intot he wet hole - at which point the whole truck lurched left as the wheel disappeared deep into the muddy water - so it was 1st gear plus difflocks - and she popped out (slowly) - the same with the rear wheel. At this point we spotted a Landcruiser heading our way with a rooftop tent - possibly the first we've seen for a long while as there don't seem to be any independant travellers up here. He was actually ont he same track as us - and headed towards the supposed - campsite - we stopped next to him to warn him that there seemed to be a problem finding the campsite - he agrinned and told us that they had had exactly the same problem yesterday, but "if you continue a bit further it dries aout and the site is really nice". Back to the road, another u-turn, back to the holes, this time popping the wheels vey slowly into the warthog holes which seemed to work - plus Sue had spotted a terrapin in the water on the other side so I was now banned from going swimming again! It was true - maybe 200m beyond where we had turned the ground dried out and the campsite was marked with large stones - it is a flattish piece of ground right on top of the hill overlooking the Mara Valley - a huge view down to the plains and the river, but absolutely nothing else - you really need to be self-sufficient up here! The people in the Landcruiser turned out to be a really nice German family living in Nairobi who were exploring the area before leaving the country. This is a perfect campsite - absolute peace with aview to die for - we just settled down and watched the animals on the plains through our binoculars until night fell, then had a quick meal and fell asleed to the sounds of the bush.