The word "safari" means journey in Swahili. And going on a game drive is definitely a journey -- one that you'll never forget! Game drives are mostly conducted in the early morning or late afternoon for two to three hours at a time. Most predators don't hunt in the heat of the day, so your best bet at seeing them in action is at sunrise and sunset.

It's recommended to hire a local driver/guide for your game drives. The advantage to this is that they'll be familiar with the area, they'll be able to give you lots of information about the animals and their habitats, and they will know where the animals can currently be found plus the best way to approach them. Our game drives were included in the price of the place we stayed at (Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp).

Make sure to take binoculars, two cameras with different focal lengths, more film that you think you'll ever need, a wildlife guide book, good sunglasses, and warm clothes. The roads in the Masai Mara are very rough, so expect to be jarred around quite a bit. In fact, one way into the park involves driving up a dried up river bed with large boulders! Yikes!

The basic technique to game drives is to drive along slowly, stopping for photos whenever you want. Have the driver turn off the engine as you'll need a still vehicle to take pictures with a long zoom lens. You're the boss on these games drives, so whatever you want to do is up to you. We let our driver pick the itinerary for most of the drives, as he had some great ideas.

During the game drives all the drivers will talk to each other via CB radios to let each other know exactly where the animals are located. They want their customers to have a good viewing experience, so they'll share information. It's a goal that with every game drive to see lion prides, Mary the rhino (rare), cheetahs (very rare), kills (very rare), and leopards (extremely rare). Most of all the other animals listed under "Animal Facts" were easy to locate and see.

If the camp you're staying at provides night drives, ask your driver if they would recommend it or not as it costs extra ($50/pp at Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp). Since the grass was so high when we were there in June, he said the likelihood of seeing something wasn't good and to save our money. The technique with night drives is to use a spotlight, driving along slowly to look for eye shine reflections in the light. Night drives are forbidden in most national parks and reserves, so they can only be conducted outside these areas.

Our safari vehicle was a four-wheel drive Land Rover. It had three-tier seating with roll-back canvas flaps on the sides to provide perfect viewing. We saw a lot of those minivans with pop-top roofs, and they looked very uncomfortable. You'll be spending a lot of time in your vehicle, so get something that you'll enjoy riding around in.


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