There is a special type of silence that is found just before dawn on the Kenyan savannah. It is not the silence of emptiness – it is the silence of a world holding its breath. You are sitting in an open vehicle, all wrapped in a fleece you were asked to bring but didn’t really believe you would need, watching the horizon shift from black to deep violet to a bruised, burning gold. And then somewhere in the distance, a lion coughs. There is no preparation for that.
I have been on safari with many first-time visitors over the years and the experience is always the same. They come on full of expectations set by wildlife documentaries, nature magazines and the sort of safari imagery that makes everything perfectly timed and effortlessly dramatic. And then the real thing happens, and it is at once humbling, overwhelming and more extraordinary than they imagined – but nothing like they expected. Here is what the brochures tend to leave out.
The waiting is part of the experience
Safari is not a theme park. Animals fail to perform on schedule. You will spend long periods of time driving across the open plains, sweeping the horizon, waiting. Some first-timers find this hard to do at first – they want action, they want constant sightings, they want the car to stop every five minutes for something breathtaking. But experienced safari-goers will tell you that that’s where some of the best is. It is in the quiet stretches that you take in the small things – the way a dung beetle rolls its ball down the road, the way a secretary bird stalks through the grass, the way the light changes over the Mara in the late afternoon and everything turns to gold.
Give yourself the permission to let yourself just be there. Put the camera down every once in a while. Look with your eyes, not from a lens. The memories that stick with you the longest are almost never the ones you took a picture of.
Your guide is the most important part of your experience
Choosing a good safari company is of immense importance, not so much for the vehicles or the lodges as for the guide. A great Kenyan guide is part tracker, part naturalist, part story-teller and part philosopher. In a way they know the land as most of us know our own neighbourhoods. They can read animal behaviour in ways that take years to learn and they can make something silent and quiet into something unforgettable just through what they see and decide to share.
Tip your guide generously. Ask them questions. Listen when they speak. The information they can provide about the ecosystem, the wildlife, the history of the land and the communities that live alongside it is extraordinary and will enhance your experience in ways that no guidebook can replicate. For well-regarded safari packages across Kenya’s major parks, Majestic Kenya Safaris at www.majestickenya.com is worth exploring – they are known for the quality of their guides and the care that they put into tailored itineraries.
You will feel things you did not expect to feel
It is very common for first-time safari guests to be surprised by how emotionally intense the experience is. Watching a herd of elephants interact – the gentleness between a mother and her calf, the way the matriarch leads with quiet authority – can move people to tears who have never in their lives cried at anything in nature. To be a witness to a predator making a kill is equally complicated. It is brutal, yes, but it is also the honest, unfiltered reality of the way this ecosystem sustains itself, and there is something profound about the experience of watching it without the filter of a screen between you and the moment.
Come with an open heart. Whatever you believe to be the right thing to feel.
The cold will surprise you
If you are going on a morning game drive – and you should, because dawn is the best time for wildlife activity – pack layers that you are going to use. The Kenyan highlands, the Masai Mara, can be bitterly cold before dawn, even in the middle of the year. A warm fleece, light weight windproof jacket and scarf are not luxuries. You are going to be sitting in an open or pop-top vehicle and the wind chill effect at speed means it is colder still. You can always take layers off as the morning warms up.
Go more than once
Every safari is different. The same park in the dry season and the wet season is a totally different experience. The Masai Mara in the Great Migration and the Masai Mara in April are two worlds apart. Experienced safari travellers know that each time you visit something new is discovered – and the more time you spend in the bush the more you know – and the more you realise that there is still so much to learn.
Your first safari will change something in you. Most people leave Kenya already quietly contemplating how they are going to come back.
