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Wonderful wildlife photography week at Zebra Plains Mara Camp - Zebra Plains Collection
From organizing our full itinerary, transfers, Nairobi hotel to our stay at the Zebra Plains Mara Camp - Zebra Plains Collection, this was a marvelous experience.
For the pre-arrival organization portion, Valentine took very good care os us. The quote was precise and she answered all our questions promptly and clearly. This made us confident that this was a well oiled operation. And it was!
As we arrived in Nairobi from Montreal late at night after a long journey, a driver in a clean and comfortable vehicle was waiting for us at the Airport and took us to a very nice and secure hotel. The following morning he was on time to take us to Wilson airport where Valentine had booked us flights to Masai Mara with an extra weight option (we are wildlife photographers and travel with a lot of gear!).
After a short 45 minutes flight, we landed in the Mara where David, our guide for the week, was waiting for us. Great first impression! David is a tall and handsome Masai with a great smile. Karibu Karibu he said (welcome, welcome!). And off we went for a 30 minutes drive that took us to the camp.
As we arrived we were greeted by several members of the team with fresh towels, juice and smiles all around!
Already we were meeting people that would make our stay very enjoyable: Ruth (managing the whole camp), Ben and Joseph taking care of us for food and drinks and many other people, all of them very welcoming.
The Camp
Even if it is located further than olders camp, we are in a great surrounding, often seeing giraffes, zebras and other animals. But feel reassured, the camp is gated and you have a team of patrollers day and night.
Everything is clean and well maintained. At the time we were visiting the camp was in the middle of major reffection work to make it even nicer. We were not bothered by this. It was nice to have a conversation with Albert, the owner and former safari guide on his vision for the camp. We were impressed by him and how he wants to better the experience for his guests.
The rooms are clean and well maintained. I have seen more luxurious rooms, but I did not mind. We sleep there and mostly do game drives and use the very nice common areas. Loved the two fire pits where it was nice to have a drink before dinner.
Food was excellent! Better than some other camps I have visited.
As we wanted to be out before sunrise every morning they arranged for a breakfast box. Tasty and a great experience to have a meal in the bush.
Game drives
We had requested for an experienced guide and a truck retrofitted to permit low angle photography, The truck was supplied as promised. I think they could improve the way it is set up. But anyhow it worked.
David has eagle eyes and was able to spot many great sightings for us. He worked very well with other drivers from the camp to exchange info on wildlife location. Even better, David has a large network of friends and colleagues from other camps, and all together it makes for great sightings.
As a wildlife photographer I was able to bring back amazing images of all big cats, elephants, and many other animals like jackals and hyena cubs. And we got to experience grandiose sunrises and sunsets.
I worked in collaboration with David, our guide, to help him position us for optimal light for better images. He learned quickly and he was a great partner.
All and all a 5 star week!
One final message to everyone visiting Masai Mara... I got quite angry a few times witnessing visitors being disrespectful to wildlife. To a point that sometimes animals were surrounded just feet away by dozens of vehicles. This is unacceptable!
It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure we respect the last wildlife ranging free… Authorities, camp owners, guides, wardens and of course visitors. A selfie or a photo is not worth stressing animals… This...
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A below average experience for an average property. A terrible experience for a “luxury” property.
Facilities: Apart from the WiFi not working (which can happen in the Mara), the phone lines don’t work. They use some sim service so when I tried to connect to the reception, the alert I heard was “insufficient balance”. My father’s room faced the same phone issue. They don’t have a torch or whistle in the rooms as is typical in over 20 camps I’ve visited till date, and my room is the furthest from the lounge. So at night when you don’t want to venture out by yourself because of the wild animals, I was completely isolated. Shouting for assistance from my room yielded no response either.
The showers are very moody. In my room it only oscillated between steaming hot and cold when moving the handle. My father’s room was worse - it switched between both extremes without warning in the same handle position. He notified the staff but received no help whatsoever. The showers also have a “nice” acupressure anti-slip pad. Nice conceptually, if it were sanitized and didn’t have black mold that you could clearly see in the transparent pad.
Food: Taste - 2.5 - Some of the Indian dishes like the egg curry were delicious. They have a fruit-infused water that is delicious and they claim not to add any sugar to it but I’m sure it’s sweetened. Their espresso martini was really good as well. But most of the western dishes were bad - (1) simple sautéed veggies weren’t cooked properly and were half raw, dripping with oil, (2) beef steak was fairly tough and charred on one side.
Quality/safety - 1 - The pans used for making the omelette are clearly bad and deteriorating (see pics with the black of the pan on the egg).
The breakfast box on day 1 had our last name misspelled and on day 2 even though I’m allergic to dairy, I was given a pack of yoghurt which led me to question whether the rest of the items were in fact dairy-free or not. I was also given a croissant, same as the others so I assume they took the dietary restriction as a mere suggestion. The hotel driver got on the phone when I asked him to check with the kitchen, but he wasn’t talking in English and I guess he didn’t bother to ask my question because I was given no clarity at all. I had to skip my breakfast instead, only having an orange.
Service: Hit and a miss. The F&B staff are really nice. My masseuse was really good and that’s saying something since I have a high bar for massages. Our check in wasn’t done when we arrived and had ample time. Rather I got a knock on my door, the night before we were leaving, at 10pm when I was ready to pass out, and I was asked to fill out a form and provide my documents. The driver/guide wasn’t cooperative at times. We had to keep reminding him to turn on the generator for the power sockets so we could recharge our camera batteries. When he set up breakfast on day 1, without offering us any juice he finished it with another driver. On day 2, we were given no water for our game drive. Another time when I was entering the vehicle, unprompted our driver pushed me from behind, presumably to help me in, but in a manner completely inappropriate unless I had asked for the assistance.
I wouldn’t recommend this...
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Let me make this as detailed as possible, because it really was a stay I will never forget.
Service/Staff: The staff here are the worlds best. They are there for your every need Francis was the main guy for most our stay and he is a kind-hearted gentlemen that makes sure the camp runs so smoothly. Ben was our server for our stay and made sure we had everything we wanted during meals and provided much fantastic conversation. Jeremy offered us a beautifully done walking safari and all the other Mara gentlemen were outstanding, friendly and always provided the best conversation. You really feel like they care about you here, and b/c of the small number of rooms they give you basically 1-on-1 service. Outstanding. Above and Beyond.
Grounds: What a beautiful location. You truly are among the animals here... this place is not fenced in (they have local Mara guards to keep you safe!). They have also built a watering hole that is visited by Zebra, Antelope, Gazelle, Warthogs, etc. just about 50m away from the camp. So you're basically on a 24/7 safari! The camp itself is clean, well-kept and uses natural plants and flowers to make you feel like you're part of nature. The fire-pit area was a personal favourite in the evenings and they provide snacks and beers are reasonably priced -- it doesn't get better then tat after a long day on safari. The dining area was well placed and all tables had a good view of the watering hole to watch animals while you eat breakfast & dinner.
Food: Oh my goodness - the food! The chef catered to our vegetarian diet (we understood this is a strange concept for many Kenyans), but this man knew how to do vegetarian food like the best dedicated vegetarian restaurants in the world. The flavours were exploding with well paired ingredients and the portions were massive - I usually ended up finishing my mothers plate. The breakfasts mid-as-well be called a buffet as there is no way you can eat everything they have to offer.
Rooms: We didn't spend much time here, if we were here for longer I could see myself sitting in the chairs looking out over the plains and loving life. The best are basic but comfortable but the setup is tastefully done with lots of room for baggage, clothing, sitting and sleeping. We were in tent #11 which was spacious and wonderful. The absolutely only negative was they did mention there should be hot water and there was not hot water in our room when we were there - we didn't bother mentioning it as it wasn't a big deal for us... I'm sure they would have fixed it or done something to help.
All in all I'd come back to stay here in a heartbeat and recommend this to anyone. Although I don't have anything to compare this to (my first tented safari) this place was awesome. Even our driver who was from an outside company (Beacon Safari) said it was his first time here and that this was one of the nicest camps (staff and accommodations) he's stayed in; he's been doing safaris for 11-years! Keep up the high-quality...
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