While packing for my first real Africa experience I tried to ignore the fact that the trip would entail no less than ten flights (which later turned into twelve). I told myself that my environmental karma would be restored by the fact that our safari lodge, Basecamp Masai Mara, was the winner of both The Responsible Tourism Award and the Eco Warrior Award. The camp's electricity is generated using solar power, the waste water is used to irrigate trees and all the kitchen waste is separated and composted. They have a number of ongoing environmental projects and the local Maasai clan are stakeholders. Suddenly I was a saint!

Getting to this eco-wonderland turned out to be an experience on its own, though. After two delayed flights and three lost bags we were in Nairobi and found out that the drive to Basecamp Masai Mara would take seven hours instead of five. It had been raining the night before and some of the worst roads I have ever seen were covered in mud. Questions about how far the camp was were methodically evaded with "It's still very far" and the more eager-to-please, but for the most part less correct, "About twenty minutes". For great portions of the drive there was a sad strip of remaining asphalt in the middle of the dirt road which, along with the worn-down sides of the road, made traveling very diagonal. My sense of balance was surprisingly quick to adjust though, and had I at this point seen a single car driving horizontally I'm sure I would have found it to be most peculiar. As we got closer to Basecamp we got stuck in the mud several times but there were always people, mostly Maasai men, coming to the rescue.

If you're the least bit car-sick there is an airport consisting of two huts and a landing strip about half an hours drive from the camp, but as I look back on the trip I'm glad we went by road. For example, if we hadn't, I would never have gotten to see our driver Joseph revolutionize the auto repair industry. I'm not kidding, this man fixed a busted cooler using a bag of curry.

We arrived at Basecamp Masai Mara bruised, hungry and starting to accept that to fully enjoy our trip we would have to give in a little and just go with it. My brother and I went to look for our tent, no 5 out of a modest 15, and as we found ourselves on the generous porch we agreed that 'tent' is a humble definition if there ever was one. It was almost like having our own treehouse with a wonderful view of the river passing right beneath us. Our late arrival caused us to miss our first game drive which had been planned for that afternoon, so we had a late lunch, unpacked and then went for dinner.

After dark there wasn't a whole lot to do at Basecamp. There was a bar in the restaurant but no one seemed to stay up late. The sun set at around seven o'clock and when it did everything turned pitch black. A Maasai man came by to leave a lantern on our porch every night which along with the somewhat dim solar powered lighting set a romantic mood. Since my need for romance wasn't exactly peaking while bunking with my dear brother, a headlamp wouldn't have killed me.

I loved that we were constantly reminded of the wilderness; leaving anything from make-up to clothes out in the bathroom, where you showered under the open sky, was not considered wise unless you were trying to bestow a fashion sense upon thieving monkeys. And to protect us from wild animals roaming the camp we were advised not to go anywhere after dark without a guide. Not even to the restaurant which was just 50 meters from our tent. Once or twice we cheated and I was sure there would be an angry hippo waiting for us by the buffet.

On day two our luggage was still missing and needless to say the outfits we wore on the way to Stockholm Arlanda in December weren't really suitable for safaris. One crazy shopping spree on the insurance company's dime later and we were off, still in the same winter gear but with matching Basecamp sunhats to boot. Had we been anywhere else in the world we could just as well have been carrying signs saying “we don’t fit in, please rob us”, but in Masai Mara there was never any need to worry. We had two game drives planned for the day and every little problem faded once we were on route to the first one. The guides were brilliant; right off the bat we got to see a family of elephants and five minutes later a pregnant lioness cooling off under a tree. The rain had turned the whole savannah a beautiful green. We got surprisingly close to the animals but the respect that the guides had for them was obvious; one water buffalo looked at us the wrong way and we went straight back the way we came from. And really, who put the water buffalo on The Big Five anyway? Grumpy bastards. Then and again we drove past deserted safari vans that had been trapped by the mud. I was told that one car had actually gotten stuck under a tree with a cheetah resting in it. I don't know what would be worse, getting out to push or staying in a van with no roof? At the end of our second drive we had seen almost every animal you dream of seeing at a safari and we were starting to become a little bit spoiled. As if they could read our minds, the guides pulled up and stopped smack in the middle of a group of ten lions. They were all completely comfortable, and except for some playful cubs utterly uninterested in us. I could have sat there all day just to watch them, but another car drove up and we took off. We only came across two other tourist groups all in all, and the fact that one always drove away seemed to be part of all the lodges' ethics.

On day three we got up at the crack of dawn for a five hour drive to Lake Nakuru Park, known for its flamingo- and rhino population. The chefs had breakfast ready at six, bless their hearts. Had we known then that the only bridge out of Masai Mara was flooded we would have told them to sleep in. I would have loved staying an extra day or two at Basecamp. Not to do more game drives, walking safaris or any other activities for that matter, I had already seen everything I had hoped to see. But just to sit on the porch and watch the river pass by.

As we arrived at Lake Nakuru Lodge four hours late Joseph told us that our lost luggage had been found and delivered to Basecamp Masai Mara.

http://www.tribes.co.uk/countries/kenya/accommodation/basecamp_masai_mara.html