Travel reviews by P&JG from Scotland

The reason that we chose to stay at a private conservancy outside the Maasai Mara National Reserve is because I was worried that the Maasai Mara NR would be overrun with tourists, particularly at the time of the great migration which seems to have become an Instagram event for too many visitors. I would have been perfectly happy to avoid this spectacle, but a drive down to the Mara appeared to be the only programme on offer for our first day in camp, so against my better judgement we went along with it. Unfortunately it turned out to be an absolute low point in an otherwise wonderful three week itinerary and my worst expectations of the MM NR were exceeded by what occurred that day.

The closer we got to the Mara river and potential crossing points, the more the traffic of safari wagons built up, to the point where we became aware of other vehicles careering along at dangerous speeds on parallel tracks trying to race each other to the river bank. When we arrived it was quite obvious why they were behaving in this way, as we found both banks of the river were completely choked up with a grid lock of scores of vehicles containing hundreds of people. Vehicles were barging in front of each other to achieve a better view, blocking others out so that their occupants couldn't see anything and even, astonishingly, blocking the pathway for the herds of wildebeest and zebra trying to reach the river, the people seemingly completely oblivious to the needs of the very animals that they had come to observe!

As the wretched animals took their chance to cross the river the onlookers were shouting and cheering like a football crowd and whooping and laughing whenever any of the poor beasts were brutally consumed by the waiting crocodiles. I suspect that the feeding of Christians to the lions in the Colosseum of ancient Rome must have provided a similar experience. It was, frankly, a little sickening and it made me feel rather ashamed to be among the mob myself. Then, to add insult to injury, we had an unpleasant encounter with some National Reserve Rangers who, rather than controlling the mass overpopulation of tourists, seemed more intent on enforcing petty regulations and extracting money from hapless drivers and guides for apparent minor breaches of niggling Reserve rules. I think that the Maasai Mara National Reserve of Kenya has a major problem of tourist overpopulation, which it seriously needs to address, and it also needs to examine closely the conduct of its own rangers. I shall not be returning there.