Dateline: Masai Mara, Kenya

We wafted over the Mara River. It turns and twists back on itself endlessly as it heads out of Kenya, across Tanzania into Lake Victoria, flows into the White Nile, and finally on to the Med. It's a long way...Out of Africa.

Under canvas at Governor's Camp in the Masai Mara Game Reserve, you're not only in the depths but at the soul of Africa. It will stir yours and turn your heart. This is Masai territory. Tall, aloof and serene, these noble people obdurately maintain their customs and beliefs but the vast savanna is, like everything else on Earth, changing.

When my mother and father safari-ed here 50 years ago, they carried their tent with them and saw no other vehicles. Inside the Land Rover was a wire cage containing a bottle of gin, a bottle of vermouth and two glasses. It had a glass panel with the inscription, "When Lost, Break Glass." Bruce, the Ranger, explained that all one needed to do was to start making a Martini and inevitably out of the bush would rush at least one person shouting, "That's not the way to make a Martini!"

Today there are probably 400 vehicles serving the some two dozen permanent camps and lodges in this region. My last visit, it had been raining so hard, even the 4x4's were deep in water. Happily, at Governor's Camp the ballooning operation is the largest in the world; the morning I went, three were flying. At times descending to the tree tops then rising to catch a different-vectored breeze, we saw more animals than you could imagine. Finally, after more than two hours aloft, we landed on the only dry spot in miles. As we drank champagne and the chasers fried sausages over the inverted hot-air burners, a hundred elephants arrived uninvited!

Actually there are three "Governor's Camps": Main Governor's, Little Governor's, and Governor's Private Camp—only available for private individuals and groups of up to sixteen guests. Main Governor's has 40 tents and a couple of traditionally-dressed Masai natives wandering in and out of the gift shop to oblige your camera—too contrived for me.

I stayed at Little Governor's — seventeen tents, each with comfortable beds, a desk, a rack for your clothes and, behind it, a tile-floored bathroom tent with a basin, a shower with hot and cold running water and a modern flush loo. The camp half-encircles a lily-pad-covered lake; hippos, giraffes, and elephants are frequent visitors. After a few drinks in the open-sided bar-tent, followed by a delicious dinner in the adjoining mess-tent, one drifts off to sleep to the night noises of frogs, clicks, screeches, and whoops. It's fabulous!

All the best,
Uncle Ted

Hand-drawn illustrations by Sue Hunter.

Governor's Camp website

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