June 22, 2022: It is Day 23. Exactly halfway. Do I think this may have been a plan too ambitious? Not as long as Sara is having an adventure. We’ll see if and when the thrill wears off—doesn’t seem to have as yet, but while our present location in a comfy little contemporary hotel in Johannesburg is a welcome break, it’s also just a touch boring if we don’t force ourselves out in the cold to see stuff. You know—stuff.

I had big plans for both the trip and the accompanying blog posts but, as you can tell, the latter hasn’t worked out. The blogging scenario will have to be fixed once I’m home instead of at my desk-bed in random African hotel rooms. Meantime, here’s a look back at my view of our first grand travel segment at Basecamp Masai Mara and its sister camps in Kenya. (Travel is so discombobulating—Kenya already seems like a lifetime ago.) You’ll notice I’ve managed the two posts about Sara and Celia’s first days in the Mara. Young, middle-ish, and now you get the Crone version! The last three photos represent me in my various moods.

This trip was initially built around Sara’s desire to know the world beyond the US and my desire to return to Basecamp Masai Mara one more time. My first trip there was in 2010 when two Africa Consortium colleagues and I took a half-week safari after a meeting in Nairobi. Laura selected Basecamp based on its excellent conservation credentials and off we went on a brief but life-changing, life-affirming journey. I wrote about it then, (please go to mneset.me for “SAFARI IS NOT LIKE LIVING NEXT TO THE ZOO AFTER ALL” posted on November 19, 2010) so the following is actually an update from 12 years later.

I just want to say I’m proud that Basecamp Explorer was founded by a Norwegian. From the website: Svein Wilhelmsen founded Basecamp Explorer in 1998, following a life-changing meeting with an old Maasai Chief named Ole Taek. Sitting around the fire one evening, the respected Maasai elder told a worrying tale about the threats facing his people. Wilhelmsen was inspired by his concern to found a company that would care, a company that would leave a positive footprint wherever it operated and would have a positive impact on the people it worked with. Since 1998, the Basecamp Group has grown to incorporate unique tourist destinations spread across the globe – in Kenya and Spitsbergen. Today our responsible tourism business supports projects like reforestation, waste management, empowering women and youth, and securing land for the wildlife to flourish.

This visit differed from 2010 in that we had time to really get to know the area and the animals, and time with the best of guides, a young Masai man from the area, thoroughly trained and knowledgeable, and the most thoughtful, curious, funny, and accommodating new friend we’ve made in a long time. Boney Taiko is the kind of person who makes for an extraordinary travel experience. It was a bonus for Sara to have a friend around her age with whom to bond as we traversed rocks and rivers and thorny trees in pursuit of the birds and beasts of the Mara.

The bloody kitty was photographed just after a long successful wildebeest stalking by a cheetah threesome.

As previously described, we booked our safari for 2020 and we all know how that went—but the delay led to an extension of time and camps to be visited so it all worked out perfectly. We had a nine-day visit to Basecamps Masai Mara, Eagle View and Leopard Hill, all unique to their particular place along the river, in the forest, and on the plain. Each site just slightly more architecturally elegant, but all comfortable, with great food, dreamed-of views, and an ever expanding assortment of wildlife—an up-close and personal look at their wide open lives and spaces from our cozily enclosed human cages, be they jeep or bedroom/dining room patio.