A night safari in the Mara Bushtops Conservancy

During daylight hours, antelopes, gazelles, ostriches, zebras, buffalos, giraffes and elephants are the stars on stage in the Masai Mara.

But after dark, the fauna changes completely. It is the time of hunting lions, leopards and hyenas. And you’ll also meet a whole host of bizarre creatures like porcupine, springhare, owls aardvarks, the banded mongoose, bat-eared foxes and many more.

A safari during the day is a great experience – but nighttime is a thrill. Accompanied by Masai Spotters, who have an unrivalled ability for finding wildlife in the dark, you also have the latest in night vision technology to help you get an in-depth look at the life that appears in the Masai Mara once the sun has fallen.

The roar of the lion on a night safari

When it gets dark and the moon bathes the savannah in pale light, one can hear the roar of the lion – it’s a noise unlike any other. There is nothing that even begins to compare with it. It pierces through the air, vibrating the floor and makes your pulse race in your chest.

We are in one of Bushtops’s luxury safari vehicles, somewhere in the the Bushtops Conservancy. All around us, it is pitch dark with only the spotlight of the Masai Spotter lighting up the area.

In the back of the car a cool wind blows. We are wrapped in blankets, because at night it can be cold in the Masai Mara. There is that sound again, like a knife, cutting through the night, freezing one’s blood in the veins.

At first it sounds muffled in the distance. Then it comes closer. And now it echoes a few meters away from us from the high grass. “They are five and they’re on the hunt,” the Masai Spotter breathes from the driver’s seat back, as if he doesn’t want to disturb the peace of the night. “Two large and three small.”

Then the sparkle of several pairs of eyes at night. In the moonlight they flash like flares. First they come closer, then they disappear, and the next moment they’re even closer. Finally, the ranger turns on the lights. And here they are: five lions, hardly 20 meters away from us.

They look in all directions, smell, sniff, examine. With no prey in sight, they start playing. They throw themselves on each other, wrestle and fight. They approach the safari vehicle, coming so close that we see the whites of their eyes.

While we watch them, the Masai Spotter offers some drinks. It’s too cold for beer but the hot chocolate warms us wonderfully in this “freezing cold”. We enjoy the sounds of the night with a drink in hand and we find ourselves experiencing the bush with our other senses.

We watch the lions for over an hour. Then the moon disappears and it’s time for the lions to go off and hunt.

Experience the bush with other senses

At the Bushtops salt lick we observed some elephants. Rather immodestly, they claimed the whole salt lick for themselves. These snorting giants came strutting over to us, as if the world lay at their feet.

Again and again, our ranger Peter stops the vehicle on the way back and analyses the footprints in the sand. Somewhere we hear lion’s roar, but we cannot see them.

Photo by Robin Stuart

At the end of the night safari we’ve seen five lions, a dozen elephants, many buffalos, numerous impalas, zebras and giraffes along with jackals and a hyena.

“The rate is not always so good,” Peter says, as he rocks the car through one of the final corners. “But at night you can see very different animals than during the day. Sometimes it is even possible to see a leopard.”

As I always say, the best wildlife watching is the wildlife where you are. When the sun goes down, adventures await ­– get on a Bushtops night safari and enjoy night life Masai Mara style.

Click here to find out more about our spectacular night safaris at Mara Bushtops.