Surrounding the Maasai Mara National Reserve are a collection of conservancies that operate in a similar fashion to a private game reserve; off road driving is permitted, no more than 5 vehicles are allowed at a sighting at any one time and only those staying within the conservancy have access. On this 10 day private safari we immersed ourselves in the pristine wilderness of the Naboisho and Olare Motorogi Conservancies, and what an immersion it was.

After touching down in Naboisho we received a warm welcome and ice cold mimosas under a nearby balanites tree, so emblematic of the Maasai Mara. From there it was a pleasant 45 minute drive in the specialised photographic vehicle to our camp for the next 5 nights, the beautiful Asilia Naboisho, perched on the edge of a wide open plain with a commanding view of the savanna.

From the get go the safari was a big cat extravaganza. On our very first drive we spent the entire afternoon with a leopard (adorably named Figlet) and her two cubs. The light was perfect, they were active and at one point mom and cub climbed a fallen tree and struck more poses than we knew what to do with.

Another definite highlight was witnessing a pride of 17 lions take down a zebra in the open in broad daylight. The lions had been seen earlier in the day and we following up in the area to see if we could locate them. It was still hot so we expected them to be sleeping but wanted to find exactly where they were and return in the late afternoon when there would be a better chance of seeing them active. They were last seen moving through thickets on the edge of an open plain that sloped towards tree lined stream – we’d been searching the area for some time when we noticed a heard of zebra moving across the plain from the stream and towards the bush line where we expected the lions to be sleeping. As the lead zebra reached the first bushes there was an explosion of stripes and dust and feline shapes in the long grass. The herd were now galloping across the plain from whence they had come but their leader, now at the tail end, was not so lucky and was pulled to the ground – hooves flailing in a final desperate bid to escape. A kill is never easy to witness, it is never pleasant but it is always a spectacle. I won’t go into the gory details (and there were many) but suffice it to say that we all came away with a host of bloody-faced portraits, bared teeth and tearing claws.

Once our time at Naboisho had come to an end we moved on to Mara Plains in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy. The camp is nothing short of exceptional, comfort, food, location and hospitality were all top notch and, like at Naboisho, the game viewing was excellent. We had particularly good fortune with male lions – on one morning finding a coalition of two brothers marching across an open plain just as the sun peaked above the horizon. Because of the flat open terrain we could photograph from every imaginable angle and we were the only vehicle there throughout.

The birding in Olare Motorogi was also excellent and we spent much time with spectacular crowned cranes, cattle egrets in huge buffalo herds and the full host of eagles and vultures.