Kenya had long been on my list of travel destinations for well over two decades and when the chance to take a holiday there cropped up this February 2020, my husband and I immediately grabbed the opportunity that our 4 days off work presented and booked a Safari to Kenya. I have especially wanted to visit Masai Mara in Kenya which is one of the best wildlife conservation areas in the world, an animals paradise.
The flight from Dubai where we are based, isn;t too long, with Emirates Airlines and Etihad flying there direct in about 5 hours. Since Emirates takes off from Dubai ( as opposed to Ethihad which flies from Abu Dhabi) we proceeded to book our flights online through their website at a relatively good fare of close to US$ 600 return including taxes.
The flight departs Dubai mid afternoon around 1500hrs and arrives Nairobi just past 8pm. Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya, East Africa, a bustling cosmopolitan city of over one million residents and home to the UNEP offices.
The flight landed in Nairobi at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport well on time and we managed to obtain our Visa on arrival for a cost of USD 50 per adult. ( children under 16 years were free of charge at time of entry).
From here on once we exited we had the hotel chauffer waiting to transfer us to the nearby Four Points Sheraton hotel which is only a 5 minute drive away. By 10pm we were already in our room, ready to unpack and looking forward to our Safari adventure tomorrow.
The next day we excitedly got ready for our 7am start of Safari. Our driver-guide picked us up from the hotel and started our drive to Masai Mara National Reserve , a 5 hour journey that took us into the Great Rift Valley. Upon descent into the valley we stopped briefly at the viewpoint to take some amazing photos.
Our safari vehicle was actually quite a sturdy 4x4 Toyota land cruiser jeep specialized for safari drives. The vehicle has a pop up roof to allow tourists to stand up in the vehicle and see the animals for a better view. The vehicle can seat upto 6 passengers and also has air conditioning and a UHF radio call which the Driver-Guide will use while on game drives in Masai Mara to know the location of the wildlife when they speak with other drivers in different vehicles in the reserve. By the way if interested, you can opt for 4x4 car rental in Kenya and try this website for a good price which includes fuel, free unlimited mileage, insurance and all costs of a driver or chaueffer as well in case you do not want to hire a vehicle on self drive as you have to pay a heavy security deposit and will be liabel for any vehicle damage or theft. For self drive it is necessary to have an international driving licence but driving in Kenya is not as east as driving a rental vehicle in US or Japan.
The drive was enjoyable though a little long. 
Most of the road is now tarmac though this was not the case last year, when I hear the rough road was quite an inconvenience to tourists. Now the road goes all the way upto Sekenani gate which is the main entry point to Masai Mara National Reserve.
Since we booked our Safari with a company based in Nairobi for the better pricing and service, they had suggested staying inside the reserve at a camp known as Sarova Mara. The company which organized our safari is known as Shoor Safaris Kenya.
The camp is quite nice as you can see below and also had a swimming pool and very tasty food, so we were happy with our choice ! 
The location of the camp is also suitable, being inside the Masai Mara Park. ( some camps are outside so cheaper but don't give the best experience).
After checking in we went for lunch in the main restaurant.
The camp also serves out door meals.
That afternoon at 3pm we took our first game drive in Masai Mara - spectacular ! 
In our 3 hour game drive we managed to see Lions, Elephant, Giraffe, Cheetah, Rhino and also many Buffalo and Wildebeest 
The baby elephant was too cute 
Black Rhino: These are more aggressive and dangerous than White rhino and are not always easy to spot in the wild as they stay away from vehicles and humans !
By 6pm our very friendly Driver-Guide returned us to our camp for the overnight. We had a shower and then had dinner by 7.30pm.
The next morning we went out for a full day game drive right after breakfast at 9.30am. This is a picnic lunch game drive and means that we actually enjoy a lovely lunch inside the reserve under a tree with beautiful views 
Like a movie scene !
Today we saw many more animals which we had not managed to see during yesterday's afternoon game drive, such as Leopard and Jackals as well as Hyena. Our guide told us we were lucky to see the Leopard as it is quite a shy animal.
Actually Masai Mara has many different animals and birds as well such as vultures and eagles. Kenya as a country is rich in wildlife and one can see many animals in Masai Mara.
By 5pm we came back to our camp for the evening.
The next day we enjoyed an early morning gamedrive followed by breakfast by 9am. It was now time to return to Nairobi and we left Masai Mara by 10am for the 5 hour drive to Nairobi and straight to the airport since we had an evening flight back to Dubai.
Everything well prefectly well and we managed to make the flight on time and arrived back in Dubai at a fairly good time, approximately 10.30pm.
A wonderful 4 day trip to Kenya and returning with such great memories and tons of photos. Nice to know we also managed to enjoy the trip just before the current global crisis which eventually stopped flights altogether. Lucky us ! 