First Timer Porini Safari Camps!

November 2018 | David Beattie

The Safarilink plane dips down to the sun baked air strip where we are met by our driver and guide with their safari truck. There is only one other truck. The sun is warm and it is silent. 

We start our game viewing on the way to Porini Mara Camp. After a mile or so we come out into open ground where to my amazement there are zebra, gazelle, giraffe ,waterbuck and warthogs. We cross a small river where there is a blue and red lizard basking in the sun. 

Soon we reach Porini Mara Camp nestling in a hollow surrounded by a stream. A young water buck strolls between the tents. The tents are very comfortable and placed around the Mess tent where there is soon good food and wine.  We partake in early morning and evening drives. The number of animals is astonishing, a Cheetah is very impressive when you could almost touch it! A herd of 30 or 40 Giraffe are also a wonderful sight. 

We move on to the Porini Lion Camp an hours drive away and passing wildebeest, gazelle ,jackal ,baboons with flashes of colour as superb starlings flit from bush to bush. Lion Camp is larger than Mara and in more open ground . The Mess tent has a veranda overlooking the savanna. A great place for a Tusker beer! 

Game drives reveal lions, leopards, elephant, water buffalo, impala, topi and hippo. 

The sheer scale of the conservancy is revealed as we climb through the scrub to high ground for a sun downer. A glass of gin or wine as the sun sets in a red glow. Perfect. 

Finally we have to leave and assemble at ‘the tree’. WE are the only truck in sight , the plane is there but no crew , no terminal , no security , just a tree. Then the crew arrive and we say goodbye to a perfect winter break.