Governor’s Camp

With the Hippos

Governor’s Il Moran is on the banks of the Mara River with a pod of hippos permanently bellowing at each other.

This mama is keeping her very newborn away from the other hippos for a few weeks to give the little one a chance to get stronger before meeting the other adults. She stayed right outside our front door.

In this camp the staff brought hot chocolate to our tent before our morning game drive. We left around 5:45 so we could catch sunrise on the plains.

Then we had a picnic breakfast later on in the shade of a tree.

Lunch when we got back to camp at 12:30.

An afternoon game drive, dinner at 7:30 (this time at a table for two, which was quite lovely), and then the day was over. We slept to the noise of the hippos each night.

Governor’s was Serious about animal security. Not only did we have escorts when it was not daylight, the men were armed. Howard says they were single-shot rifles and not recent vintage – but still, I found it a bit unnerving to see guns so close.

We saw nothing larger than a warthog on the camp grounds, not even baboons, so maybe the attention to keeping animals out of the camp works.

Howard enjoyed the solitude. Governor’s only had 10 cabins and it was not full when we were there.

It was a great location, perfect temperatures. It only took a day or so before the barkeep automatically brought Howard a Coke Light to the dinner table. What more could he ask?