Olare Motorogi Conservancy

Olare Motorogi Conservancy is roughly 15,200 hectares of leased Maasai land on the north-eastern boundary of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, and it is the only one of the Mara conservancies that publishes a hard ceiling on both beds and vehicles. A maximum of 94 beds in five camps, and one game-viewing vehicle for every 2,100 acres, are its own stated figures.

The Density Numbers, and Why They Are the Whole Point

Every conservancy in the greater Mara says it limits tourism. Olare Motorogi says what the limit is, in two figures that can be checked against a camp list. That is the reason it is talked about differently from its neighbours, and the reason travellers who have already done the reserve tend to end up here.

Put the bed cap against the stated area and it works out at roughly one bed for every 370 acres. That is the arithmetic behind the experience, and it is why a sighting here usually involves the vehicle that found the animal and perhaps one other, rather than the five permitted next door in Mara North or the uncapped gathering that a river crossing draws inside the reserve.

The area figures disagree slightly between sources. The conservancies association lists 15,200 hectares; the conservancy itself says 35,000 acres, which is about 14,160 hectares. Both are given rather than silently averaged. The bed and vehicle figures come from the conservancy’s own facts page.

From Olare Orok in 2006 to Olare Motorogi

The conservancy dates its founding to May 2006, when the Olare Orok Conservancy was formed by 277 Maasai landowners. The adjoining Motorogi land was brought in afterwards and the combined block took the current name. It is one of the earlier conservancies in the Mara, formed a year after Ol Kinyei and three years before Mara North.

Management sits with a not-for-profit company, Olpurkel Ltd, with a board drawn equally from landowners and tourism partners alongside representatives of a community trust. Camps are required to be semi-permanent and built without foundations, which is a condition on the physical structures rather than a description of their comfort, and it is part of why the bed ceiling is credible rather than aspirational.

Grazing, the Kundi Moja System and the Land Underneath

The conservancy runs a rotational grazing system its managers call Kundi Moja, meaning one herd, in which livestock move as a managed group rather than grazing at will. Water catchments, roads and firebreaks are planned around where the herd will be. This is the part of the conservancy model that tourism copy usually skips, and it is the part that decides whether the grass is there in a dry year.

The ground itself is rolling grassland with hills, an escarpment and the open Motorogi plains, which is a mix that gives long sightlines for cats and enough broken country to hold leopard. The conservancy states more than 300 bird species including 50 raptors, which is a respectable list for a block this size.

On the Reserve Boundary, and What That Means in Migration Season

Olare Motorogi shares a boundary with the national reserve. That is not true of every conservancy in the group, and it changes the trip in two ways.

The first is that migrating herds reach conservancy ground during the months they are in the northern Mara, so the spectacle of filled plains is available without entering the reserve. The second is that a drive into the reserve for the Mara River crossings is short rather than an expedition. Those crossings are inside the reserve and carry a separate Narok County entry fee for the day, which camps arrange routinely. The Great Migration guide explains the timing and why the crossing months are the crowded ones.

Walking, Night Drives and Off-Road Driving

The three activities that mark a conservancy out from the reserve all run here: guided walking, night game drives and controlled off-road driving to reach a sighting. The last is the one photographers care about most, because it is the difference between a clean line on an animal and a bush in the foreground, and it is prohibited inside the reserve. The wildlife photography guide covers how much difference it actually makes.

Balloon safaris operating over this part of the Mara launch nearby, and Maasai cultural experiences are arranged with the landowning families through the camps.

Research and What Is Known About the Wildlife Here

Olare Motorogi has hosted collaborative research rather than just hosting guests, including a wildebeest collaring study run with a predator research organisation and a North American university, which tracked animals from the Loita herds. The Loita wildebeest are a resident Kenyan population distinct from the herds that arrive from Tanzania, and their movements through the northern Mara are less understood and less predictable than the famous migration.

The conservancy describes itself as holding one of the highest concentrations of big cats in Africa. Its neighbours make comparable claims about themselves, and no independent comparison separating adjoining blocks of the same ecosystem was found. The claim is best read as evidence that the northern Mara as a whole is exceptional, not as a basis for choosing between conservancies.

Getting There and How Many Nights to Allow

Access is by light aircraft from Wilson Airport in Nairobi to a Mara airstrip and a transfer arranged by the camp, or by road through Narok. The fly-in safaris guide covers the weight limits that catch people out.

Two nights works here in a way it does not in the larger conservancies, because the area is compact enough to cover properly in three or four game drives. Three nights is better if a reserve day for the crossings is part of the plan, since that day is not a conservancy day. Travellers who want the lowest vehicle density available in the greater Mara and are willing to pay for scarce beds will find this the most defensible choice of the five, on published figures rather than on atmosphere.

Olare Motorogi Conservancy Questions