got an information today which i already feared but now it's confirmed by a camp:
when staying at a camp e.g. in the koiyaki area and one wants to see the wildebeest crossing: from july 2008 one has to pay 40US$ for the koiyaki "conservation" (what ever that means ) plus 60 US$ for the mara reserve itself! not to mention if one travel through several "conservations". obviously now they take the cash in very seriously!
as a result in future we will only frequent camps within the reserve so that fees are limited to the reserve fees!
i am waiting for these camps to complain that there tents remain empty based on the fees.
it's even more enoying because no one sees any change to the better despite flowing in of all these millions of dollars....

I don't think anybody will seriously complain or try to do something about it. There seem to be so many tourists in this world that are prepared to pay any price to get a glimpse of wildlife, they will pay the extra fee as well. Especially the high end lodges and camps are fully booked most of the year although they charge horrendous prices. What difference will 40 dollars make?

Of course the one suffering from it is the average family that can hardly cover the costs in general.

Original von Carsten
I don't think anybody will seriously complain or try to do something about it. There seem to be so many tourists in this world that are prepared to pay any price to get a glimpse of wildlife, they will pay the extra fee as well. Especially the high end lodges and camps are fully booked most of the year although they charge horrendous prices. What difference will 40 dollars make?

Of course the one suffering from it is the average family that can hardly cover the costs in general.

carsten, that's only the beginning of the whole thing. you end up paying 220 US$/pppd if you cross all 4 conservancies plus the mara.
AND considering the mass tourism!
as far as i have learned from my clients they rather travel to south africa and botswana or zambia where the parkfee is included in the camp rate and there you have only ONE car if any with YOUR leopard or lion!

the camps in the mara are booked between aug and oct already - you are right!
but the other months they are far away from being packed!

on the other hand: there are so many rich russians, indians and chines around so that they can pack the camps for the next 30 years to come
but again: no one of our clients wants to stay in a camp where russians are present in bigger numbers and "bigger" numbers start with 4 pax!

let's lay back and wait what comes out of this......

Pippa, your words sound harsh to someone that has never experienced \"rich russians\" but I must agree, I have experienced them a few times and they have absolutely no respect for anybody or anybodies cultures. Of course this does not apply to all russians but obviously a big percentage. But there is plenty of them and they have lots of money and are also looking for a place to sleep when on safari, so the camps will fill. Your clients will go to other countries and the price for the conservancies will remain

By the way, the russians are not new in Kenya. They used to go to the cheaper hotels back when I used to live there, but as they become richer they move up in accommodation standards.

Of course the one suffering from it is the average family that can hardly cover the costs in general.

Carsten:

I must agree with you. The "average" US family of 4 people cannot afford to safari as it is now. Add $4 - 6,000.00 per person for the Africa end and then add to that another $4,000 - $8,000 air fare and it is already way above the average vacation budget. Very soon it will end up that only the very wealthy will be able to safari., which is truly a shame. Who knows, one of the less wealthy who have a chance to safari might end up being the next generation of Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Cynthia Moss, Daphne Sheldrick, Joyce Poole and the like - someone who can really make a difference in the future of wildlife.

On my safari a couple of weeks ago I stayed 3 nights at the Lake Nakuru Lodge.
The same time a group of 20 Russians (embassy-staff) had booked in there as well.
I have never met people behaving in such a bad manner in a hotel.
(shorts for dinner, own vodka bottles in the dining, like warthogs at the buffet and of course they were extremely loud).
Yes they pay a lot of money, but the time will come they are not welcomed by the lodge owners for their misbehaviour.

About Masai Mara. On my opinion there is only the migration which is really special. But nowadays I prefer to visit Parks like Tsavo East and West. Of course you cannot find the mass of animals in Tsavo, but with a little bit of luck and a good driver you can see every interesting animal and most of the time you are alone with the animals.

Have a nice day.

Herbie