Mara Conservancy
P O Box 63457
Muthaiga 00619
Nairobi

Tel: (02) 3749632
Fax: (02) 3749636
e-mail: mara@triad.co.ke

MEMORANDUM

To: Managers From: Brian Heath Date: 04. July 2007
Mara Serena
Little Governor’s Date:
Olonana
Mpata Club
Kichwa Tembo Camp
TransWorld Balloons
Mara Balloon Safaris
Oloololo Gate
Mara Bridge

PARK RULES
We have recently witnessed an increase in violations of the park rules and would like to bring to your attention the following:
• The only approved entry points into the Mara Triangle are at Oloololo Gate and Mara Bridge. No one is allowed entry from the road going to the Kichwa Tembo airstrip and onto Little Governor’s, unless they are staying at Little Governor’s.
• The road between the 4 Km sign and the bridge at Sankuria is closed when wet. There are permanent signs on the road indicating the exact section. In the event of late evening or night rain this section remains closed until 10.00 am on subsequent sunny days and until 12 noon on overcast days.
• There is a proliferation of game viewing tracks near Mara Serena and Oloololo Gate. We cut game viewing tracks in July and again in February. We expect drivers to use these tracks and not create new, parallel tracks. We allow off road and off track driving to view certain animals – but the drivers must return to the designated tracks once they have completed their viewing. I am happy to work with drivers in creating these game viewing tracks but will insist that they are adhered to.
• We burn certain areas in July and again in October – we will allow off road driving in burnt areas, until such time as the grass begins to sprout seed heads.
• No vehicle is allowed into Tanzania. Despite several warnings, drivers persist in entering Tanzania. We will not take any responsibility for people arrested in Tanzania for crossing the border illegally. There is a track following parallel to the border, almost from Mara Bridge to Ngiro-are. In order that there are no misunderstandings we will not allow drivers to leave the track and head towards the border beacons or the border itself.
• During the migration we will not allow people to alight from their vehicles in the vicinity of a crossing.
• We do not want to see more than five vehicles around cheetah, lion, leopard and rhino. Drivers who have spent time with these animals must make way for others. Conversely, drivers wishing to see any of these animals must wait until there is space. If there are no other vehicles in the vicinity, we have no problem with people spending time with these animals as long as they adhere to the rules.
• We expect drivers to maintain a minimum distance of 25 metres from any animals and in no instance can animals be chased or harassed.
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Mail von der Mara Conservancy an unsere Freundin Mirna vom Wildlife Forum : http://www.wildlife-foren.de/

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:46:27 +0300
Von: "Brian Heath" <bheath@triad.co.ke>
An: "\'Fred Kaigua\'" <ceo@katokenya.org>, intra_de@gmx.de
CC: "\'Michael Koikai\'" <mkoikai@hotmail.com>
Betreff: RE: Masai Mara
Dear Fred

Thank you for this. We will have three anti-harassment vehicles stationed
in the Triangle this season; one at Oloololo, one at Serena and one at Mara
Bridge.
As Mina mentioned - the standard of driver/guide seems to get worse and
worse and this is something that the Industry must address. It seems a
great shame that we have to spend so much money and time on controlling and
regulating drivers - when they should be responsible and adhere to the Park
rules.
I take this opportunity to send you another copy of our rules for the
Triangle for circulation to all your members.

On another matter - I would like to arrange a meeting with yourself and
Michael Koikai to discuss our proposed "Game Viewing Supplement" and
traversing rights. It is only the beginning of the season and we are
already inundated with badly behaved and rude drivers from Narok.

Finally, we are seeing a large number of Tanzanian registered vehicles with
Tanzanian drivers - I presume that they are legally allowed to operate in
Kenya. Organizations like Twiga and Graduate Tours seem to use a number.

Regards
Brian_____

From: Fred Kaigua [mailto:ceo@katokenya.org]
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 12:27 PM
To: intra_de@gmx.de
Cc: 'Michael Koikai'; 'Brian Heath'
Subject: RE: Masai Mara
Importance: High

Weitere Informationen zum gesamten Vorgang "Lasst uns leben":
http://www.privatsafaris.de/html/masai_mara1.html

sigi

Pippa:

That is exactly how organized all reserves and parks should be. Kudos to Brian Heath.

Good rules but what happens if they do no stick to the rules?
Any of you know?

These drivers most of the time get pushed by their clients on board to go closer for a better photo - and they mainly oblige for a better tip?
If there are 5 cars around a group of lions - do the others line up 100 meters away before entering the ring once another car has left?

Any positive ecounters from you guys of the latter?

nico - you got it! it's just paper for most of the cars especially the minibusses! not to mention the private cars which drive around!
our guide stuck to these guidelines - and we ask them to do so since the beginning - but we also have seen governors cars behaving like nuts. and privat cars just give a sh..!