Review of Oldonyo Wuas

3 years ago

Positives:

Positives:
Property - at first sight: a really lovely property. Each room comes with a star bed (so you can sleep under the stars), and a nice plunge pool which a number of birds, baboons, monkeys, squirrels, etc, use as their watering source. You can sit on your sun lounges and enjoy the views.

Hide - the viewing hide (upper and lower). The property has a man-made reservoir where a number of animals / game come to drink water (elephants, zebras, giraffes, impalas, gazelles and warthogs).

Negatives:
Management - similar to Mara Plains (see also our review of Mara Plains Camp) the regular manager has left due to visa issues. The property is currently being managed by 3 managers, 2 of whom are relief managers (Lauren and Addi). Lauren is sweet but very young , and this is not her normal profession. Addi (who actually took us to our room and checked us in, and who used to manage a property in Masai Mara), gave the impression that he was biding his time and guests requests or quirks were an inconvenience. There is no doubt Addi is a knowledgeable bush-man but his personality did not seem well-suited to managing.

Monkeys - the second day we came back to our room to catch a monkey red-handed running out of the room with our sunscreen. He had already chewed through our malaria pills, my prescription ointment for bug bites, taken part of my iPhone headset, and soiled our bed. We managed to track someone down, who came over and changed sheets, etc. But neither Lauren or Addi came by. Late afternoon (before our afternoon game drive) we saw Lauren and mentioned it to her. She seemed rather nonplussed and then Jonathan (one of the waiters) chimed in oh yes we always tell guests to lock up their medications and creams as the monkeys always come for them because they are sweet . Needless to say my husband and I were furious as no-one (including Addi / Lauren) had told us this. It is not a problem to have monkeys running around our room, it s actually kind of cute, or to lock up medications and other valuables.

It is problem to (A) not be warned, and told what to put away and (B) replace things (i.e. prescription ointment for bug bites) in the middle of the bush!

That evening Addi came over and admitted that he had forgotten to warn us. By then it was too late, obviously.

Bugs - I have been to Africa 5 times and this is our third safari. I can honestly say I have never seen so many bugs, cockroaches, beetles, etc, running around the room or flying around the dining / common space area. I am American and I don t like (in fact, I hate) bugs. When we asked Addi if we could have room sprayed (similar to Mara Plains Camp) or if something could be done about it his attitude was very much get over it, you are in the bush . Needless to say that did not go down well.

Guide - Konee; Daniel our Mara Plains Camp guide was engaged and seemed to be interested in the game drives and animals / game: Konee was much less so. Half the time when we would stop next to a pride of lions or elsewhere he would be on his iPhone. The one time he joined us in the Hide (to watch the elephants) he kept sighing and yawning: we finally said we are fine by ourselves if he wanted to leave . He initially said no, then said he should go and ask them to fill the man-made reservoir with more water and didn t come back.

Recommend?

No. Unless (A) you have no / little interest in seeing the animals / game (which makes me question why you are going on a safari) or (B) really prefer doing other things like the lava cave walk, horseback-riding, or going to a local village or (C) really love spending time with a huge number of bugs. We consistently saw more animals / game from our pool or next to the man-made reservoir than we did during our game drives.