Maasai Mara

Okay so I'm recounting times long past but I thought it would be best to start where the last blog left off even though it was many adventures ago now. After our three weeks in the middle of nowhere without power and water we were thrust into Western-style luxury camping in the beautiful Maasai Mara. We had beds and showers and sit down toilets and lights and even the promise of hot water from a tap, all things hugely foreign to us, a definite culture shock. The other shock we had on arrival at the camp was the number of other white people there. It was the first time I'd felt very conscious of my skin colour and I felt uneasy overhearing their conversations which sounded smug and wealthy and we all felt slightly superior because we were volunteers, not just on holiday though I doubt how justified that thought is.

The drive from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara was stunning. The five of us had been picked up early in the morning by our guide Linus in a safari truck the same size as the matatus we had been traveling in with 20+ people crammed in but with only 7 seats in the back and set off in comfort towards the Great Rift Valley. We stopped at a viewpoint looking over the valley which is HUGE. It stretches 9600km from where we were all the way to the Dead Sea. The day was slightly overcast so the pictures don't do the view justice. It was another epic demonstration of how the sky in Africa is much bigger that you could ever imagine. It felt like the valley was part of another world you were looking down on, and that you could see 360 degrees around it in every direction. It was green and almost Scotish, with hills that seemed barely blips on the surface and cliffs around the edges as if someone had simply carved a valley into the rocks. There was also a confusing satellite dish station in the middle of the view...

We picked up Thorunn, another volunteer we had met at the KVDA house before we set off, and continued onto our safari village at the edge of the great game park. Andrew described our tents as "canvas-walled chalets" which is very much what they were. Each had a concrete floor and a brick walled, roofed bathroom at one end. I can't express the excitement we felt at being able to simply turn a tap to get water or at the fact you could stand under a shower and wash your hair - as a girl it's quite hard to clean your hair properly from a basin. It was such a novelty. We were all quite giddy from all these luxuries by the time we went on our first, and probably best, game drive that evening. We did LOADs of animal (and wazungu) spotting in the two hours we were out. We saw (amoung other things I will remember when there are pictures) Tepi Antelope, Thomson's Gazelles, Mpala, Zebra, Wildebeest, Giraffes, a pride of lions and, most excitingly, a cheetah eating a recent kill. The cheetah was obviously the most exciting thing in the park and had tons of trucks circling around it. Linus says it's very rare to see a cheetah eating as they are usually very secretive and would run off at the first sign of competition. It was a very brave cheetah.
Just as the sun started to set on us we managed to get stuck in the mud in a deserted part of the park. We thought this was great fun. We tried to push the truck out but the wheels just kept spinning. We rambled about out of the safety of the truck much to Linus's dismay - he looked away for two minutes and all of a sudden the 6 of us were spread out in every direction around the van, playing in the long grass and taking pictures. Linus sent out a plea for help on the radio and several trucks came along. One of them was full of young folk who go out and helped us push providing the extra oomph required to get us out to hard ground.

The second day we went on a full day (11 hour) game drive starting out at 7am. We went to nomansland between Kenya and Tanzania and stood on the boarder post while admiring the hills of the Serengeti. We had packed lunch at the river, eating quickly to keep our food from the monkeys, and walked along the river banks accompanied by a man with a gun to see the hippos and crocodiles lazing by the water. The crocs were giant, the size of a house which surprised me, I was expecting tablesized ones but these could crush you with a foot. The water was strewn with bodies of wildabeast who didn't make it across with the rest in the Great Migration from the Serengeti to the Maasai Mara. The crocodiles would leave them to soften in the water before tucking in. Futhur up the river there were massive birds hanging out with more hippos, spreading their wings to dry them in the hot afternoon sun.
When we left the park that afternoon we headed to the Maasai Village to 'meet the locals' and learn about Maasai culture. It was an awfully touristy experience. Made me wonder to what extent can you call an experience cultural if it is put on as a show for you? We watched the men dance, and then the women dance, meanwhile being told to wear Maasai dress (including a lion mane headdress) and stand in the middle for photos. We tried to make fire with sticks and then were sepearated off into twos and shown the inside of Maasai huts (built by the women, never men). This was basically an excuse to try and wear us down and convince us to buy lion and cheetah teeth - in Maasai culture when boys turn 15 they are sent out into the wilderness for 3 years with nothing but the clothes on their back to become men by killing a lion. Once they've succeeded in killing a male lion they can return to their village victorious with the one who cast the spear claiming the mane of the lion as a trophy and proof that they succeeded.

Our third day, we went on an early morning game drive which, after the last two days, was somewhat disapointing. We saw a lot of antilopes and some jackels and not much else. The sunrise over the plains of the Maasai Mara was quite beautiful though.

I'd really like to put pictures up but unfortunately the internet is much to slow so pictures will have to wait until I am home, not long now!