Maasai Mara!

(I just made a bunch of posts; scroll down to see them)

July 3-5

Mo and I went on a three-day safari in Maasai Mara, a park on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. While I was not thrilled about the price, it was well worth it. Our guide was David, and our driver was Douglas. We were the only two people on the trip, and we stayed at JK Mara, and eco-camp near the park. The “African massage” we got on the drive from Nairobi was quite an experience – the infrastructure here isn’t quite as developed as in the US. I now have a whole new idea of what a “good road” is, and we definitely were not on one for a good bit of the journey. Needless to say, when we pulled into our camp, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, we were pretty impressed. We were greeted by several Maasai who work at the camp (it’s owned by a European – Danish I think, but run completely by Kenyans), and were given wet towels (we weren’t totally sure what to do with them) and then a glass of juice (one of my favorite words to hear Kenyans say – “Ju-weece”). I was skeptical of the beverage, thinking it was some kind of local drink made of chewed plant or something, but it turned out to be apple juice.

They then showed us to our tent. The word “tent” here is kind of an understatement. It was basically a hotel room with walls that moved with the breeze. We were shocked! There was a sink, a flushing toilet, and even a shower that they filled with hot water when you wanted to bathe. We went to lunch and we were treated like royalty. The food was pretty good, too. Before dinner they would bring us hot water bottles bag things, which we had no idea what to do with at first. I stuck mine under my pillow, and it came in handy when my feet were freezing when I was going to sleep.

The whole camp is tucked in a grove of bushes with little paths to follow and nature everywhere. They use solar power to provide lighting, a gas refrigerator that costs basically nothing to operate, and eco-friendly toilets and showers. It seemed to be a very respectful way to use the environment around the game park. The camp wasn’t visible from the road, and while the accommodations were truly spectacular, in my opinion, they also seemed to be intertwined with the surroundings. You can probably tell I really liked it. It was very neat to wake up and be able to see the birds just outside the screen, singing along with the breeze that flowed through the tent.

The game drives themselves were incredible, too. If you’re looking to go on a safari, I highly recommend Finch Travels. Even though it was expensive, our guides were so knowledgeable and able to spot animals hidden in the bush that we saw our money’s worth. We got to see the wildebeest migration begin, and even saw great herds of them crossing a river (apparently a very rare thing to see. Many times you can sit for hours waiting for them to cross, but they’ll all be too chicken and they’ll just stand at the edge). They were everywhere, too! We also saw lions, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, antelope, gazelles, warthogs, mongoose – pretty much everything except the rhino and the leopard. The leopard is a very elusive animal, so we weren’t too surprised not to see one. As for the rhinos, there are only three left in Maasai Mara, a pretty disheartening number. David also told us that Kenya only has about 1.7% forest cover. While much of the country I’ve seen seems lush and filled with plant life, the reality is that there are serious environmental concerns that must be addressed in order to preserve both the country’s natural resources and environmental stability.

What we saw, however, was beautiful. Seeing so many different animals live peacefully together was incredible. Of course, not all of them live peacefully, and we almost saw a lion kill a wildebeest, but even just seeing them walk around and sleep is fascinating. Sorry I can’t post pictures, but I have about a million of them, and even a couple of videos.

So I think that was a string of five or so posts at once (look below if you missed them), so that should last for a while…

Baadaye!