Hello everyone, my apologies for not posting lately. This past weekend I went with 5 of my fellow interns to Masai Mara for a 4 day safari (Friday night to Tuesday morning). In a word it was FANTASTIC!
We hired our Swahili teacher, Anna to be our tour guide. She arranged everything since she she has her own tour business. I must commend her for doing an amazing job. If any of you ever visit Kenya you must use her to arrange your trip and activities. Since most of the interns are on a tight budget we decided to do this trip "economy" style which meant a 14 hour drive instead of an easy 1 hour plane trip. Also we went for "luxury camping" instead of staying in one of the posh lodges. I was a bit skeptical about "luxury camping" but as it turned out it really was luxury since most of you know my definition of camping is staying at a Hyatt!
We started Friday night with most of us having dinner together near my home then managed to squeeze 5 of us (plus the driver) into a Yugo taxi to get to the bus station. It was the beginning of what turned out to be unending laughter and fun. Our bus left at 10:30pm Friday night for our 7 1/2 hour drive to Nairobi. I took an Ambien so managed to sleep a bit of the way though cannot say it was the best night sleep I have ever had. We got into Nairobi about 6am just as the sun was rising and spent a couple of hours in town having breakfast and relaxing before the second part of our journey. I only got to see a small area of Nairobi, what they call the Central Business District, but it looked quite modern and clean (something Mombasa is not). We all agreed we will plan a trip back to explore the city and enjoy its sophistication and cultural attractions. We even found their equivalent of Starbucks, called Savannah Coffee House. Finally I got real Kenyan coffee instead of the Nescafe instant that is the mainstay in Mombasa.
Around 9am we met up with our safari driver and personal chef (yes we had a personal chef), boarded our PSV (personal sports vehicle), and embarked on the grueling 5+ hour journey out to Masai Mara. You may ask why am I calling this part grueling when I just came off an overnight bus trip. Let me just say I will NEVER complain about the state of California highways again. The first 2 hours of the journey were relatively comfortable on a two lane paved highway but once we got to Narok (the last major town) we entered a dirt road that at times about rattled my teeth out of my head.
To get to Masai Mara one leaves Nairobi and goes through a part of the Rift Valley (the Rift starts in Egypt and goes all the way to Tanzania). We descended a steep mountain and there it was spread out below us with a vista that seemed to go on forever. At a resting stop on the mountain I stood looking out over the valley and thought about the fact that this is where the race of man began so long ago. For the most part it hasn't changed much, it is still very desolate and extremely dry.
The area we were entering is Massai country. Massai are a nomadic tribe that are very recognizable by the brightly colored wraps (for women called kangas for men kikoi). They tend to be very tall and thin people that have incredible endurance. Most still live as they have for hundreds of years in small villages with houses made of cow dung mixed with water, ash and human urine (an eco friendly home). They spend their days herding goats and cows. Every 9 years they move their villages since these "dung" houses are not designed for longevity. (more on my visit to a Massai Village in a future post)
As we rattled along dodging goats and cows (and one time a family of baboons) that meandered across the dirt road I felt as if I was experiencing a part of the world where time has stood still! However I make two major exceptions. First there are Safari.com top up stands everywhere so folks can add minutes to their cell phones. Second Coca Cola kiosks are also EVERYWHERE. I don't know how Coke products managed to become so ubiquitous in this culture but they have.
At around 4pm we arrived at our camp ground just outside Masai Mara National Reserve. I immediately realized my worries about camping were unfounded and the facilities were wonderful. We had permanent structure tents with cement floors, comfortable beds, electricity, our own attached private bathrooms, running water, flush toilets and hot showers. Needless to say I was pleased and relieved. Another nicety was the change in weather from Mombasa. Masai Mara sits at about 6000 feet elevation. The weather and topography look a great deal like Northern New Mexico. The daytime highs were in the high 80s and the night time lows in the 50s with no humidity. It was heaven!
Even though we were tired of being in a vehicle Anna suggested that we go on a late an early evening safari because it is the time of day when one can easily see many of the animals since they tend to come out once it starts to cool down. We all agreed and piled back into the PSV. The beauty of a PSV is that the top pops up so one can stand and get great views and pictures. Within 2 minutes of entering the reserve we knew we'd made a good decision. The first animals we saw were gazelles and impalas. Within minutes we were within feet of a herd of water buffalo. The search for the Big 5 had begun. For those of you that aren't familiar the Big 5 include water buffalo, lion, elephant, rhino and leopard. One down four to go! As we continued our journey into the reserve we began to see lots of other "mzungu" (remember white people) all in PSVs. The safari drivers call each other on their cell phones (yes cells worked perfectly in the reserve but I cannot get a cell to work in the Bay Area half the time) to let other drivers know where they've spotted certain popular animals. About 30 minutes into our ride our driver got a call and we immediately sped toward an area where a number of other tour buses where gathered with everyone standing and snapping pictures. We arrived to watch a pride of lions eat a zebra. Though quite gory watching them rip the legs off it and munch on the carcass it seemed very natural in the cycle of life. I think it hit all of us at that point that we were experiencing a trip of a lifetime with memories that will stay with us forever. The beauty of these creatures in the wild almost cannot be described and my hope is that you get an opportunity in your lifetime to see this for yourself.
We were ecstatic. None of us expected to see such a site within less than an hour of our time out on safari. It only got better. Again our driver got a call and off we sped again. This time the PSVs were gathered under a tree. We looked up to see a leopard sitting up in the tree looking down at all of us humans. The leopard seemed perfectly okay with humans around and not threatened. As we continued to stare up into the tree we noticed that next to the leopard hanging over a large branch was a dead wildebeest, the leopards dinner!
So in the course of 2 hours we'd seen 3 of the Big 5. By this time the sun had set so we headed back to base camp. In our final few minutes in the park we stopped a giraffe. What a perfect way to end our first safari adventure. At base camp our chef had prepared for us a delicious meal. As many of you know I have not been a fan of most of the traditional African food I've had here but if I could eat this man's cooking all the time I'd become a convert. By 9pm we were all exhausted and in our tents ready to sleep for the night.
My adventure will continue in my next post.... Stay tuned.
Note I have posted a few pictures here but my camera was acting up so my fellow travelers took most of shots. I will get their pictures this Friday and over this next weekend plan to put up an on line album so you can see everything.
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