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Published: October 26th 2009
power = serenity
Lucky for power on the truck6th August Sunday DAY 16 NAIROBI to MAASAI
KENYAN BEER: Pilsner lager **½, White Cap **½
We got up early, left the tents and headed to town, meeting some of the new people at Hotel Boulevard and cramming into the matatu’s. There were some new people in the matatu that I shared with Robin and Bron. Heather and Nick (married Aussies), Cat (English) and Helen (English). There were great views as we headed down into the Rift Valley stopping at a huge souveneers shop with masses of wood carvings. Back on the road we started to pass Maasai warriors with their herds of cattle and goats. One Warrior was even naked next to a dam, lathering up with soap! The scenery was absolutely stunning consisting of open grasslands of savannah, and some weird but very cool looking cacti trees, (I think they are called Candelabra Cactus Trees). These matatu’s are much more comfy with soft seats (sorry Chobe)
We were in Matatu No 1 with the big boss guy Jeff and had 6 other matatu’s following us and he was constantly checking everyone was following us over his radio by calling “Jeff Jeff Jeff… Jeff Jeff Jeff…Jjjjeeff Jeff
Welcome to the truck of HELL....EN
Truck graffiti, welcoming the new group Jeff.” We found out later there was more then 1 Jeff. It was very annoying so I put my ipod in and listened to Lion King music. I got quite emotional watching the scenery and it hit me for the first time that another dream of mine had come true. I AM IN AFRICA, and its beautiful and I love it. After watching so many documentaries, looking in atlas’s, brochures and flicking through picture books I’m here living it. I felt so grateful.
We got to see some Giraffes, Ostriches, Gazelles and Zebra before we even reached the park. Robin slept most of the way but I have no idea how as it was probably the bumpiest road I have ever been on, but it was fun.
We reached camp and it is the most luxurious camping I have ever experienced, the tents were already up and came equip with flushing toilets and shower. Robin and I are sharing with two Swiss sisters (newbies who were speaking swiss to each other with us in the room, which was fine until they said in english to us, don't worry, were not talking about you!) and after dumping our stuff
we all headed up to the dining tent to wait for our late 4pm lunch, even though we were supposed to be in the reserve already. We passed a few Maasai on the way into the MAASAI MARA GAME RESERVE and it was very difficult to get photos of them. If they spot you they will try to spear you or ask you for money! We got bombarded by maasai ladies trying to sell us jewellery but we make our way through and spot wildlife instantly, including some Wildebeest and I remember trying to teach my nephew Aidan how to pronounce it correctly! They were all over the place and generally stick together - safety in numbers I guess. If you looked off into the distance it looked as though the darker grasses were moving, but it was actually the Wildebeest, such an awesome sight.
One of the ways to spot wildlife after a kill is by vultures circling overhead; another is by the cluster of cars and vans that congregate (I guess you could still say vultures!). So we drive over to the vans and we spot some lionesses. It felt strange watching them with all the other
vans around; it felt like I was still in a zoo. Jeff, the driver was also starting to piss me off, driving all over the grass and in the wrong spots so we couldn’t see properly. (Jeff also tells us he can get a 10,000 fine if he drives on the grass). We drive around trying to spot ‘something better’ with Jeff frustrating the crap out of me and some other drivers too! We spot an awesome male lion sitting in the bushes and watched him for a bit. Not long after we saw a young lion cub, unfortunately lying dead on the side of the road. You could say that it was most likely to have been hit by a car due to its location. It was so sad and upsetting, there are speed limits in the park and you would hate to think that this baby lion died as a consequence of a tourist in a hurry to spot some wildlife! I was especially emotional after reading Born Free. On the way out Robin spotted a hyena but it was too dark to get a photo. On the way back to camp Jeff asks us if any of
us want alcohol as he knows a cheaper place, surprisingly none of us wanted any, but Jeff did so we made a stop on the way back, passing the local tin shed pub, where we saw some Maasai warriors inside playing pool!!! Weird and we all had a bit of a laugh to ourselves, (and of course there were no women in the pub.) Just before we reached camp we spotted an elephant eating some trees ahead, but it was way too dark for a photo, but this was only 100m from our campsite where there are no fences!
So after dinner back at camp I begin to feel depressed. Completely stupid considering I am in Africa with Robin, however I felt lonely and angry. No one was including Robin or myself in conversations and even though I was probably tired and irritated we both went to bed and talked about things. (Little did I know this was just the beginning of crazy feelings for Moo in Africa!)
7th August Monday DAY 17 MAASAI
We are up and leave by 6:30am and I volunteered to change trucks to help Helen out. I ended up being with the
driver Amokey (which we pronounced I'm Ok) and was sharing with Oli, Paul, Daz and the Swiss sisters. The first major animal we saw were all congregated together, all looking in the same direction and were all located under some Acacia trees. They were the matatu’s again! When we headed over to join our heard the driver told us he thought it was a leopard but I told him it looked more like a cheetah and I ended up being right! There were 3 of them and as we got there last we were also then able to drive back to the road and follow them first for a bit. We got a great spot and I think again of my nephew and teaching him the difference between a cheetah and leopard "Cheeeetahhh". I wished he was here with me to see them. We saw most of the same animals as yesterday before heading to the river where I was able to stand in 2 countries at the same time (tick off the list neens) Kenya and Tanzania! I actually told a tourist off for throwing her cigarette butt onto the ground in a national park (saying “excuse me I
think you dropped something!”) and she had no idea what I was going on about and eventually picked up the butt then threw it off the dirt and into the bushes out of sight!!! I was furious so I talked to her tour operator whose excuse was that he didn’t see her do it. I told him he should have told all the tourists about this before they reached the park. People in our group saw me and gave me a thumbs up; I couldn’t believe it!
So we then headed down to the river to catch some hippos and croc’s having a swim. The hippos were huge and particularly funny with their farting in the water; I could easily have joined them and they would have been none the wiser that i was actually human, fitting in quite nicely. Lunch was very interesting consisting of white bread with grated cheese and a boiled egg!
We got to see some wildebeest today doing some strange and awkward in sync running across the plains, and in front of us, so great. After more driving we headed back again to camp and I was ecstatic seeing a Dik Dik (weirdly
just after I had said that I wanted to see one). I had seen these little guys on a doco back home and have since always wanted to see one. To mark their territory they stick grasses and twigs into the preorbital gland in the corner of its eye (marked by the dark spot), which produces a dark sticky secretion, very cool. After dinner tonight I felt much better about life, most likely as I had a good chat to Cat, and I had an awesome day!
8th August TUESDAY DAY 18 MAASAI to NAIROBI
Another morning driving around, but looking at stupid stuff like birds and hot air balloons. We were all pretty frustrated at Jeff, and Amokay had no choice but to follow his driving. Eventually we again saw the huge mass of cars so headed over to find 3 cheetahs, 2 with their mouths covered in blood, eating away at a topi’s butt! We must have missed the kill by about 10mins and we didn’t notice it at first but the topi was still alive, incredible. It felt bizarre and cruel watching but this was nature, so at the same time it was completely awesome!
The one that wasn’t eating was keeping a watch out for other predators (luckily for them humans in Matatu's were not one of them) and also either holding the topi down or trying to suffocate it, we couldn’t tell. Again it felt like a zoo and all of the cars were again off the grass. I wanted to stay and keep watching but it was time to get back to camp to eat lunch and leave. Everyday now, on the way in and out of camp we pass the maasai men, always sitting around, not doing anything in particular. I used to think that the warriors were cool and awesome, living with nature the way they do but since observing them doing nothing all day, while the women are working I am a little disturbed and think they are lazy! None of them let you take their picture without paying for it and whilst leaving camp I was videoing the cattle alongside the Matatu, then Daz says ‘there’s that angry guy.” I ended up filming his legs as he passed by, but he had his spear up threatening me. I laughed to myself, I didn’t even have any intention of
videoing him, I couldn’t even see him coming. Luckily i was in a moving Matatu and not on foot! We gave Amokay a tip which we wrapped in a grass knot!
So on the bumpy ride back I listened to Midnight Oil while I watched the awesome African scenery pass me by; it was great. Back in Nairobi I did an hours worth on the net where I had about 50 emails! Back in a tent on the floor, no complaints here.
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Aunty Lyn
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Miss You
Amanda I am glad that you are having a great time. Keep the mail coming Aunty Lyn