Three Days in the Mara

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Day 1

We left Nairobi early this morning in a buzz of excitement, the group divided into two little safari trucks for our three day trip to the Masai Mara. I was in a vehicle with seven other girls from various places around the world, and we spent the hours getting to know each other and taking in the sights and sounds that passed us by. Our driver is a smiley, jovial Kenyan man called Humphrey, and he's always laughing and talking in the third person. "You have question, you ask Humphrey. Humphrey tell you answer". He greeted us with "jambo" and said the words "hakuna matata" within the first two minutes of meeting. I liked him instantly.



The only thing we saw much of in the hour after we left the city was trees, ochre coloured dust, and boys selling fruit at the roadside, but as we crested the top of one hill, suddenly we saw the Great Rift Valley spread out before us. It was breathtaking, and there were indrawn breaths followed by stunned silence as we stared at it. Two mountains dominate the vista, one at either end, and fields and plains stretch off into the distance, so far that you can't see where they end. It was so quiet at the viewpoint; the only sounds were cameras clicking, birds singing and the occasional car or truck going past, whilst the people selling cold water and Masai curios stood a respectful distance away.



We drove down into the Great Rift Valley, and in the distance we could see men herding cattle in the fields and donkeys grazing at the side of the road. We came across small towns with locals trading at colourful markets or just sitting outside to watch the traffic go by as if they didn't have any cares in the world. Children stopped what they were doing to wave at us as we passed, and the look of delight on their faces when we waved back was priceless.



The final hour and a half to the Masai Mara takes you along a potholed road which soon turns into the sort of track that is found within the reserve itself, full of rocks and bumps and holes. The conditions are so bad that Humphrey describes it as 'dancing' the last ninety minutes to the park. He isn't far wrong. Still, it took over an hour for me to start feeling ill, so I think I did quite well.



We arrived at our campsite - more about that later - and once we were assigned our tents, we didn't hang around long before heading out for our first game drive. All of us are eager to see as much as we can and make the most of being on this special adventure, and it felt like there was no time to waste. Our first sighting was a pair of dik-diks before we had even reached the gates of the reserve, but I wasn't able to get a picture of them because they are so shy and skittish. They are the smallest member of the antelope family, and it is said that if one of them dies, the other won't eat or drink until it dies as well.



Within five minutes of driving through the gates and entering the reserve proper, we saw lovely looking birds with yellow crests on their heads, as well as gazelles, zebras and a family of warthogs. At this point, it was such a new experience that these sightings were as exciting to us as any of the Big 5. But the Big 5 is what everyone wants to see on safari, and it didn't take long before we came across a trio of lions - two females and a juvenile male. They weren't at all bothered by us. In fact, it took a while for them to even stir, and once they did, they only gave us a cursory glance before getting up, stretching, and flopping down in the shade again.



We left them to their lazy slumber and moved on, and we came across a herd of elephants with a few babies. One of them was the size of the six month old orphaned elephant I saw at the sanctuary two days before, but the other one was so tiny that we could only see the top of his back above the sea of grass, and this was only when the rest of the herd parted enough for him to be visible. Most of the time, they crowded around him as they walked. I wouldn't like to be the lion going up against that line of defence.



We found another juvenile lion further on, but he wasn't as healthy as the one we had seen earlier. He was all skin and bone, his ribs visible through his fur, and his blond mane sparse and ragged. His eyes were hungry and resigned. After spotting some giraffes and a hyena, we returned to camp at sunset to find dinner ready and waiting for us. We ended the night sat around a fire under the stars, mostly chatting and laughing, but often just sitting in happy silence. It was magical, and a perfect end to a perfect day.





Day 2



Last night was memorable. The girl who will happily spend a month's wages on two nights in a hotel slept beneath a mosquito net, with baboons running across the roof of the tent and a lizard hiding in one of the window covers of the adjoining toilet. Hyenas cackled and called to each other somewhere outside, and cowbells rang as cows from the nearby fields ambled past our campsite. I didn't get much sleep, but I wouldn't swap this experience for any five star hotel in the world.



We were an hour into our game drive today when we came across a cheetah resting with her baby. Like the lions the day before, neither of them paid us any attention. Soon, the mother got up and stared off into the distance. She had spotted something that none of us could see, and she began to pace slowly and silently away from her cub and us. Suddenly we saw a flicker of movement over to the left; it was a young gazelle, not quite fully grown. The cheetah stalked him, hidden by the golden-brown grass. It didn't quite seem possible that a scene I had watched in wildlife documentaries was actually about to play out in front of me.



But it did, and I held my breath the entire time.



The cheetah launched herself forward and ran at such a phenomenal speed that she was just a golden blur. The chase lasted for ten seconds and then the grass went still. Everything was quiet. Nobody said a word. None of us could quite believe what we had just seen. We didn't know if the gazelle had got away or if the cheetah had won. We couldn't see either of them. Finally, we found the cheetah dragging her prey through the grass, stopping every few seconds for a rest and to look around for her cub - and to check that the nearby jackal eyeing her kill wasn't going to come and take it from her. The cub ran to meet his exhausted mother, and they both disappeared into the shade of a tree to eat.



I can't describe how it felt to witness something like that, and how torn I was. Part of me wanted the gazelle to escape, part of me wanted the cheetah to win her kill. It was the ultimate struggle for power, a display of strength and vulnerability, and a lesson in just how tough the fight for survival in the Masai Mara is. I felt - and still feel - incredibly lucky and privileged to have seen it. I never expected to see a hunt, and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.



We knew that nothing we saw for the rest of the day could top the cheetah's hunt, but riding the waves of our adrenaline and excitement, we carried on and found a herd of buffalo and a pride of lions. There were seven lionesses and one dark-maned lion, and none of them reacted to our presence beyond staring at us through sun-gilded amber eyes. Humphrey explained that wild animals become so used to safari vehicles that, generally, they just see us as harmless, unappetising animals. It was reassuring to hear, but still, I wouldn't much like to be in one of the open-sided trucks that I've seen going about!



In the early afternoon, we crossed into Tanzania and drove for a few minutes to the famous river which plays host to the annual wildebeest migration. There were no crocodiles, but plenty of hippos hiding beneath the water like great grey boulders. Sometimes they would surface with wide open mouths, water dripping from their yellow-brown teeth. Rangers advised us to stay well back because hippos are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa, but they didn't need to warn us. None of us had any intentions of getting that close, no matter how spectacular the sight.



We ate a picnic lunch surrounded by black faced monkeys who danced about and tried desperately hard to join in with our meal. They looked sad whenever we shooed them away, but much like feeding the seagulls in St Ives is frowned upon, it's also advisable not to feed the monkeys here. Some of them still managed to make off with stolen bananas, and one even got into our truck before Humphrey chased him off. As free entertainment goes, it was fantastic.



After the game drive we went to the village of the Maasai people, nestled within the gates of the reserve and surrounded by branches lashed together to keep out the wildlife. Warriors who were dressed in traditional bright clothing, their hair long and braided, greeted us with a song and dance which involved jumping up and down with fearsome looking spears. Some little Maasai boys, no older than two, did their best to join in. We learned a lot about these people who live peacefully alongside the wildlife. They kill only to protect themselves and their livestock, and one warrior can kill a lion by himself if he must. The Maasai are polygamous, and although a man can have many wives, no one wife is more special than the others.



The women sang and danced for us, some of them with babies on their hips, and then we were given a demonstration of how the Maasai make fire using specially carved implements, cow dung and dried brush. A tour of one of their homes came next, and it was fascinating to see how they live. The houses consist of two rooms, one for sitting and making fire, with alcoves to either side for the family to sleep on top of cowskins. The other room is for cows, so that milk is readily accessible through the night. The houses are made by the women and have no windows, so even in the middle of the day it is pitch black inside until your eyes become adjusted to it.



The chief of the tribe is ninety-six years old, and the eldest of their people is one hundred and ten. Most of them have no interest in the outside world, but some of the younger ones are starting to show more of an interest. They knew about English football teams, and one young man even had a mobile phone and was very au fait with Facebook. It was incongruous to see him scrolling through his phone while around him were all the sights and sounds of a centuries-old group of people. Even if the modern world is catching up to them in an unavoidable way, I think their traditions will last for as long as they do.



Today was a real eye-opener.





Day 3

I've always hated alarms, but now when my alarm goes off at five-thirty in the morning I'm filled not with resentment and contempt, but excitement and anticipation for whatever the day may bring. How things have changed in such a small space of time! Our early start meant that we were at the reserve gates before they opened, and finally we headed in as the sun slowly rose over the Masai Mara.



After a fairly uneventful hour or two, there was a flurry of conversation over the radio that the rangers use to communicate with each other. Humphrey promptly turned the truck around and hurtled across the plains, all of us bouncing around in the back and holding on for dear life. The reason for the fuss was a solitary rhino who had been spotted grazing in the grass. Along with elusive leopards, rhinos are difficult to see. There are only thirty-five of them left in the Masai Mara, and this number is dwindling at a worrying speed. Poachers hunt them by moonlight for their horns, which sell for ridiculous amounts of money on the black market. The horns are used in Chinese medicine, even though they have no scientific or medical benefit.



This rhino investigated our truck and looked at us with little beady eyes and a bemused expression on his face before trundling off. It was a fleeting encounter, and I hope that life treats him well. Seeing a rhino in the wild was a privilege. I'm very conscious that it might not happen again for me. I hope that the battle to save these beautiful creatures isn't in vain, and that compassion and conservation can triumph over human greed.



It was thoughts like this that occupied my mind as we drove back to Nairobi that afternoon. Tomorrow we'll leave Kenya and cross into Tanzania for the next part of our adventure. It's been a perfect experience so far, and although I feel sad to leave Kenya because this is where I've fallen in love with Africa, I can't wait to see what the next few weeks hold for us.

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Photos

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The Great Rift Valley

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Me at the Great Rift Valley

Comments

[Nicole]

wow it's all so amazing no other word for it! a proper lifetime experience and I bet you're making friends for life on this safari. Like I commented on FB, don't worry about lack of internet to blog - after all you're there to SEE the world and a bit of disconnection from internetland isn't a bad thing xx