Cultural Immersion (surprisingly good)

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So in the evening of 16^thFebruary as we prepared for bed in the Olooloo campsite within the Masai Mara I saw two eyes in the long grass reflecting the light from my torch. I threw a stone and it moved and was unmistakeably a hyena. I did try and relay some concern to Alain who was some twenty feet away brushing his teeth but I think his hearing aids were off so he was blissfully unaware. I managed to throw some more stones and get it to back off but I suspected it would be back. Now much as I would have liked Alain to camp on the ground in the tent while the Adlam family enjoyed the security of the roof tent, we decided to let him come up top and we all squeezed in.

The next morning if the Hyenas had been by we didn’t see any evidence and packed up early to head back on safari. We saw plenty of wildlife on our way including a huge group of hippos in the water as well as a huge range of gazelle, elephant and giraffe. Our efforts to see more predators was met with hyena and jackal. We made our way to head out of the park and made the (bold) decision to try staying in a Masai village for a bit of cultural immersion for the children (and Alain).

The road to the Masai village was 7km of the bumpiest roads we’ve encountered but it was worth it. There was nobody else staying at the village and so it would be fair to say the entire community focused on making Zac and Ben as welcome as possible with as much fun along the way as possible.

The Masai took us to see their dancing (and yes they made Alain do the jumping thing which he really enjoyed), visit a hot spring, showed us their village, we went to see the widow’s community, climbed a local hill, learned about the properties of the various plants. Oh and they made Ben and Zac bow and arrows and taught them how to shoot which is now probably the highlight of their trip so far. The Masai was amazing with their arrows, hitting a cactus not 5cm wide repeatedly from a range of about 10m. They loved the boys and totally looked after them, it would be fair to say the boys were a little overwhelmed.

By the evening they showed us how to make fire by rubbing sticks and we even managed to do it (although they do literally rub sticks in their hands so my hands are somewhat tender now). Finally they gave us about an hour of singing round the campfire which as we learned is basically them telling stories which they make us as they go. They seemed to enjoy doing it as we did listening and it seemed a little more natural and less touristy.

We went to sleep in the safety of 2 Masai warriors standing guard with spears outside the tent all night.

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