Snakes and Massais

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Meserani Snake Park was a dusty campsite. Dust, dust, dust. Everywhere you go it’s there. In your hair, on your clothes in your food and just about everywhere else one can think of. We later discovered that it wasn’t just the campsite that was dusty but most of Tanzania. Red sand covers the surface of the land in which acacias and aloes thrive and animals survive.
We paid a visit to the Snake Park itself where we witnessed the murder of many little chicks by various venomous snakes. During, well, just prior to a demonstration of how cute and cuddly a python can be, the skilled snake handler was bitten by a Tree snake (allegedly one of the most venomous snakes in Africa), he promptly went a bit peaky looking, leapt the enclosure wall and was never seen again. We all wondered if he was ok, between bouts of hysterical laughter! Next we boarded our camel for a trek to the nearby Masai village where we met a family consisting of an 80 year old man, his eight wives and fifty children! A Masai warrior group performed a tribal dance for us which involved a lot of jumping into the air and shaking of shoulders. It was fun to watch. The Masai museum was informative and we learned that the Masai peoples’ diet consists of goat, milk and blood. They are a nomadic people, constantly moving to pastures new so that their cattle can graze.

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