It was difficult to pull out of Mama Robi's home on Saturday morning...at 6:00. As I have previously mentioned, I had fallen in love with Felix and EVERYONE was in love with Boniface, and of course Dee Ann has developed a very special relationship with George during her two journeys to Nakuru. Mama Robi's orphans (James, Mary, Maryann, Sarah, Lillian, Brian, George, Boniface, Felix, and Zachariah) crawled out of bed at 5:30 to express their gratitude and watch us pile into the vans. David and John, our incredibly friendly and talented cooks, prepared our favorites while dressed in their very own Kenya Project t-shirts: doughnuts! Yep, deep-fried goodness with coarse sugar for dipping.
We straggled. We pulled out of the gate late. We leaked a few tears. And so our second journey began...
Gideon gave us a stern warning the night before: while he expected the drive would require five hours plus a stop for gas and restrooms, he could make no guarantees. "Do not be upset if it takes eight hours to arrive at our camp. I have not taken this path since 1989." Boy, we were lucky! During our first stop, Julius (the driver-tour guide-walking animal encyclopedia extraordinaire) commented that the roads were in the best condition he had seen in 15 years.
We passed the vibrantly-dressed Maasai tribesman as we pulled deeper into Maasai territory, always in brilliant red or orange. We learned from Julius that the Maasai speak 32 dialects and for a period of months during the year, the men leave their wives to herd. Keep in mind that we are in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE-- no grocery stores or markets in sight to pick up a soda or a loaf of bread. How do they survive, you ask? How do they protect themselves from the wild game in their migratory paths? Answer 1: the men have perfected a technique of opening a vein in the neck of their livestock, siphoning the blood, and mixing it with milk for their sustenance. In dire situations, they will kill one of their livestock and eat the finer cuts (without fat) raw. Answer 2: the men sleep at the center of their herd. The animals intuitively know to circle their leaders when resting-- not that the Maasai men need protection. To become a Maasai warrior, you must leave your village and not return until you have a tooth or claw of a lion in your possession. However, contrary to popular belief, the Maasai are not a violent or aggressive people. The Maasai are simply steeped in tradition: strongly patriarchal, semi-nomadic, monotheistic, and an apology through a payment of cattle is usually sufficient to settle disputes. So that's your cultural lesson for today... : )
We were all blown away by our accommodations at Siana Intrepid camp. After off-roading for what seemed like more than the seven kilometers marked by the sign, we made our way to the reception hut where we were greeted with juice and dutifully informed that there were no keys. "Zipper only," the host said. That comment was followed by, "The monkeys here are very smart. They know how to unzip the tents. You must tie a knot. They do not know how to untie a good knot...yet." Awesome. We quickly trekked to our pod-- the "A" group. My evaluation is that luxury tents are the coolest thing...ever. With any luck from the technology gods, I will have more photos of our accommodations from Amy in the next few days.
The camp grounds and grazing area
The macaroni-and-cheese-colored bark of the Acacia tree
The lily pad pond on the trail to our pod of "A" tentsInstead of narrating the details of our extended game drives (then making this post 20+ pages long), I thought I would post the animals we spotted during each, with captions. There is inevitable a story and exciting details behind each...
Day 1: The Evening Game Drive
Zebra, of course. They have the natural knack to show their rear sides whenever you pull to the shoulder for photographs.
The first pod of lions we spied for the safari, four total and one of which was pregnant. The male showed absolutely no interest in the parade of vans at all. He eventually rose to sit on his haunches and show off his mane. That one is on Amy's camera...
I chose to spare our audience a telephoto glimpse of the lion-eating-a-zebra photos. This cute little fella on the right was the first to eat. Stuffed and satisfied, he was dozing on his back, feet in the air, just like roadkill. We were lucky to get within 15 feet of her hunting partner...
A Maasai Mara sunset as we make our exit...Day 2: The Twelve-Hour Safari Drive
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that these guys are impalas. Those with horns live in bachelor pads where they spend their days in training to fight. If you want to live with the ladies, you must be able to defeat the one grand male that rules their group. If you lose that bid, you are rejected from the group...and most likely eaten by a lion in your solitude.
We spotted three Maasai giraffes in the early morning. Unlike the Rothchild giraffe we spotted at Lake Nakuru, the Maasai giraffe does not wear the ever-stylish white stockings. These two males were engaging in a "battle" of sorts. In what looked a lot like necking or a mating ritual, the two males were attempting to throw the other off balance using their necks. Whoever won the balance contest also won the right to the female (who was nowhere in sight).
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that these guys are impalas. Those with horns live in bachelor pads where they spend their days in training to fight. If you want to live with the ladies, you must be able to defeat the one grand male that rules their group. If you lose that bid, you are rejected from the group...and most likely eaten by a lion in your solitude.
We spotted three Maasai giraffes in the early morning. Unlike the Rothchild giraffe we spotted at Lake Nakuru, the Maasai giraffe does not wear the ever-stylish white stockings. These two males were engaging in a "battle" of sorts. In what looked a lot like necking or a mating ritual, the two males were attempting to throw the other off balance using their necks. Whoever won the balance contest also won the right to the female (who was nowhere in sight).
It's an ostrich! Later in the day Julius spotted another with babies in tow, no taller than the high yellow grasses.
We must give thanks to the wildebeest for our stay at Siana Intrepid-- it was the only camp that we could afford considering it is the wildebeest migration period! This photo is a very small snapshot; we saw hundreds of thousands of wildebeests spotting the rolling plains. According to Julius and the Mara guidebook, the wildebeest arrive in June to graze in Kenya and leave in late October to return to Tanzania to mate.
These monkeys were vigorously digging through the trash bin at Hippo Point. While we walked to the edge of the Mara River where at least 10 hippos were bobbing in the water, one brave monkey soul jumped through the window in my van. Gideon had left the window cracked, which in the monkey world is o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y. Fortunately, no damage was done, there was no theft, and Gideon and David sprung into action.
This baby elephant stole our hearts, especially the heart of Lynn who thinks baby feet (no matter if they are human or animal) are God's greatest creation. I know this to be a fact-- I attend family reunions with her. : ) This little guy (or girl) could not have been more than two months old-- he was constantly tripping over himself as if those things were just too heavy to lift and his mother was still carrying milk. Again, thanks to the prime driving skills of Gideon, we were able to get within 20 feet once the group crossed the road...and then Mama Elephant noticed and expressed her discontent.
The cutest little heinie I've ever seen!A final note:
Amazingly, after nearly two weeks of driving on roads that created a roller coaster effect in the vans, we managed to get TWO flat tires during our final hours of the safari. I did not add "tire changing whiz" to Julius's list of talents, but he got that baby off and new tire on in less than ten minutes. I also did not add "tire changing whiz in the middle of a herd of highly dangerous animals" to his talent list. Yep, he did that too. Our second flat occurred dead smack in the middle of a herd of cape buffalo, who happen to be the most dangerous animals on their plains because of the impulsiveness, aggression, and horns. While Julius and Bernard/Ben/Benson (we never quite got his name right) worked on the tire, Lynn stared down the herd and rebuked them with powerful telepathic signals. All listened except one-- one lone buffalo whose nostrils flared within 30 to 45 feet of our tour guides.
I hope that everyone enjoys the photos and the brief narration. I will plan to write a parting note some time this week, as well as throw up a few more photos as they trickle in from various sources. It has been an absolute pleasure to share our journey and my journey with you-- I deeply appreciate your encouragement through posted comments and compliment through the grapevine. Please keep checking our blog periodically. While we may no longer be in Kenya, we are still doing good work here.
Love, love, love!
tnick
Amazingly, after nearly two weeks of driving on roads that created a roller coaster effect in the vans, we managed to get TWO flat tires during our final hours of the safari. I did not add "tire changing whiz" to Julius's list of talents, but he got that baby off and new tire on in less than ten minutes. I also did not add "tire changing whiz in the middle of a herd of highly dangerous animals" to his talent list. Yep, he did that too. Our second flat occurred dead smack in the middle of a herd of cape buffalo, who happen to be the most dangerous animals on their plains because of the impulsiveness, aggression, and horns. While Julius and Bernard/Ben/Benson (we never quite got his name right) worked on the tire, Lynn stared down the herd and rebuked them with powerful telepathic signals. All listened except one-- one lone buffalo whose nostrils flared within 30 to 45 feet of our tour guides.
I hope that everyone enjoys the photos and the brief narration. I will plan to write a parting note some time this week, as well as throw up a few more photos as they trickle in from various sources. It has been an absolute pleasure to share our journey and my journey with you-- I deeply appreciate your encouragement through posted comments and compliment through the grapevine. Please keep checking our blog periodically. While we may no longer be in Kenya, we are still doing good work here.
Love, love, love!
tnick
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