I decided to write today’s post in two parts so as not to overload your unsuspecting brains with too much Kenyan awesomeness (yup, that’s a word) which was pretty much the theme of the day.
After our very lucky cheetah sighting, the group traveled the final 50 kilometers down to the Mara River. This is the first time that we’ve gone a fairly long distance in the Mara and during our journey I found myself looking at the zebras, wildebeest, giraffes and other animals that now seemed like normal parts of the landscape. I would then quickly give myself a mental kick to the shins and think “YOU’RE STARING AT ZEBRAS, WILDEBEEST, GIRAFFES AND OTHER INCREDIBLY AMAZING CREATURES… WAKE UP!” This is what happens when I have to get up at the crack of dawn for more than two days in a row. It’s not pretty. I’ve tried to keep my internal monologue as internal as possible so as not to scare my fellow adventurers.
"scenery"
Once we reached the river, our ears were immediately met with the grunts of the 20 or so hippos bathing in the shallow river below. Sidebar: the Keekorok Lodge, our home for the past few days, is smack in the middle of one of Africa’s wildest savannahs… and has no fence around its borders to keep the Mara’s residents off the property. This has led to some fairly unique encounters including a poolside run-in with some grazing warthogs and a faceoff with some particularly curious Vervet monkeys. Last night, well after Susan and I had turned off the lights and retreated to our mosquito net canopy, I was awakened by what I thought was Susan snoring (oops). Even my groggy, half-asleep brain deduced, however, that whatever noise I was hearing was not being produced by any normal-sized human being. I walked over to the glass doors leading out to our back porch and saw four full-grown hippos grazing about 20 feet from our room. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Hippos for the midnight serenade, but next time I’d prefer something a bit more relaxing.
The hippos we encountered in the Mara river must’ve been taking music lessons with our late-night visitors because they were singing exactly the same tune, a tune which sounded like a cross between a lion’s roar and a broken muffler. They were also joined by a sunbathing crocodile that looked a bit disappointed by the low river that prevented the wildebeest from migrating and robbed him of a particularly tasty meal.
He's in serious need of a muffler patch
After leaving the river, we went in search of the most fantabulous tree in the whoooole park. And we found it. We ate our box lunches under a giant Acacia overlooking the vast Mara plains. From that shady spot, it was hard to imagine that there’s anywhere else on the planet that even comes close to rivaling the beauty of this Kenyan heaven.
On the way back to the Lodge, after our delicious box lunch, we stopped at one of the Maasai villages situated not far from our accommodations. The reason that the Maasai Mara is a reserve and not a park is that the Maasai people are allowed to live within its borders (which makes sense because it was their land to start with). We were met by a group of the Maasai men, wearing their brightly colored cloths and various hunting apparatus. I made sure I was on my best behavior for fear of ending up on the wrong side of a spear.
We got to see traditional dances both from the men and the women of the village. Beth and I even got to compete against the men in their adamu (“jumping dance”). The purpose of this dance is to figure out how many girlfriends each of the men are allowed to have… the higher you jump, the more girlfriends you get. Unfortunately my 5’2” self couldn’t beat any of the tall, lanky warriors. No girlfriends for THIS guy.
Jumpin' around
Next, we ventured into the walls of the village where we met some of the Maasai children and had the chance to look inside one of the typical households. The home, constructed of wood and dried mud mixed with cow dung, was about 10 square feet and slept between 6 and 10 people. Some of the participants looked a bit worried after seeing this homestead, wondering if our lodgings in Eldoret would be similar. I’ll let them sweat a little bit longer.
Tonight is our last in the Maasai Mara and I think the only word to sum up our experience here is unreal. Kenya outdid itself over the past three days. Though I’ll be sad to leave tomorrow, I can’t wait to get up to Eldoret and back into the arms of the Lewa Children’s Home. The Mara showed us Kenya’s brilliance, but Eldoret will show us the country’s other wonders – hope and love.
